May 4th 2018
On Tuesday of this week, Sir Clive Woodward visited Moulsford to discuss an elite skiing programme. Tiffany Squire (Deputy Head-Academic) and I had roughly 75 minutes with Sir Clive, during which time we discussed a number of topics. It was particularly interesting to listen to his thoughts on nurturing young talent with a view to producing outstanding performance. He has spent the last couple of years visiting and observing elite performance centres around the world, and of course he has his own coaching experiences at the highest level to draw upon.
Sir Clive is a very strong advocate that breadth of education, both in and outside of the classroom, ultimately adds huge value to elite performance in a chosen discipline. Contrary to what many may think in pursuing sporting excellence, he believes it can be counter-productive for children to specialise exclusively in one sport at too young an age, both in terms of children developing their skills and staying mentally “fresh”.
I found this particularly interesting from a skiing context as I had always assumed that it would be extremely difficult for UK skiers to compete against their French, Swiss and Italian counterparts if they have not been immersed in skiing throughout their lives. Sir Clive’s view is that many sporting and athletic skills are transferable and that an individual’s mindset and approach is also key. While those brought up in the Alps may have an advantage, given the right exposure, training and guidance at a certain age, it is not insurmountable for UK skiers to compete at the top tier. Sir Clive has done his research and I strongly suspect that he is right. Time will tell as UK skiers graduate from his new skiing Academy in Tignes.
While chatting this through, we also discussed Moulsford’s ethos in ensuring boys are exposed to many different opportunities. We firmly believe that the extra-curricular side of school life plays an enormous part in keeping boys “fresh”, building their self-esteem and self-confidence, the knock-on effects of which are seen in the classroom. Sir Clive fully backed this approach. It was also super to have his endorsement of the new Moulsford sports kit and he signed a prototype of the new games shirt. This was an early design and is marginally different in colour and “hoop width” to the final outcome, thus making this unique item all the more valuable when it is auctioned at one of our fundraising events later this year.
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