My experience with Women's Basketball & the Running Society

This school year I joined two LSE sports societies: the Women's Basketball Society (£80) and the Athletics and Running Society (£60 for the competitive membership). Here are 5 reasons you might consider joining a sports society!

1) Attend Carol and Sway Sports Nights 🪩

LSE Carol is an all-day clubbing event starting around 9am that takes place in November and brings together various campus societies. This year the theme was Fairytales, Myths and Legends and the Women's Basketball team decided to dress up as childhood storybook characters. As an American it is fascinating to me that such an event is sponsored by and takes place at the university! 

Sway is the LSE Athletic's Union official club and many societies go every Wednesday for Sports Night. I've only been once and it was for Valentine's Day Sway. 💖

2) Make Friends 👯‍♀️

Sports societies are a great way to meet people outside of your hall, course, or class grade. I'm a third year exchange student but many of my basketball teammates are graduate students. Here's a photo of us at Carol!

3) Reading Week Trips ✈️

Seven Sisters ⛰️

For the November Reading Week I travelled to South Downs with the Running Society to do the iconic Seven Sisters Hike. The club covered two nights of lodging and hostel breakfasts and dinners!

Malta 🇲🇹 🌊

For the February Reading Week we took a four night trip to Malta to do the Malta Half Marathon. We were responsible for booking our own flights, but the club paid the half marathon entry fee and heavily subsidized out hotel stay (£60 for 4 nights!). One of my favorite parts about this trip was that it was fully organized by the incredible committee (I barely had to do any planning!) but I still had plenty of time to explore the island on my own. 

[Nell please insert photo of Malta here, caption: Valletta, Malta]

4) Try Something New 🏋️‍♀️

As part of the Women's basketball society, we do weekly weightlifting in the LSESU gym — something that I've never done before! There's a sport for everyone, from football and pickleball to pilates, hiking, and even surfing. 

5) Save Money 🤑

While the upfront fees for LSE societies can be intimidating, if you take full advantage of the club's offerings, I'd say that it easily pays for itself. A trip to South Downs or Malta would have been far more expensive had I travelled on my own. As for basketball, our membership covers about 15 games (including travel costs), two 2-hour practices per week, and access to the LSESU gym for weight lifting.