10 Years Experience

Eric Thumma started swimming competitively in Texas and competed throughout high school, in Massachusetts. There he swam in the state meet all 4 years and acting as a high school co-captain his senior year.

Eric went to Grinnell College in Iowa were he competed in the Midwest Conference every year in distance events. His senior year, Eric was elected co-captain of the men’s swim team. He graduated with a B.A. in Psychology.

Throughout high school and during the summer while he attended college, Eric instructed swimmers. In 2005 he began working at Fluid Mechanic’s swim camp in Pennsylvania, having been familiar with the company as an athlete (read about them here). After graduating from college, he completed Fluid Mechanic’s training program for Aquatic Consultant achieving one of the highest scores in the company’s history in the training exam. As an aquatic consultant he trained swimmers of all ages and abilities in high performance technique, both in one on one and group settings. After consulting with the company for about a year he went on to train other consultants, and was even selected to write their swimming technique books with the president of the company, John Waldman. Even after moving to Washington to be with his family, Eric continued writing for Fluid Mechanics.

Since moving, Eric has trained and coached triathletes (both adults and children) in conjunction with Blue-Fire Fitness and the Snohomish Tri-Club, in addition to working with a group of Storm swimmers in dry-land practices.

Jonah has always enjoyed swimming because he believes everyone approaches it a little differently when working to improve their performance. During his time as a competitive athlete this awareness allowed him to learn and grow by observing those who were more advanced at certain aspects of the sport. As a coach, he uses this same approach to discover the unique characteristics that help each athlete swim their best, both in motivation and technique.

Jonah was an active athlete within competitive swimming for ten years. For a majority of that time, nearly all that he learned about the sport was while swimming with Storm Aquatics. He broke several Storm records in the freestyle and IM, participated in multiple interstate and national USA Swimming competitions, competed as a state finalist through high school, and finished his athletic career as an NCAA Division II student-athlete.

In college, Jonah studied mechanical engineering. After completing his undergraduate degree, a variety of factors lead him to pursue a career path outside engineering. Jonah returned to aquatics and found success as the head coach for the Monroe High School swim team.

In 2022 Jonah was unexpectedly diagnosed with T-cell AML Leukemia. After seven months of chemotherapy, he received a stem cell transplant and is currently in full remission.

Jonah coaches the Bronze 1 and Bronze 2 groups. In his free time, he likes to play games, watch movies, explore cities, and take silly things a little too seriously.