King’s College London (KCL) are a TASS Dual Career Accredited site, delivering a holistic approach to driving the needs of athletes looking to excel in their academic and sporting careers.

The ‘TASS Potential’ programme has been created by the Sport England-funded Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS) with the aim to recognise and develop talent in schools and colleges.

Throughout the 21-22 Academic year, King’s College London have supported forty college students aged 16-18 who are playing sport at county standard and above, to encourage them to continue training alongside their education. In order to do this, KCL have partnered with four colleges across London; Esher College, CoNEL, Haringey Sixth Form and Barnet and Southgate College, playing a key part of their athlete development programmes.  

The Potential Project has been an essential part of our sports life in our College as it allow us to pick the best Athletes to educate and train them to become the best. The sessions that our Athletes got from the Potential Project has improve their food choices before games and resting due to nutritional lectures and improved their physical wellbeing due to the Strength and Conditioning sessions our Athletes got.– Jeffrey Boateng, College of North Enfield London

KCL have delivered the TASS Potential Project 3 years running, supporting the local London Community, offering students an insight into what support is like for an elite athlete studying at university. Students are introduced to the support services which make up a TASS Award with bespoke workshops from specific areas.  

Ross Edmonds in studio with TASS Student Athletes

The workshop programme consisted of an introduction session including Pre-Fitness testing delivered by KCL Sports & Exercise Medical Science Student’s followed by 6 Strength & Conditioning Workshops led by Health & Fitness Coach (Performance) Ross Edmonds developing Physical Preparation, Strength and Power training, Speed, Agility and Conditioning and Post-Fitness testing.

Additional workshops also included Nutrition, Athlete Lifestyle and Sports Psychology as well as injury prevention. 

The workshops provided by King's have been fantastic at supporting our student-athletes. Throughout the year students have benefited from workshops aiming to improve their sporting performance with topics including speed and plyometrics, strength training, conditioning, sports psychology, and performance nutrition. The workshops were well delivered from the Sports Science team at King's and the student athletes enjoyed participating in them and learnt a lot from them.– Paddy Waplington, Esher College Lead

TASS are aiming to enhance the Potential Project Programme over the next year to champion access, diversity and inclusion. Due to the relationship developed with TASS, KCL hope to play a key role in implementing proactive and targeted initiatives to influence change and opportunity, for athletes from backgrounds that would not normally have access to talent support.  

TASS are thrilled that King’s College London have taken part in the TASS Potential Project. The project aims to introduce these students to life as a dual career athlete; a process that we hope will make a real difference to the students’ development in their sporting and academic careers. We hope that the programme has been a motivating experience for all students involved. TASS would like to thank King’s College London, as well as the schools/colleges involved in the project for helping to make this an impactful programme for the athletes involved. During the 21-22 academic year, 14 schools/colleges from across the country were involved in the TASS Potential Project, impacting 130 young athletes aged 16-18.– Grace Harrison, TASS Project Coordinator

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