Mintridge Presentation Programme with Emma Wiggs MBE at Prior’s Field School.

Last week, Team Mintridge were joined by the incredible Emma Wiggs MBE as she delivered her inspirational sporting journey to the Sports Scholars from Prior’s Field. Due to the current environment, Prior’s Field are having four of our Mintridge Ambassadors deliver a programme over the next five months and Emma Wiggs MBE started these programmes in style and delivered an incredibly interactive programme for the Prior’s Field Sports Scholars.

Emma Wiggs MBE is a Paralympic gold medallist and seven-time World Champion Para canoeist in the women’s 200m. Emma started off the presentation talking about her disability, explaining how a mystery virus impaired the mobility of her legs, but this did not stop her. Emma began her elite career competing in sit down volleyball, but after London 2012 she switched to paracanoe, where she currently dominates the world stage.

Despite not being able to physically deliver our programme at Prior’s Field, the students really engaged with Emma’s presentation, as she spoke about the highs and lows of her career. Emma emphasised to the students that sometimes things in your life happen to bring you back fitter and stronger and enable you to accomplish things you never thought you would be able to do. The students were particularly motivated when Emma started talking to them about how to stay positive, especially during times of uncertainty. Emma’s infectious positivity helped the scholars to plan for the days ahead and how they could control the negative things that happen in their day.

“There are times in our lives when moments can define us. I choose what defines me!”

The students were able to takeaway some key points from Emma’s presentation about her ‘Key to Success’, which were as easy to remember as ABC! By using the chat function on their virtual call, Emma was able to ask the student questions that they willingly engaged with to make a very interesting call.

How you control your attitude, self-belief and the challenges you face are what defines your success.

After asking the students about what makes them stressed and irritated, the students answered with things like school, COVID, siblings and homework. Emma spoke about how you can choose your attitude towards these things and make choices about how to interact with those stressors.

When talking about belief, Emma asked the scholars for a score out of ten about how much they believe they can reach their goal and score themselves on their belief that they can do their best. Emma related this particular topic to her own career, explaining that when dealing with stress and performing under pressure, she has certain methods and breathing techniques that help her to achieve her already well planned out goals.

Being an elite athlete, Emma has faced multiple challenges in her career, but she has got through them by being resilient. Emma also spoke about how confidence and self-esteem, impacts how you cope when faced with a challenge and how after a challenge it may take a while to build that confidence back up, but you will get there. At this point, Emma virtually interacted with the scholars again by playing a little game of “stop, start, continue”, the perfect tool for the students to reflect on their own personal goals and life aspirations to help them focus on their futures.

At the end of this interactive inspirational presentation, the sports scholars had so many questions to ask Emma, including;

Why did you choose to play volleyball?

If you are not selected for a team, how do you get over it?

Why do you love canoeing so much?

What strengths do you believe you have that makes you a good athlete?

How does it feel to compete in the Paralympics?

What brings the best out of you?

Who is the most intimidating person you have ever raced against?

What do you do when bad things are said about you? 

Emma was really impressed with the questions asked as well as how well the students interacted in the session and their contributions throughout this programme.

Thank you for the teachers at Prior’s Field for helping to organise this wonderful programme. We are really looking forward to our next presentations with the Prior’s Field Sports Scholars, which will be delivered by Laura Sugar, Jade Windley and Liz Cann.

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The Mintridge Foundation is a registered charity dedicated to enhancing life skills in young people through sport. We provide a support network for young people by harnessing the power of positive sporting role models. The Mintridge Foundation assists young people of all ages, abilities, and physical capabilities to develop confidence and resilience, and creates awareness of the importance of mental and physical wellbeing through sport.

Our team of Ambassadors - Olympians, Paralympians and other professional sports stars from over 20 sports, both team and individual - work with young people in schools, clubs and academies across the UK. Starting with visits including assemblies, coaching clinics and classroom sessions tailored to each organisation’s requirements, our ambassadors can then provide one- on- one remote mentoring in a safeguarded environment, delivered via technology such as FitSwarm and Playwaze to build a lasting legacy for individuals.

The Mintridge Foundation’s successes demonstrate the incredible power of sport; from a mentee’s selection to represent Great Britain in their chosen field to enabling disabled children to find confidence and happiness just through participation. Understanding life after sport, we also support our Ambassadors in their transition from active sport to the next stage of their careers.

To find out more about the Mintridge Foundation, please contact Alex Wallace.

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