Sport Round up - February 2021

Millfield Sport will run the next Parents in Sport Webinar on Tuesday 16^th March when the panel will discuss ‘Understanding the Development Journey in Sport’.

Millfield Sport have launched a new student-led well-being and mental health campaign through sport based on the World Health Organisation’s framework for well-being. The four-week series, which is being led by Upper Sixth student and hurdler Lucy-Jane, aims to raise awareness and inform students of the ways they can develop and improve their well-being and mental health during a global pandemic. Read more.

In athletics, students heard from a range of speakers including 1996 Olympian and member of Millfield PE staff Mr Gary Jennings, who spoke about his journey from being a multi-sport athlete to school, university and professional athletics. Students also spoke to Frank Tickner, who attended four world cross country championships as part of the GB team, and Femi Akinsanya (Director of Athletics at Loughborough University). Femi spoke to students about all Loughborough has to offer a student/athlete.

Millfield Athletics has also launched an inter-group competition which will see students and staff compete in a three-event challenge by either live head to head competition or video submission. The events are a 600m run, a squat thrust challenge and how many forks can you catch a potato on.

In Equestrian, congratulations to Year 11 student Tara Kay, who has been selected for the British Eventing Pony Development Squad 2021.

In Fencing, Director of Fencing Mr Tristan Parris spoke to Millfield athletics students about his journey from athlete to coach to the Olympics in Rio 2016.

In Football, former Millfield Director of Sport David Faulkner was the latest guest for Millfield Football’s weekly Q&A. Mr Faulkner shared his past experiences as well as insights into his new role as Head of Performance for the women's professional game.

In Golf, students have been fully engaged at all levels. They are continuing their individual development by working in their own time away from the 1:1 lessons, sending regular swing videos to check all the work is being done correctly. The weekly group catch up has proved vital in keeping the communication going forward and the competitive side is seen here and with the set weekly challenges. 

In Modern Pentathlon, athletes are taking part in the Millfield Modern Pentathlon Dash, which includes a range of distances, as well as a Pentathlon Creative Challenge which involves a baking competition.

In Netball, students have taken part in live weekly netball sessions, 1-1s and squad sessions, as well as participating in weekly remote technical attacking, defensive and shooting sessions that students can do in their own time and send across their videos for feedback. Millfield Netball have also released a weekly ball handling programme, a conditioning session as well as a video analysis task. 

To help students stay connected, Millfield Netball have been doing weekly well-being challenges and athlete led sessions. To provide internal competition, the ‘Race to Fiji’ has been a huge hit along with mini fun challenges at the end of sessions. Students also took part in an inter-schools sock-throwing competition in association with FlyHawk, which Millfield’s own Maddie G won. View updates on Millfield Netball’s Twitter profile: https://twitter.com/MillfieldNetbal

In Rugby, Millfield Rugby have looked at a number of different areas of the game, including learning more about the game by analysing footage, physical challenges including the 50-burpee challenge and the ‘bring sally up’ press up challenge. Alongside these, the department have set up the Millfield Rugby Club Strava page encouraging the students to get out into the fresh air and record their exercises. During the half term the Millfield Rugby Coaches had a well-being catch up and quiz focusing on the Six Nations.

Students also heard from current Wales Women’s Captain and Bristol Bears player Siwan Lillicrap as a guest speaker. Siwan spoke to the Millfield Rugby players about her career, squad rejection and changing the perception of women’s rugby.  

Poppy, a student and rugby player at Millfield said “I enjoyed speaking to Siwan and hearing about her experience. I liked that Siwan talked about her as well as her individual experiences. I found it interesting that she started playing rugby later than us, but it made me realise that I had time to make the right decisions and work towards my goals.”

In Squash, the department have set up a virtual reaction challenge on the app ‘On Court’, inviting a host of OMs, prep and senior school students and athletes to participate and send in footage for a montage. Lily got the top school score and OM Peter Creed received the top pro score. View the challenge here and here.

In Swimming, Lower Sixth Tamryn van Selm has announced her verbal commitment to North Carolina State, which is one of the finest swimming universities in the US.

In Tennis, students are taking part in a virtual programme that has included a US College Talk with Pippa Lane (Stars and Stripes Recruitment) as part of the department’s ‘Wednesday Workshop’ educational series. Next week the department will be joined by Alistair Higham (current Head of British University Tennis & international expert on match play momentum in sport) who will talk through the rapidly developing UK University system, and his vision for this moving forwards.

Upper Sixth student Jess Peace recently signed to Tiffin University (a Division II US College) on a full tennis scholarship.

In Triathlon, ex-elite cyclist and dual-athlete Jez Cox spoke to students about lessons learned as an athlete, finding your niche and loving what you do in a recent Teams’ webinar.