SOPHIA CHOUDHURY, HOCKEY PERFORMANCE COACH IN RESIDENCE

On Wednesday 5 October, Queenswood welcomed Michael Gilliam to the Wates Pavilion to discuss his journey in high-performance sport with Fran Treadgold. The evening was a fantastic opportunity for Sports Scholars and Principal Award Holders to gain an insight into what it takes to reach the top of their field and continue to deliver.

Gilliam began the evening by describing his early experiences of competitive sport and explained that his early exposure came somewhat off the back of his childhood in Australia. He mentioned how, while not always excelling inside the walls of a classroom, he found he was able to shine on the sports field and in the swimming pool, and therefore this was naturally where he found himself gravitating towards. His love for sport did not stop at school level, and he went on to pursue a Sports Science and Exercise Physiology degree. Throughout the evening, he expressed his delight in the vast development seen in the Sports Science industry over the last forty years. However, the main body of the discussion focused on his role as a coach in high-level sport, and the anecdotes he could give to guide Queenswood pupils towards success.

Gilliam is currently the Performance Director for the Bahrain Olympic Committee, as well as the Bahrain Victorious Triathlon Team, alongside being Performance Director to Sheikh Nasser Bin Hamad Al Khalifa and the rest of the Bahrain Royal Family. He has worked alongside Ric Charlesworth with the Australian National Hockey sides, and has coached the likes of Alistair and Jonny Brownlee. Gilliam is also proud of his work with Chris McCormack, and how he has motivated him and encouraged him to achieve international Triathlon and Ironman titles.

Although there were countless pearls of wisdom shared throughout the course of the evening, it is particularly worth noting Gilliam’s focus on how important it is to be able to “relax at speed” and the need for mental resilience in sport, which can be transferred to life more widely. He explained how mental ability and physical ability work in tandem to create successful, high-performing athletes, and stressed the way elite level sport requires individuals to face the fear of failure. Self-evaluative assessment of strengths and weaknesses can enable every athlete to continue to excel and he highlighted how it is an important skill to develop as Queenswood pupils begin their journeys in sport, particularly as they start to reach elite level performance.

Towards the end of the discussion, Gilliam explained his involvement with The Pho3nix Foundation, an organisation that works with young high-performance athletes on residential camps to educate them in life at an elite level, including media training. It offers the opportunity to create well-rounded athletes who are ready to face whatever praise and criticism can be thrown at them in such an online age.

Queenswood is excited for the door that this event has opened, as we hope it is the first in a series of talks and interviews that can help our pupils to reach their potentials inside and outside the classroom.