Hi and welcome to Bath's Teams Conversations. This will involve me and a
couple of ambassadors discussing various topics around university such as what is
university, looking at applying and choosing a university as well as talking
about what life is like at the University of Bath.
The topic of this
video is sports at Bath. Bath is quite a sporty university and we have about
fifty different sports clubs on offer to our students. We'll be talking a bit
about our experiences doing a sport at university as well as the sporty
community that we have at Bath and some of the amazing facilities that we have
on offer. We hope you enjoy this video.
I'm Callie Rice and I am the student
recruitment assistant here at the University of Bath. I myself was a student
at Bath for four years as well and I did biology as my undergraduate. I'm joined
today by three student ambassadors. Would you like to introduce yourselves?
Hi I'm Vicky, I'm a third-year chemical engineering student.
Hi I'm Jasmine and I'm in my first year studying social work.
Hi I'm Mackyla and I'm in my third year studying social sciences.
When anybody thinks about sport
at Bath what comes to mind?
Well Bath is quite a sporty university so
when I first arrived I kind of felt like I needed to try a sport out
but although it is a sporty university you don't have to do a sport at Bath.
But if you did want to try a sport out, I tried netball in my
first year because in Freshers' Week they usually do a taster, they
have all of the sports on the parade and showcase what they offer and
you can sign up to do taster sessions. I signed up to do netball.
I didn't really like it so then I decided to just not do sport at all
but then in second year I went to another taster session as they're not just
for freshers. I tried cheerleading and decided that I really
liked it so I tried out and got into the team this year
But one thing to say is that all of
the sports and societies usually offer recreational teams as well so obviously
you don't have to compete, you can just do the sport for fun which is really nice.
Yeah I had a similar experience, I mean I didn't try cheerleading
but that sounds really fun! In first year they always do loads of tasters and
I found it so exciting because at school they usually have the main
three or four sports and then in first year I actually tried rowing which was
something I've never tried before and it was really intense,
we had a lot of training and it was really fun as the socials
were really good but then I decided in second semester it wasn't for me because it
was a lot of training and commitment I just couldn't do but it was really fun
to meet lots of people. I had lots of friends who did kayaking so they
roped me into some socials and I tried that sport and it was really fun.
In second year I jumped into doing some boxing one time.
And then we signed up for a fight night so I just did one of the
fight nights after just going to a session one time which was good and then
after that I was like I'm gonna leave this for this a bit as sparring was a bit scary and
then this year I tried Ultimate Frisbee and I think that's my one, it's
quite chilled, it's fun, you can compete and stuff, there's
national and regional competition. I haven't done those yet but maybe next year.
So you tried quite a few different sports and finally settled on one that you think
you're happy with.
So I actually did a different course last year so I'm in my first year of my course
but my second year at Bath and one of the things I regret in my
first year is that I didn't really give sport a try. So this year because I was
kind of like a "fake" fresher again I was like 'oh I'm gonna try everything out' and
I ended up going to a taster for Taekwondo and it's quite a small club
but I absolutely loved it. They do it recreationally and competitively
and this year I went to Nationals for Taekwondo. I didn't do that well but it
was so fun and it was more fun just supporting everyone else and seeing
everyone, it was so good. The socials as well, I have to say that's a
good thing about sport, it's a brilliant way to make new friends.
I still don't really know what I'm doing but it's such a good way to meet
people, just have a bit of fun and all of the clubs have a recreational side as
well which I think is really good but then also at Bath you end up meeting
people who are really good at certain sports. One of my housemates last
year was national level fencing and you just meet so many
different people, it's so good.
Yeah I definitely agree with meeting
lots of people, the socials were so much fun and sometimes they do
joint socials as well with another society or another sport.
I'd say Bath has quite good team spirit for sports.
There's a varsity competition, I've never been to it
but I think it sounds quite fun as well.
Yeah Varsity happens every year
and we go against Cardiff Met University and they switch which campus
they go to. This year was meant to be at Bath but for obvious reasons we
can't do it. I went to the one last year and they basically compete
against Cardiff Met in most sports. Cheer do a performance and
it changes for which sport each year, so we've performed at women's netball
and the basketball team. It's really fun and you get to dress up
in all your university colours. You don't have to do a sport to go
to Varsity, you can just go and watch. It's really fun!
Bath also do this thing called Bath Active which put on free sports.
I tried it a few times and they do volleyball, netball, pilates and
stuff like that. So I think that's a good way to take part if you don't want to commit to a sport.
But definitely try all the tasters, I think that's the one
thing I'd recommend.
Yeah people get kind of scared away from Bath because they think
you have to be super sporty but you honestly don't.
I know loads of people who literally don't touch any of the sports or the facilities the whole time they're there.
But the facilities are so good, you get free use of the swimming pool, it's
50 metre pool and you can use the tennis courts and stuff for free
and I think it's good that you don't have to be super sporty but
never again in your life are you probably going to get a
chance to try so many random sports so I think that's really good.
That's what I always like to say to people. I'm not a sporty person at
all and I actually didn't do any sport in my first, second or third year. I did a
lot of volunteering and other types of things but then I
thought in my final year you know what it's got such a sort of sporty ethos
here maybe I should give something ago. In my first year I tried out different things,
like I tried a taster session of archery and it was a lot harder than I thought
it was quite nice it was just a taster so I could be like
'oh this is quite difficult, I'm not going to do this.' So it's quite nice that you have that opportunity to
try something without any pressure of having to stay on or having to
pay for it or anything, you can just give something a try. Most sports
clubs do that if not all of them, so you can just go and try it as many different
things as you want, maybe even see the types of people who are there,
you might make some really good friends. But in my final year I decided I was
going to give a Latin and Ballroom dancing a try.
Quite a strange sport but actually it is very tiring especially the
jive and it was quite nice because you have separated levels, we had a
beginner class, we had intermediate and we had novices and advanced and
everything so people were in their comfort zone. Actually most of
the people that were part of the club were beginners as well so it was quite
nice to know that I wasn't the only newbie. I made loads of friends
in the beginner class but also from all the socials that went on throughout the
year. I made a lot of friends that were better at dancing as well so I had
friends of all different skill levels and even though I was a beginner
we were able to go to the competitions. They do a lot of friendly
competitions, they do one in Bristol, in Southampton and then they have the
national competitions in Blackpool as well. So even though I was completely new
I got to try out and go to the competition and go with my club.
So it was a nice little community and you felt a real part of the
club as part of that. And yeah it was nice because you got to compete
against other beginners so it wasn't like you were gonna be knocked out
entirely from the start or anything, you actually had a good chance because
everybody else you were dancing with had only just learnt to dance as well so
that was really nice.
Yeah that's the same for me, me when I did the Taekwondo competition.
I was really nervous, I thought 'I can't do this, I'm not ready'
and they were like 'you're only against people at the same level as you
anyway, they don't know what they're doing either.'
I was lucky, it's a two-day competition, mine was on the start
of the first day and I was so nervous before but after I'd done my
little two minutes or whatever I just got to enjoy watching everyone else and
we did pretty well. The Team Bath spirit is really there.
Some of the clubs are huge and some of them are smaller but it's
just a nice community feel I think.
A lot of people have their Team Bath
chant as well. Every now and then just between the dancers people
go 'what team? Team Bath!' and we all go 'Team Bath!'
And then all the other universities start going off as well
with their own little chants and it's quite cool.
I think it's nice as
well that all the sports clubs are run by students as well. There is a committee
for each sport and you get to run for the committee if you do want to be on it.
So it's just a really nice way to get more involved in your sport and
also afterwards obviously it looks really nice on your CV. This year
I was elected as Inclusivity and Welfare Officer so obviously in my first year
I never imagined I would get this involved in a sport and so yeah is
definitely a good thing to try out.
Yeah I've run for committee and I'm going to be Secretary for next year
and I do think part of that is how inclusive the clubs are.
because I literally don't know anything about the sport
but because I'd just gone every week
and had made friends, it's been really nice to know that you can be involved no matter what level you are.
I was going to say that clubs also do trips and stuff.
I went on the ski trip last year and that's really fun. You get to go with your friends
and I've always wanted to go on
the surf trip as well because they always go to cool exotic places. I think
they went to Morocco.
I know I thought it looked so nice!
There are people who just join the club to go on the trips.
Yeah and I think lots of different sports have trips in the ISB as well (the
Inter-semester Break). Yeah I lived with mountaineering people this year and they were planning their trips.
They do walks every weekend but then they also have a couple
of big trips like they go to Font every year which is a big deal for climbers.
I learned a lot about climbing even though I don't do it just from the people.
I think that's a good thing, just
going to new places and doing things that you never thought you would do.
Yeah and even not playing a sport there are lots of opportunities to watch sports.
I know Bath hosts a lot of netball events because I'm
interested in netball. There are teams that tour the UK
and I think they came to Bath to train
and they had a game and stuff so I watched that. I also saw there was
a tennis competition was it last year or something?
Yeah it was a national tennis thing.
Yeah that looked cool, I didn't go to it but there are loads of things going on all the time in the STV.
Yeah exactly, so we have the Sports Training Village at Bath and it's got some really amazing
facilities. I always like to show students on my open days.
We'll walk down to the Olympic sized swimming pool, show them the tennis courts,
show them the dojo for martial arts, the outdoor racing track and everything and
we even have Olympians that come train all the time as well. There are just
such amazing facilities.
There is also the bobsleigh track for Winter Olympians to train on.
Yeah have you seen the outside skeleton track? I've never
seen it and they always talk about it but I've never seen it.
Yeah it's hidden behind the trees!
What would you say your
highlight of sport at Bath is?
I would say that no matter what uni you go to, just try a sport because why not?
For me my highlight has just been meeting new people and just have a bit of fun really.
Yeah exactly, where else do you get
the opportunity to try like 50 different types of sports? It's insane!
Yeah and nobody actually knows what they're doing at the start anyway so it's fine.
Yeah exactly, most people are complete beginners.
Yeah I would definitely say just take a
chance because there are so many sports I'd never tried outside of uni,
like I've always wanted to try pole dancing as well. I remember seeing
it on the parade and it looks quite cool, I have a few friends who do that, it just
looks really impressive. So yeah I would just say go for it.
Yeah for me I've
made friends for life and I feel like I'll never forget the experiences that
I've had with cheerleading because it's not something that you usually do.
But also definitely the outfits and the bows!
Thanks for listening guys, that
was our Teams Bath Conversation session about sport at Bath.
We've talked about a couple of different clubs, we've all had involvement with
a few different clubs, some of our favourite clubs as well, so we've really
taken part in some clubs and become good members of them. I'd say a lot of us
have mentioned that we've made some really good friends, I know I've made
some friends for life as well and it's such a good community in Bath the sports as well.
There is the opportunity to try out so many different things in some really
good facilities.
So that was our discussion about sport, thanks again for
listening and we'll see you next time.