In Athens and Beijing I was performing in a packed arena in front of a crowd of thousands and a television audience of millions. Today it’s just eight pupils from a local school. But it’s still a big responsibility and I don’t want to let anyone down.

It’s my first day as a mentor for the Sky Sports Living for Sport scheme and I’m running a badminton masterclass at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham.

The scheme uses sport to help to reengage young people, between 11 and 16 years old, who are at risk of opting out of school life. It has been run by the Youth Sport Trust since 2003 and is free for every secondary school in the country.

The idea is to use sport to help to improve the pupils’ self-confidence and interpersonal and leadership skills. At the end of the programme they are encouraged to put the skills into practice by conceiving and managing their own sporting events.

A study last year by the Institute of Youth Sport at Loughborough University found that 80 per cent of teachers thought that their pupils had benefited from the project and 68.7 per cent said that it had reduced bullying in their schools.

Already 17,000 young people from more than 600 schools have been through the scheme. This year 200 schools have signed up and we are aiming to enrol 2,000 schools and 30,000 young people by 2012.

I teach some basic badminton skills, organise singles and doubles matches and give some motivational tips on things like the “six keys to success” (planning, people skills, hunger to achieve, mental toughness, sports knowledge, review). These are techniques you can use to achieve success in sport or in any walk of life.

For some of the kids the classes will just be fun and a break from the school routine. They get to meet the stars, see the medals and hear some of our stories. But I hope some will be inspired to go on to bigger and better things.

That’s something I can relate to. Although I was very lucky at school and had a lot of support, I did go through a bad patch when my parents split up. I was 15 and going through all that teenage rebellion stuff. When things got bad at home I started hanging about with the wrong crowd, smoking and drinking down by the river.

For me it was the look of disappointment on my Mum’s face when I came home drunk that motivated me to sort myself out. I realised that I wasn’t being true to myself and that I wanted to get back to being me again.

It was the time of the 1992 Olympics, which was the first time badminton had been in the Games. That was a huge inspiration to me. I remember seeing Sally Gunnell winning gold in the 400 metres hurdles and thinking: “I want to do that.” Twelve years later Nathan Robertson and I won silver in the mixed doubles in Athens.

It would be wonderful if I could now help to inspire others to achieve something similar.

— Gail Emms is a mentor for Sky Sports Living for Sport, she won a silver medal at the 2004 Olympic Games and gold at the 2006 world championships. www.skysports.com/livingforsport

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