By Oona de Carvalho
Refurbishment work taking place in the Old Building, set to last until September 2024, is putting significant strain on sports clubs that previously used the gymnasium facility in its basement. Sports clubs face new struggles as they compete for the limited training spaces on campus.
Several sports clubs have been allocated training spaces unsuitable for their needs. A number of martial arts clubs offer training sessions in the Weston Rehearsal Studio, a space designed for art and dance recitals.
President of LSESU Muay Thai, Oliver Weller, comments: “The Weston Studio is small. There’s not really much space to move around, and Muay Thai is quite a space-demanding sport because there’s kicking and there’s punching involved.” President of LSESU Taekwondo, Nevin Chellappah, expresses how “existing members are definitely reluctant on the Tuesday class (held in the Weston Studio) because they know it’s a smaller space.”
The Weston Rehearsal Studio also lacks storage space for equipment and training mats, forcing committee members to transport the material from the Sports Hall in the Marshall Building. Secretary of LSESU Brazilian Jiujitsu, Mithalina Taib, shares that the team has to carry 80 to 90 mats for each session. She describes how this “wastes half an hour before class and half an hour after class”.
Clubs additionally face shortened training hours. Muay Thai used to offer two-hour sessions on Tuesdays, however they now only have an hour and a half; they no longer have time to do warm-ups or put out mats. Weller shares that “it’s hard to train on hard floors and it’s quite dangerous if you fall down.” This means that scheduling disruptions are also impacting the safety of practising sports.
Some clubs have been allocated mid-day time slots which has affected turnout. Boxing, a club with around 250 members, has had only 20 participants in some of their Thursday 3:30pm training sessions.
Over 40 of their members claim that this slot clashes with their lectures and classes. Boxing has a ‘pay as you go’ training fee of £3 per session, meaning that a low turnout directly impacts the club’s finances. President of LSESU Boxing, Katherine Lo, comments: “We’re losing members, we’re losing revenue in our first term.”
The closure of the Old Building facilities is also disrupting the organisation of Fight Night, one of the most anticipated Athletics Union events of the year, as training sessions used to take place in the Old Building.
Lo comments on how the club is searching for external training venues: “It has been quite stressful … We’re training very frequently and we need good time and good space so the boxers have time to rest … External venues can be really quickly filled up too..”
Sports clubs feel that there is a lack of transparency and communication on the part of the LSE Students’ Union (LSESU), which is in charge of allocating facilities, and would like greater support. Lo expresses: “I just want students’ voices to be heard … and [for the SU to] work with us, not against us.”
An LSE spokesperson has responded to these concerns: “LSE Estates are aware of the feedback from the SU Martial Arts Society and have been reviewing how additional space can be allocated.
The LSE Estates space management team will investigate and assess what additional options might be available but, at this stage, the space of the Old Building gym is required for the duration of the refurbishment.”
