Prep Sports Excellence with Joe Choong

On Friday 1st December, Monkton Prep School had the privilege of hosting a visit from Joe Choong, Olympic and World Champion in Modern Pentathlon. The visit was organised by Mrs Mason as part of the Sports Excellence Programme and the school's commitment to providing students with inspiring and educational experiences beyond the classroom.

Joe Choong is a GB athlete who has achieved remarkable success in the field of not one, but the 5 sports of Modern Pentathlon (Running, Swimming, Fencing, Show-Jumping and Laser Pistol). He has represented GB in multiple World Championships and Olympic Games including Rio, Tokyo and hopefully Paris in 2024. 

During his time with us, our pupils were lucky enough to see his Olympic gold medal and appreciate the journey of hard-work and dedication that he undertook to get to that level of success. He was strikingly humble and mentioned how he started his journey like many of our pupils; by playing Rugby at school and eventually for Kent, then Swimming for his local Swimming club and finally taking part in the School’s Biathlon, where he was picked up for the GB programme. 

Our pupils learnt how to improve with tips from Joe on how to ‘'train smart” and efficiently as he encouraged them to speak to their coaches, reflect on races and training / matches whether good or not so great and ask for constructive feedback. There were some very thoughtful questions from the group, such as “How did you handle your nerves at the Olympics”, “Which is your favourite sport out of the 5 in Pentathlon?” and “What does a typical day of training look like?”. 

Pupils listened intently and really understood his personal journey, highlighting the challenges faced and the lessons learned on the path to becoming an Olympian, which highlighted that the road is not always as smooth and easy as it may appear on the TV or on social media. The inspiring talk encouraged students to have fun and enjoy sport, to pursue their passions and strive for excellence in all areas of life. Outside of sport, Joe mentioned the important friendships he has made along the way, the importance of team support and how he balanced his all important Maths degree alongside his training at Bath University.

Following the talk, all pupils participated in an interactive session with Joe and Jess from PentathlonGB. The whole group tried out two new sports: Fencing and Laser run. The Fencing session allowed students the opportunity to learn about technical and tactical skills such as keeping distance, rhythm, timing, and of course agility and footwork. The session started with fun team-work as partners joined in a skipping game and ended with a star-wars-esque team duel between the blue team and the red team. Pupils also practised using the sights, adjusting trigger pressure and accuracy as they tried Laser run. It’s fair to say everyone had a newfound appreciation for the technique required for Laser Pistol. The aim was to get 5 green lights quickly under pressure, a great challenge - let alone after 4x800m runs!  

A highlight of the visit was the autograph and photo session, where pupils had the opportunity to meet Joe personally, get autographs, and have their photo taken. This created a lasting memory for the students and added an element of excitement to the overall experience. It’s fair to say that Joe’s visit left a lasting impact on the students of Monkton and many were inspired by Joe’s determination, resilience, and commitment to excellence. Students gained valuable insights into the world of professional sports and learned important life lessons about goal-setting, hard work, and overcoming obstacles such as the COVID pandemic and not doing as well as you might have hoped. Feedback from both students and staff was overwhelmingly positive. Many students expressed gratitude for the opportunity to interact with an Olympian and now feel motivated to pursue their own dreams, whether in sports or other areas of life. 

We send a huge thanks to Joe for taking the time to visit Monkton and inspire our students. Special thanks to Mrs Mason, Mr Sim, Jess and MSS volunteers Sophie and Henry for their support in making this memorable event possible.