We were delighted to welcome Great Britain hockey legend, Kate Richardson-Walsh for an evening of conversation with Headmaster, Mr Tyrone Howe on Monday evening.
Kate is an Olympic Gold and Bronze Medal winning hockey player. She was capped a record 375 times for her country and was the England and Great Britain Captain for 13 years until her retirement from international hockey in 2016, following the gold medal win at the Rio Olympics.
Mr Howe and Kate talked about Kate's early life growing up as a daughter of PE teachers and how she got into hockey relatively late at secondary school.
She said: "I started hockey when I was 13. I had a really passionate PE teacher who encouraged me. Originally I wanted to be a PE teacher like my parents."
She talked about how shy she was at school, but really found her voice on the hockey pitch. She didn't put herself forward to be captain but was voted in by her team mates. Mr Howe then asked her how she approached the role.
She said: "The best leaders never stop growing and learning. It's about building relationships. being able to communicate and knowing you are not always the best person to do certain things. I did sometimes have imposter syndrome, and was always thinking about the incredible people who did the captain role before me, but we all have the ability to be leaders. Nobody is born a leader, we all need to find out what values we have and how we can contribute."
Mr Howe and Kate then talked about the Olympic final in Rio and the impact it had back home.
She said: "We didn't think about the impact the final would have had back home. It was only when we touched down on the flight back from Rio that we soon realised - we had never seen anything like it in our lives. It was like a winning football team had returned. In the arrivals hall there were young children in their hockey kits with hockey sticks. With the Olympics we wanted to inspire the future of all ages to play, so to be welcomed home in that way was an incredible honour."
They then spoke about the ups and downs over the years of playing international hockey and missing the gold medal at the London Olympics. The London Olympics were particularly eventful as Kate fractured her jaw in her first match and had to spend three days in hospital undergoing surgery. Despite all this she only missed two games and was back playing in the final two pool games, the semi-final and the Bronze medal play-off!
Psychology is a really important part of playing sport, particularly when it comes to winning on an international level. Kate talked about creating the right culture within the team, developing resilience, being able to overcome errors and being consistent for the good of the team.
She said:"When we walked through that tunnel onto the pitch for the final in Rio, we had a wonderful feeling of preparedness and that all that matters now is that we do our best."
Kate and Mr Howe finished the conversation by talking about life after sport.
Thank you Kate for your wonderfully honest and inspiring conversation! Next week we welcome Olympic Gold rower Matthew Pinsent.
Feedback for An Evening With Kate Richardson-Walsh
A lovely conversation with Kate Richardson-Walsh this evening. Thank you so much for arranging. What an uplifting yet humble person she is - a real inspiration to young people.
Thank you so much for the time you put into organising and hosting this for us – very insightful!
Kate was lovely and a wonderfully normal and inspiring person to listen to - so forthcoming.
Kate was amazing, so interesting, all of it. And such a flowing conversation. Great hour - thanks for the invite.
That was really good. My two children listened intently, an achievement!
Great in-depth discussion on women’s hockey. Love these Monday interviews!
On behalf of my hockey playing daughters, may I thank you for allowing them to join last night's webinar with Kate Richardson-Walsh! We thoroughly enjoyed the evening.
