There must be something in the lunches at Hampton School.

They have just won their their second Independent Schools' Football Association Cup after defeating Charterhouse after a dramatic penalty shoot-out.

Goalkeeper Nick Jupp, who is on Watford's books and represented England at U18 level, has just been named ISFA player of the year, while 15-year-old cricketer Zafar Ansari has just won the Gray Nicholls Trophy for the most improved young cricketer of the year, to add to his Bunbury scholarship earlier this year.

And Ryder Cup-winning golfer Paul Casey, legendary rowing brothers Greg and Jonny Searle, Harlequins fly-half Seb Jewell and Middlesex wicketkeeper David Nash have all walked across the Hampton School halls.

So what is the secret?

David Knapman, assistant head at the school, explains: "I think one of the keys is we allow the boys a completely free choice of sport.

"The advantages of that are huge, because the boys taking part in that sport are there because they want to be and there are none who don't, which makes for higher-quality sessions.

"We have fantastic facilities at the school and some very highly qualifed coaches, and I think the key is we hold sporting achievement in very high esteem here."

Knapman, also a football coach at the school, insists it is the excellent coaching that sets apart Hampton from other schools.

"It is incredibly important for us to get the right people in to the school and part of that - but not all of it - is to make sure we recruit people who have the right credentials.

"We believe that, if we have anyone good at any particular sport, then they shouldn't need to go anywhere else for top-class coaching."

In most cases, the expression peer pressure' is something that is frowned up in most schools but, as Knapman points out, it is just that which keeps the school producing top-class sportsmen.

"I think there is an unspoken peer pressure here in that, if one of the boys see the accomplishments of the likes of Zafar Ansari and Nick Jupp, they think to themselves well I'm nearly as good as them, so maybe I can be where they are'," he says.

And, with big names such as Casey and the legendary Searle brothers on the roll of honour - Hampton School students have a lot to look up to.

"I think schools that produce sportsmen should lionise them, because it says to kids that the gap between them and the big time is not that big," Knapman says.

"They should have that ambition to emulate past students, and that's what we do here."

He believes another secret of Hampton conveyor belt of talent is the fact you won't find any of the school's coaching team handing out the hair-dryer treatment.

"We don't put any pressure on the kids and I think that breeds a winning mentality, because they push themselves," he adds. "You won't produce top-level sportsmen by shouting at them.

"I believe there is a national problem about putting too much pressure on kids because, to me, that motivation must come from within. Shouting and putting pressure on youngsters is counter-productive."