London Youth Rowing begins new mission to tackle inactivity in teenage girls

  • Building on Sport England’s ‘This Girl Can’ campaign, London Youth Rowing aim to get more girls across London moving this summer with ‘LYR Girls – Let’s Get Active’
  • The new Pilot Scheme, launching on 15 May 2017, will be part of the LYR Active Schools Programme from September 2017
  • London Youth Rowing has helped over 2,700 Sport England funded young people get active through rowing or indoor rowing over the last year

The aim of the Charity’s Pilot Scheme is to give less active girls a positive and engaging experience of physical activity, and change behaviours and attitudes with the help of a supportive coaching team at London Youth Rowing.

Dame Katherine Grainger, London Youth Rowing Trustee and Olympic Gold medallist, said:

“It is an exciting project that encourages teenage girls across London to get active through indoor rowing. London Youth Rowing has a brilliant track record in reaching diverse communities and this is another opportunity to change more lives forever.

“I know that our sport offers something unique and different to more mainstream sports. This project offers these girls something new as it focusses on creating new indoor rowing clubs led by young girls as they enjoy becoming physical active, meeting new people and setting new challenges.”

London Youth Rowing (LYR) has launched the Pilot Scheme with eight Secondary Schools, ranging from Hounslow in the West to Redbridge in the North East. During the eight week course, girls will cover a range of topics and skills including goal setting, physical challenges, eating and shopping habits and leadership development. We will work with schools who are currently part of the Sport England funded ‘Satellite Hubs and Clubs’ programme.

London Youth Rowing believe this is the right time to build on the momentum of more teenage girls getting involved in rowing – of the 260 relay teams that competed in LYR’s annual National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships (March 2017), over 56% were in fact girls’ teams.

The sessions will be led by LYR Community Coaches who have vast experience of working with less active young people. You will be able to follow their progress through the LYR Instagram account ‘londonyouthrowing’ where participants will also be getting involved.

London Youth Rowing believe that indoor rowing is a great year-round activity and often a popular choice for teenagers who do not enjoy other traditional sports. Both indoor rowing and rowing foster determination, commitment, and teamwork to achieve personal and team challenges.