The excellence of Southampton's academy has been rightly praised for years but James Ward-Prowse is proof that extracurricular fine-tuning can help. Although "fine-tuning" may not be the right word for sneaking off in search of brutality.

If Ward-Prowse, just 19, has looked at home in the hurlyburly world of the Premier League midfield battle this season, it is partially because when he was 13 he went to unusual lengths to steel himself. Those lengths may just help him become a surprise name in England's World Cup plans this summer.

His talent had been obvious since he was even younger, so much so that at the age of eight he was on the books of Southampton and Portsmouth, the club he and his family supported. But the player came to realise that he needed to strengthen his mentality if he were ever to make the most of his ability. The academy was great but he needed to venture off the beaten track to get, well, beaten. So unbeknown to Southampton he began moonlighting for an older team at a non-league club.

"I was a bit afraid of a tackle and wasn't really ready for the men's game so my dad suggested that I go to train with Havant & Waterlooville in the Blue Square South and get kicked and have that sort of feeling," recalls Ward-Prowse. "I was going there wanting to be kicked and beaten and shouted at. That definitely did develop me, more as a person than a player. It gave me the right kind of mindset and maturity to go and handle myself against older boys. I started to toughen up and after that when I was 14 I was playing for the under-16s, when I was 16 I was playing for the under-18s and when I was 18 I was playing for England Under-21s and the [Southampton] first team. So it made me stand up and be counted against men. I don't think Southampton knew about it but even if they did they shouldn't care because it's helped me get to where I am today."

Southampton, and indeed England, should be grateful that Ward-Prowse chose to follow his dad's advice rather than in his dad's footsteps. His dad is a barrister. "I'm not interested in that stuff at all, I find it all boring," says Ward-Prowse. "The amount of paperwork and reading he has to do. I watched him in court once as part of work experience when I was at school and that put me off it even more! I'm all about sport."

Although his academic grades were lawyerly good, Ward-Prowse's football prowess was the reason that he was voted Southampton's scholar of the year last season ahead of the much-coveted left-back, Luke Shaw.

The fearlessness that Ward-Prowse has taught himself makes him, like Shaw, Nathaniel Clyne and an ever-lengthening list of others, a delightful ambassador for the Southampton style, which, since the arrival of Mauricio Pochettino as manager last year, recognises no superior and no reason to moderate ambition. "He's instilled a lot of aggression into every one," says Ward-Prowse speaking after coaching children at an exclusive Barclays training session in Southampton as part of the title sponsors' thanking community heroes campaign. "The way we play without the ball, going to press and get the ball back. He's given us a belief that no matter who the team is in front of us, whether it's Manchester City or a lower-league team, we can go out and beat them as long as we concentrate on what we do."

What Ward-Prowse does better than almost anyone else is cross the ball. Despite only starting half of his club's league games (and coming off the bench in all the others bar one), he has delivered more crosses than any other Premier League player this season. It is certainly not the only thing he does – he has made more tackles than midfielders as tigerish as Arsenal's Jack Wilshere, for example, despite starting fewer matches - but crossing is what makes him stand out most.

"The manager's quite keen that when you get in the final third you should cause a bit of havoc and I like to think I've done that," he says. "When you've got players like Rickie Lambert and Jay Rodriguez, you want to put balls in the box for them to go and attack. And set pieces are a massive thing for me. I do a bit in training and it's great when it comes off in a match so it's something I work on regularly and am looking to keep improving."

He has such fizz and accuracy with his right foot that it is difficult to avoid comparison with his chief idol, David Beckham, even if he acknowledges he still needs to add goal-scoring to his repertoire. "Beckham, Lampard, Gerrard, all the top English players are who I strive to be like," says Ward-Prowse. Everyone is inspired by David Beckham, no matter if you're involved in football or not, he's a fantastic guy." Although Roy Hodgson has said there are unlikely to be any surprises in England's World Cup squad, Ward-Prowse is among those believed to have an outside chance of being called up, especially if team-mates such as Lambert, Rodriguez and Adam Lallana get the go-ahead. He is not as heavily fancied as Everton's Ross Barkley, whom he played alongside at last summer's Under-20 World Cup, but, true to the spirit of Southampton, he is not ashamed of declaring his ambition.

"Every young English footballer wants to play at a World Cup for England, it's always in the back of my mind," he says. "But I'm just concentrating on what I'm doing at Southampton. If I train hard and improve as a player and produce in games, then that will come calling. But at my stage of development where I am at the moment is right for me. If a World Cup place comes calling, then so be it."

James Ward-Prowse was speaking at a Barclays event, delivered by the LifeSkills created with Barclays initiative, where a community group was rewarded with an exclusive training session at a Barclays Spaces for Sports site. This season, Barclays is thanking fans and community heroes. Join the conversation with #YouAreFootball.