GDST Sports Scholar Day

The GDST hosted a day of activities, speakers and workshops for Sports Scholars from all the schools within the trust It was run by the Mintridge Foundation and held at Sutton High School.

Here are the experiences from two NHEHS athletes who attended the event

On Friday 10th February, sports players from all through the school travelled to Sutton High School to take part in the GDST Sport Scholar’s Day, run by the Mintridge Foundation Throughout the day we took part in a range of activities that included playing sports such as netball, hockey and cricket and attending interesting lectures from some of the UK’s top athletes Upon arriving, we headed into the main hall, where we listened to an inspiring speech from England netball GK Eboni UsoroBrown, about her journey through sport and to success Then we went off to our three activities, which included strength and conditioning, a talk on how to portray yourself as an athlete in the media and how to navigate sports as a neurodiverse athlete We were taught throughout the day by athletes who included Liz Cann (badminton player), Caragh McMurtry (England Rower) and Jordan Jarrett-Bryan (Wheelchair basketballer and journalist). It was an amazing opportunity to learn from elite sports people I particularly enjoyed the cricket session where we were coached by England Cricketer Fi Morris, who inspired me to keep persevering in my sports – Minna Year 9

The GDST Sports Scholar day was an amazing experience to meet many ambassadors, sports people, and other people our age that are like-minded and passionate about their sports The first workshop I went to was on 'Managing Stress, Pressure and Energy Zappers' with Commonwealth Bronze Medallist, Liz Cann This was really interactive, and the activities were relevant to everyone, and I learnt new things about my daily habits that could be harmful on my sporting performance; even small things such as screen time, or how much water I drink The next workshop I attended was the swimming coaching session with GB swimmer, Molly Renshaw We started by doing drills to improve our freestyle technique, and I could feel that I was more efficient through the water by the end. We even got to do a relay, getting to swim with/against swimmers from GDST schools all over the country and from different year groups! The last workshop I went to was 'Strength and Conditioning', where we started by doing circuit work with the resistance bands we were provided, where I learnt new exercises I could do at allenging for me as I was practicing things I was power which I have been implementing into my d