Wednesday 28 October 2015 17:06, UK
Sky Academy Ambassador Thierry Henry has stressed the importance of building confidence in young people.
The global sporting icon was at Sky Studios on Tuesday as part of Sky Academy Confidence Month, which was launched in a bid to highlight the importance of confidence in young people's development following research which showed that one in three young people in the UK are not confident.
Henry spent time with a group of 20 children to set them some confidence-boosting challenges along with Sky Sports Living for Sport athlete mentor and England women's football captain, Casey Stoney.
And he explained that confidence was important in sport, just as it is in all areas of life.
"Confidence is key," Henry told Sky Sports. "The right amount of it, not too much, is key to be able to be yourself out there.
"I feel like when you are confident, when someone is telling you something, you are wearing a shield.
"If you are telling me 'I don't like that top', for example, I am confident enough to say to you: 'It's ok, I like it, I'll wear it.'
"If you want to go out there and perform and be the best person you can be in sport or whatever you want to do, confidence is key."
As part of the campaign, Sky Academy is showcasing its initiatives which aim to build practical skills, experience and confidence to unlock the potential of one million young people by 2020.
One of the initiatives, Sky Sports Living for Sport, works with sports stars, schools and teachers across the country to build practical skills like confidence, teamwork, planning, resilience and communication through the power of sport.
Sky Sports Living for Sport links teachers and their pupils with Sky's dedicated team of 100 world-class athlete mentors. It reaches a third of secondary schools across the UK.
Henry says he loves being part of the campaign and enjoys meeting young people - but insists it is much more important for them to get to know themselves.
He said: "The best meeting you can ever have is not meeting your hero or whoever you thought you could meet, it's meeting yourself.
"When you meet yourself and you find out what you're all about and what you're not all about and you are actually in harmony with yourself then you can go forward and that's when you start to be confident.
"Therefore you can go forward with this and when people are trying to tell you other stuff or trying to bully you or whatever then you can be confident.
"That's the best meeting you can ever have - the one where you are going to be true to yourself and meet yourself."
For more information on Sky Academy and Confidence Month, visit www.skyacademy.com
