The session was fantastic. Many thanks to Jack as he made me feel very positive about my new challenge, when I'm quite sure it must have been difficult to find positive things to mention at times!
I can't wait to get in the pool tomorrow and try out the drills.

Many thanks

Louise

Jack / Nigel

Lauren thoroughly enjoyed her 90 minute session on Fly and Breast last Wed 15th October.

She now says her breast stroke no longer feels "rough" in the water and at Friday's training session remembered to keep here eyes down and lower her arms. From poolside her glide looked longer and smoother and she looked more streamlined in the stroke overall.

She didn't get much opportunity to put into practice the butterfly changes in training but she did try the above water clap and lowered her chin. She said she is going to work on this again during Sunday's training session.

She is already asking when she can return to do backstroke and front crawl!!

We believe this was money well spent!

Regards,
Julie & Lauren Shaw

Coaches comment: Thanks for the positive feedback, sounds like Lauren is really enjoying working at the changes.....keep up the good work!

Nigel,

I'm sure you get many emails like this but Adam would like to say thanks - this weekend at Club Champs he has knocked 11 seconds of 200 free and 33 seconds of 400 free, so is now well inside a county time for his 400 free which was one of his XXXXXXXX targets. See you on 8th November.

Kind Regards

Sue

REPLY: Thanks for your kind comments. Swimming is a team effort - SwimTherapy provide the extra focus on technique.. When this is combined with the commitment of the swimmer and excellent work of club & performance squad coaches,progress is inevitable. Well done!

Hi

Oscar received his DVD today, and whilst he is still at school I've had a look. Its fantastic.

He absolutely loved the session with you, its the first time he's done anything so special and came home so excited. He told me he seems much faster already at breaststroke and is putting into practice all you told him. The dvd is just perfect, it is pitched perfectly at his 10 yr old level [with loads of great encouragement] and will serve as a great reminder of all the points you raised, for the months to come.

I want to thank you so much for a memorable morning and Oscar will definitely be back to see you again.

Kind Regards

Lucy Perry

Aiden has recently attended his second Swim Therapy session, this time with Matt. The first session was a great success and Aiden's session with Matt certainly lived up to expectations. Matt immediately pin-pointed various ways that Aiden could improve on the efficiency of his freestyle. The phrase, "the camera never lies", comes to mind. Aiden was able to actually see, from all angles how he swims, not how he thinks he swims. Matt worked with Aiden on each separate issue and then brought it all together. At all times Matt was patient and took the time to explain why. Aiden has the full support of his club and now has many specific drills to work on in training, more importantly, he now knows why he is doing them and what he is trying to achieve. The DVD's have played an important part for Aiden. With a few weeks between sessions, he has been able to revisit a DVD and thus been able to stay on track. Thanks Matt

Our children Matthew (9) and Grace (13) recently had a session with Matt Thomas. Matt explained, in easy to understand terms, what the critical areas of their strokes which required correction were and which drills should be used to achieve this. The time flew by and he proved to each of them that they were both very capable of great improvement. We will cetainly be back again to ensure the improvement that can be seen is achieved and then improved upon.

Lowestoft & Oulton Broad SC

The 90 minute session Nathan had with Matt was excellent. Nathan wanted to improve his freestyle and fly and within 5 minutes Matt had identified key areas for Nathan to focus on. After an hour of drills, Nathan really felt the benefit, encouraged at all times by Matt's comments and relaxed style. The DVD of excerpts of the session with Matt's commentary is a great resource and Nathan will use it to remind himself of stroke improvement ideas he can practice in training. We'll be back in 2009!

Best regards, Shaun

can only say good things about (name supplied)'s two sessions at swimtherapy. We were very impressed with the whole set up but mostly with matt and his expert eye and how he was able to spot the "problem areas" and with simple instruction able to point (name supplied) in the right direction. She has started to put these into action and already feels there is an improvement in her stroke.

We will come back in afew months time and see whether you guys also think this

Hi Nigel,
We had a good session with Matt. He started by concentrating where Nik had a problem. Matt was able to identify what the cause might be and showed Nik how to adjust his stroke to remedy this. Then Matt went on to look at Nik's overall style. There seem to be many areas that need tweeking, his angle of breathing, rotation of his hips, movement of his head and more frquent kicking.
I would find it hard to concentrate on so many areas but Nik has been trying to put it into practice. This works until he's tired in the training sessions and then old habits come back. His shoulder does not hurt while he does the 400 sections but by the 800 kicks sectionit's not so good. Given that the club has just finished its summer break and so there has been a rest for his shoulder, we must see how it holds out and then decide if any physio. is necessary. Matt suggested if we went down that road, to take the CD and show it. This seems a sensible step to take but I feel the correction to the stroke may prevent the injury recurring.
Please pass on our thanks to Matt for all the useful and knowledgeable directions he gave Nik. It was a most useful session and one Nik can use throughout his training sessions.
Thanks, Gill Spears.

Hi Nigel

My son Josh and I came along on 8th and 9th August for two sessions with Jack. What can I say – it was superb. Josh got a huge amount out of the sessions and we have been putting the coaching points into practice since then with excellent results.

I would be grateful if you would pass on my thanks to Jack – Josh really responded well to his teaching. We will definitely be back in the near future – hopefully I can arrange some dates during the school half term holiday in October. I have been giving out your flyers at our club and there is loads of interest so hopefully you will get some more visitors from Thanet.

Many thanks once again and we hope to see you again soon

Kind regards

Alison Dunk

Coaches comments: Great feedback! Don't delay booking Oct Half term, we are already 50% full!

Hi Nigel

I would just like to say a big THANK-YOU, as Nicole really enjoyed the session on Saturday with Jack. Jack was brilliant, he made the session fun and very easy to understand. We were amazed by what we learnt on the day and my only regret is that we have not visited you guys sooner.

Tomorrow night is squad session, therefore I will be handing out the leaflets and talking to the other parents about what we learnt and will advise them to book a session to see for themselves.

We will be coming back in October to ensure that Nicole has taken on board what Jack said to her and also to analyse the breast stroke.

Many thanks once again

Sharon Robinson

Dear Nigel

We thought the session was very good and Matt certainly communicated well with Heather.

Heather certainly enjoyed it and said she had learned a lot. (Both parents did too.) When training starts up again in earnest at the start of September I will be able to see whether she has been able to retain the lessons learned and put them into practice. That's where the CD should come in useful.

Would you like me to update you with progress in September?

Kindest regards

Trevor

Coaches Comments: Yes, please.

Hi,Nigel
we would just like to say that yesterday, Robert had a great session with Matt and found it great help in identifying and improving his technique, and we would like to know if you have any 2 hr sessions available during the half term week the 27th to the 31st of October.
cheers
Mark

Coaches reply by seperate email

Hi Nigel,

My session with Matt was very good. He certainly had the technical knowledge and the ability to dissect my stroke and highlight the areas that needed attention. Matt's Coaching abilities and clear instructions made it easy for me to understand how to break the stroke down into individual components and concentrate on improving each aspect of the stroke before bringing it all together. Matt also provided plenty of feedback on the DVD including information on drills that I could practice in my own time.

cheers

Ash

The recent swim session with Matt went really well. He was very encouraging & gave Beth clear areas to work on. He created a relaxed atmosphere, which in turn helped Beth’s confidence & she was able to contribute more to today’s session because of it.

The CD voice over quality was not as good as the first session, as it was in places difficult to here some of the comments. But that is the only negative comment from today’s session.

Although Matt is new to SwimTherapy it does not show he came across very professional.

Bernie Wilcox

Coaches comment: We will make sure that the next CD is the best!

Nigel,

I am delighted to report that I was very happy indeed with the coaching session I had with Matt.

I thought he had a very good coaching technique for the following reasons:

He asked a lot of questions about what I thought I was doing and actually listened to the answers. This forced me to think about what I was experiencing in my swim technique.

He raised my awareness about what I was doing and made me identify what I was trying to achieve.

He managed the timing well by ensuring we did enough on each area but kept us moving forward to identify the next target area for improvement.

He helped me priorities the areas I should work on to get the maximum benefit.

He was very competent with the video software and used it well to illustrate points, without it becoming a distraction or dominating the session.

His general manner was confident, competent and relaxed.

I will happily recommend SwimTherapy to club members and friends who are interested in this type of swim coaching

Hi Swim Therapy,
When I had a session with Matt he was great, he helped me so much and my stroke has improved in leaps and bounds! Not only has my stroke improved ,my times have also. My coaches really see the difference.
Matt is a great coach and he really explains him-self so I can really understand what he is talking about, why he is saying it, why we have to change it and how it helps me go faster. I have been to swim therapy before and all of my visits were great. I would definitly go back to swim therapy all through my life. Thank you so much Swim Therapy.

Just to a note to say thank you. Stephanie attended Swim Therapy on the 3rd July 2008 and was greeted by Jack, who put her very quickly at ease. She found the whole experience Fab! She thought Jack was cool

Jack was very professional and quickly got Stephanie relaxed and talking and thinking about her stroke. We decided to dedicate the session to butterfly, Stephanie quickly got to grips with the exercises and took on board the techniques pointers, in a very short time you could see a vast improvement. We also took advantage of the DVD with Jacks voice over pointing out the faults and giving tips on techniques etc. This serves as a constant reminder and is a great confidence booster.

Stephanie swam in the Club Championships on the 13&14th July and knocked 19 seconds off her 200im she PB in all her races and in particular her fly, she was simply amazing and knocked seconds off her pbs in the 50 & 100 & 200m she now looks like a professional and its all that’s to Jack & Nigel @ Swim therapy. Keep up the good work. We will be coming back.

regards

Deb Pepper

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Thanks hugely for your professional and tailored advice given during a very valuable 1 hour coaching session! I came to you because I wanted to improve my technique. I have to say, I have put the lessons learned in the "endless pool" into action immediately and I can already see the results in terms of reduced tiredness and increased speed. I will certainly be coming along again.
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Regards,
Anish

Excellent session for my daughter Mary with Jack on Friday – apart from being very motivational he taught us both a lot. Mary took 2 seconds off her 100F/C time on Sunday – so I guess that’s proof it worked!

Jennie Hodgson