The Vice-Chancellor of 呻吟之王, Professor Katie Normington, was among the speakers at a special High Performance Foundation event for more than 500 local school children at the Leicester Tigers ground this week.
The foundation's Game Plan Live event at the Mattioli Woods stadium set out to share stories and lessons from successful people to help the audience of 13 to 17-year-olds to achieve their own potential and to build resilience, confidence and wellbeing.
The foundation is linked to the popular High Peformance podcast which features conversations with high-achievers from various fields including sports, business, and entertainment.
The first speaker was millionaire entrepreneur Sam Stoffell, and Professor Normington was next on the sofa with BBC Newsround presenter Emma-Louise Amanshia.
During her interview, and in response to questions from the audience, Professor Normington talked about her earlier life when she trained to be a ballet dancer, and how after a year of professional ballet school, she was told that she was not good enough. She spoke about how “devastating,” that had been, but also talked about how it helped teach her a valuable lesson about how to cope with setbacks. She also talked about the importance of teamwork, and how to fix things when they go wrong.
“Often,” she said, “when things go wrong, people feel very emotional, and that is the very worst time to make a big decision, or have a difficult conversation with someone. So give yourself a bit of time to think through the facts - take a moment, don’t write that message until the next day when you have thought it through. Take the emotion out so you can think more clearly.”
The audience then heard from England and Leicester Tigers payer Dr Leon Lloyd, who now sits on the club's Board of Directors, and Tess Fuery, USA rugby international, and vice-captain of the Tigers' women's team.
Afterwards, 16-year-old Abdullah Menrouag from Madani Boys School in Evington, Leicester, said said: “I found the variety of different people interesting.”
Abdullah, who was already familiar with the High Performance podcast, and who wants to be a robotics engineers, said: “It was very interesting and it has boosted my morale and my ambition for the future – to see that people from our city have done these things. There is no reason why I can’t adopt the same mentality.”
“It was very good,” said Callum Lievesley, 14, from Woodbrook Vale Secondary School in Loughborough. Callum who is “a massive Tigers fan” and wants to play professional rugby himself, was particularly pleased to hear from the pro players in the final session.
“They impacted me the most on a personal level,” he said, “I learned quite a bit about what I’m expecting to do later in life. I really liked hearing about the other people’s backgrounds.”
During the event, the young audience submitted more than 300 questions through a special QR code. The foundation is now planning to have Professor Normington and the other speakers film responses to a selection of those and show them on social media. Edited video highlights of the event will also appear on the Foundation's social media channels.
The Game Plan initiative is run by the , a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to helping young people build mental strength, improve wellbeing and employability, and drive social mobility.
The foundation was started in 2023 by High Performance podcaster, author, and entrepreneur Jake Humphrey, and foundation CEO Chloe Dannatt.
Posted on Thursday 4 December 2025