Concierge Swimming Lessons

I am a therapeutic counselor who wanted my 4 year old to be water safe. He’s a super cautious child (and was fearful in water) who is a free spirit in the sense that he does not like to flow directions. So, a challenge for a swim coach. I was fortunate to find Theo on a neighborhood website. After talking in the phone, I could tell I would feel comfortable with his approach. He’s been teaching our 4 year old, our athletic 10 year old, and a friend of the 10 year old, for the past couple months. He’s been wonderful with all three, very different children and all enjoy the lessons. Our youngest is now asking to go in the water, has learned a couple skills, and is gradually making progress. The older kids have improved their strokes greatly. Theo has been a pleasure to work with. He has a gift for respecting and connecting with children, and no doubt with adults as well. The experience has been a delight!

My 8 year old daughter had taken approximately 30 swim lessons from accredited institutions and still did not know how to swim and was feeling very embarrassed and scared that it was a skill that she couldn’t acquire. I needed to find someone to be able to break through with her. By the end of the first lesson, I noticed a huge change. Her confidence soared. Theo was able to break it down for her in a way the brought immediate success in very incremental steps. She has now had 4 lessons and is able to swim the width of the pool unassisted; can tread water, swim on her back and float. This was the breakthrough we needed. I highly highly recommend Theo. We are so fortunate to have found him!

I am 44 years old and have been a life long non-​swimmer. As a kid of six years or so, my mom took me to the public pool a couple times. She noticed that I was scared to be in the water and therefore didn’t insist on making me take lessons. Given that she has never learned to swim, perhaps she reasoned that I could get along without swimming as well. As a young adult, I had a scary experience with water during which I thought I was going to drown, but I nevertheless had a desire to swim. Over the years, I enlisted the help of a couple of people, including a certified swimming instructor, to see if I could finally learn. Though I picked up a few useful things along the way, I never was able to feel comfortable in the water or learn enough to even feel confident in my ability to learn. The swim instructor never worked with me at my own pace, never let me feel comfortable with a skill milestone before going on to the next one. Disappointed, I ended up stopping the lessons, feeling that there was something wrong with me, that maybe swimming was not in cards for me.
About a month ago, I decided to give swimming another try. I found Theo Kuczek online and seeing that he works a lot with adults new to swimming, I wondered if we would be a good fit for swimming lessons. We spoke over the phone and he took the time to learn where I’m coming from as far as my previous experiences and goals related to swimming. Up to now, we have had three lessons, and I am amazed that I am able to do things in the water that I never was able to do over various previous efforts at swimming over the years. After every lesson I am so proud of myself for what I accomplished, excited for the next lesson, and thankful to Theo for his invaluable help.
Theo is great at recognizing where I am at any given moment as far as my comfort level with whatever goal we are trying to reach in the pool. He carefully steers me toward each next step, helping me to maintain a good comfort level, but pushing myself just enough so that I keep learning. He is super patient and tailors the lessons to my specific needs; he doesn’t take a cookie cutter approach. I have different swimming anxiety «baggage» than someone else may have, so I may need to learn in a different way than someone else would, and Theo recognizes that. His Master’s Degree in Psychology and his easy going manner play a big role in helping him figure out the best way to help me learn to swim. I hear that Theo works with kids as well as adults. If you want to learn how to swim, whether you have had previous bad experiences with learning or not, I highly recommend working with Theo.
Rudy C.

We started working with Theo this summer. While my kids can swim, I wanted them to really refine their strokes. My kids play other sports so I thought Theo’s background as a competitive athlete would resonate particularly well with them. After the first lesson I decided to join them in the pool. The difference was immediately evident. We have all noticeably increased our efficiency, allowing us to swim far longer. What makes Theo great is he can tune the instruction to meet the swimmer. I have a 14 year old boy and 11 year old girl and he instructs and motivates each of us differently to get results. He understands there is a physical, emotional and mental component to swimming and works on all 3. While I know Theo is known for helping those with a water phobia enter the pool and learn to swim, he is also an excellent instructor for anyone of any age that wants to improve their swimming.

Making the connection with Theo is one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life! When I turned 50 earlier this year I decided I was going to give it one final attempt to learn to swim. I’ve tried numerous classes and instructors but never found any program or person who truly understood my manifested fear of deep water and learning to deal with the fear and begin the process of being comfortable in the water which would help the process of learning to swim. After my first lesson with Theo I knew immediately I had found that special person who would partner with me on this journey. With his background in swimming and therapy it was a perfect match for me.
Theo creates a safe environment with constant communication and assurance that you never feel rushed or pressured. He works with where you are at the moment but also knows how to challenge you at the right time within your boundaries that has you leaving each lesson feeling confident and proud of your accomplishments.
I’ve only had 3 lessons so far but starting from a point that all I could do is wade in shallow water to now being able to float unassisted [front and back], mastering breathing techniques, going under water and doing different types of maneuvers and most important gaining comfort and pleasure in the water.
I promise anyone who works with Theo that they will never have a moment of regret and I’m so excited about knowing that by this summer I WILL FINALLY learn how to swim.
@ Theo — as I have expressed on numerous occasions I can’t begin to thank you for all the support and compassion you have shown me and looking forward to our combined continued success.

This is our 4^th summer with Theo teaching our girls swimming. The first summer he taught our older girl (then 3 ½ years old) she began the summer by crying and refusing to get in the water. She had previously attended group lessons in a public pool, but almost a year had passed since she last swam in the water with her «water baby» lessons and she had become afraid to put her face under water and jump into the pool. Despite the fact that her initial lessons contained many tears, our daughter loved Theo, who was always caring and gentle with her. Between Theo’s swimming expertise and his knowledge of psychology, he was able to help her progress from being fearful of swimming (aprox. the middle of May) to (by the end of July) being able jump in the water, swim across the pool, tread water for at least one minute, and many other skills. Weather permitting, we had Theo teaching her in the pool on average 2 times a week, and we encouraged her to practice her skills on the days that he was not there. The next two summers we were gone for a good portion on vacation but still managed to fit it quite a few lessons throughout the summer, during which time Theo helped my daughter with diving, submarine swims, and worked a lot on her form and stamina.
Because our community pool is only open during the warmer season, we have our daughter in group swim class during the rest of the year to keep up her skills and stamina, but the real progress happens during the summer with Theo as her teacher. She is now 6 ½ and swims far better than myself, looking forward to her lessons with Theo.
Last summer we started having Theo do a short lesson with our younger daughter as well, but this summer has shown a drastic difference. In just two lessons with Theo (who she adores) she has gone from being able to jump in and do a short submersion to the wall to being able to swim from the wall to Theo, pick up rings from the bottom of the pool (with his help getting down to the bottom), and most importantly to be excited for her lessons!
All this being said about my young children, Theo is a great teacher for any age and has even helped my husband to improve his form.
I am very glad to finally be able to leave a good review for Theo, because he really is a fantastic teacher. I am always giving his number to my friends who are looking for lessons. He is a great person and I trust him 100% with my children.