Pupils forge new friendships at Colin Jackson sporting masterclass

Pupils from all over the UK joined staff for a sporting masterclass with InterHigh ambassador and athletics legend Colin Jackson OBE.

The former double 110 metre hurdles world champion led a training session at the outdoor track at Cardiff Metropolitan University.

Colin taught pupils how some of the principles from the sessions and his career can be applied to their education.

“I think sometimes when we think of education and sport,” said Colin.

“We really put a huge split between them, but no, that’s not really the case.

“There are more things that are in common with success in sport as there is in education.

“You are always learning new things to produce a better performance at the end of the day. So, if you think about it, every hour of work that you put into your sport you get your reward.

“It’s exactly the same in education. When you’re preparing for an exam for example, every hour that you put in will make a difference.

“My exam was the hurdles and I would work four years to do a perfect 13 second run performance. Again, when you think about the equivalent in GCSEs, it’s doing all the right preparation for two years. The build up to the crescendo of the exam and once you’re in the exam room, knowing that you’ve done absolutely everything to get you through them.

“So, there are huge parallels between sport and education and today I still learn and use the skills of my sport to keep learning.”

Pupils and staff were shown how to warm up properly before taking part in several sprint training drills for most of the morning. Colin then took questions from pupils before leading the group in a series of ball games in the sports hall and said he was impressed with the efforts of the pupils and staff who took part.

“If I had one wish for all the pupils that have come today it would be that they truly engage and they all try,” he said.

“All the guys were really quite engaged and were willing to try something new and that of course is the most important thing, because that is what you learn in life, that everybody can’t be an expert.

“Also, when you try something new you realise practice will make perfect, but also there’s nothing wrong with having a go at something and not liking it. And I think this is one of the lessons I’ve certainly tried to get across to the guys to try it and if you don’t like it, that’s absolutely fine, but nobody can ever say that you didn’t try and that is key.”