Testimonials

Mario, Chris and his team are brilliant, we can’t thank them enough.. Harrison (10yrs) has been with them only 3 months and has gone from 2 lengths to his 600m badge, which he is so pleased with. He has had one to one with Jack and gone from half an hour a week to an hour a week, with the excellent professional coaching he is thriving and he loves it, they have taught him so much. His aim is to compete and win medals, so watch out Olympics! We are also enjoying our first intensive course this half term with my younger son Jenson (8yrs), who is not so confident in the water but with the support and care of the great teachers he has improved with confidence and ability within the first couple of sessions. We have already booked him in again for the summer, he can't wait.

I think Mario's class is brilliant. It has been really helping me to swim better. Today I am doing my 800 meter badge ... Wish me luck please By Ella, age 8. The classes are always great fun, the instructors actually get into the water with the kids rather than shouting at them from the side. There is a great atmosphere and all of the kids seem to be having a great time and growing in confidence and ability. By Ella's Dad, age 46.

Our twin 4 year old girls have been last August and this Easter for the intensive course in Upper Beeding. We travel from Chichester so quite a way every day, but the lessons are so fantastic its well worth the journey! They both have had so much fun in the lessons and we as parents have been amazed at the skills that they have learnt in just 5 days each time. We would definitely recommend MXT to any other parents wishing their children to have fun and most importantly, be safe in the water. Thanks again Mario and all at MXT.

My 9 & 11 year old have improved so much, normally getting them out of bed in the holidays is a mission but this week they were chasing me out of the door! My 4 year old is having so much fun and best of all thanks to Rachel's endless patience my youngest who is only 20 months old has gone from being terrified in the water to having an absolute ball!

My two children have done the MXT intensive courses over the last 18mths and have gone from strength to strength. My then 6 yr old son didn't really swim with any technique when he started and now is a strong swimmer with great technique, he engages well with each teacher and really takes on board what that say. My 3 yr old daughter was very nervous when she started and took a few days to start to enjoy it, but she now counts down the days until the next course. The teachers were brilliant with her, giving her the confidence to learn, she is now so relaxed and becoming a great little swimmer. Both my children love doing these lessons. Thank you for teaching them an important life skill, whilst they still have fun and enjoy!

I first brought Toby to an MXT course at the age of 8. He could swim just about 10m in a kind of doggy paddle and had not been out of his depth without arm bands. After a week, with some special individual attention to increase his confidence in the water, he gained his first certificate and badge -200m! We have come to many of the intensive courses now and Toby (age 10) has swum 1500m. I'm very pleased with the great technique he has developed. Elsie first took the plunge and did an intensive course at the age of 6. She had been swimming with me many times but would not go in the water without flotation aids. By the end of the week she swam 5m and most importantly had overcome her fear of the water. Even though she has had few lessons in between, Elsie has improved at every intensive course she has been to and has now gained her badge and certificate for 600m (age 7). My children love swimming with MXT. The teaching technique leads to fast progress and fun sessions. The teachers are well trained and very motivating to the children, giving plenty of individual attention to each of them. Thank you MXT Swim School!

My three children have completed three intensive courses with MXT and they have been amazing. They started off as non swimmers and now my eldest has completed his 400m badge, my 6 year old has achieved his 25m and my four old has become so confident in the water. All the instructors are very professional and friendly and know how to obtain amazing results. I would highly recommend MXT as the children progress so quickly and you can see the difference in just a few sessions.

MXT Teacher: Timothy Long a Personal Statement from his Parents Tim is the youngest of three siblings. He has an older sister and an older brother. Tim has always been quite a shy person but has grown and matured into a very likeable young man. At school during his primary school years Tim was not happy to be at school as he didn’t feel he fit in as he was much happier in the company of older children and not those of his own age, but he was always well liked by his teachers. His teachers always felt that he could do better. When Tim moved on to secondary school he excelled in all aspects of his school work. It was here that he gained more confidence and had the benefit of having a few very close friends that remain good friends today. As his parents we never pushed Tim. We allowed him to be himself and to do what he thought was right for him. We gave Tim guidance when we felt he needed it or Tim asked us what we thought would be best for him. Although mostly he didn't take any notice of what we said anyway! Tim chose BTEC sport, German, media and food tech for his GCSE and of course the usual subjects that are obligatory. Tim didn't study very hard on his homework, though he did fair a little better during school time. As his parents, we thought he could have worked harder and got better grades: • He passed distinction in BTEC sport • German passed grade C • Media failed Tim didn't enjoy this subject at all, • Food TEC passed grade A • Maths, English, science passed grade B These results enabled Tim to go on to college to do a levels BTEC sport and psychology, passing with grade D in psychology and distinction grade A* for BTEC sport! JOB DONE. Now we knew what Tim was going to do! Although Tim wasn’t much interested in getting a job and spent too much time on his computer, watching TV and all of those waste of time things. An advert was spotted in the paper for swimming instructors and this advert was given to Tim. Tim phoned about the job, went for an interview and got the job! This was the start of Tim becoming a young adult, earning his own money and learning what live is really about. Tim has grown in stature confidence self-awareness and awareness of other people and the world around him. Becoming a swimming coach has allowed Tim to come into contact with so many different people, children, the parents of the children that he teaches. Tim through his job has been able to continue with his education as well, as there have been many courses to attend and still many new skills to learn. Tim’s job is challenging, inspiring, life skill building and so much more. Tim has developed into a well-balanced caring and mature young man because his swim teaching job has taught him so many things in life that he never knew he was going to learn Tim will continue to grow; he has now been accepted for university in September, and what will he be studying? You’ve guessed it: sport and more sport!

Working for Mario and the MXT Team, for the past 7 years, has been a real pleasure. I have grown both as a person and a teacher, under his employment, and he has been fully supportive and encouraging of my development. He has helped me find creative ways of inspiring children, and opened my mind to new approaches of teaching and learning. I had my reservations, at first, about his innovative in-water, one-on-one teaching style, but it has proven more than successful. I have witnessed, with my own eyes, children and adults improve ten times quicker under his teaching technique than the usual, and more widely used, methods of teaching swimming. I have seen children and adults of all ages, abilities, and disabilities thrive through the MXT teaching programme. Most astounding of all, are the staggering improvements made by the participants of the MXT Intensive Courses. Mario encourages all of his employees to contribute to the furthering and development of the swim school, and themselves, through the inspiration of inventive and visionary improvements to teaching methods and management. He is the heart of the ‘MXT Family’, encouraging his employees to bond both within work and outside of it through fun activities such as Go-Karting and visits to the cinema, to meals and nights out. He believes that the strong connection between his employees, and himself, is fundamental to the efficiency and the progression of the swim school. All in all, working for Mario and being part of the MXT Family has been a pleasure, and I wish them only the best in all their future exploits and achievements. I am sorry to leave, but I will definitely be staying in touch!

How my 'scaredy cat' and 'mermaid' learned to swim... "Hello?" "Daddy?" "Yes, what is it Owen?" "Daddy, I didn't get my fifty metres badge." He sounds down. I'm not quite sure how to handle disappointment in Portslade from a Surrey office. I start to think of something to say. "I got my 100 metres instead!" Little so and so... prank call by a six year old! I swell with fatherly pride. It’s even better than the time he remembered to flush the loo and pick his pants up all in the same day! Just eight months ago, however, I would have suspected that a call from him saying he'd done, say, five stokes or stuck his head under the water would have been a prank call. Owen had been terrified of going swimming, terrified of putting his head in, terrified, in fact, of having his hair washed. Now here he was swimming a distance that would be a struggle for me if I'd had a heavy weekend (well not without taking a breather anyway). So how did this happen? To understand you first need to understand the folly of two things; overprotective and inexperienced parenting and attempting to treat both your children in exactly the same way. When Owen was born wed just moved back to Hove from four years abroad where I worked my way round Asia and the Pacific as an ex pat. We didn't have a place of our own in Hove and therefore we rented my mother’s flat while we looked for somewhere. An arrangement that suited us fine, though we were not used to her heating or plumbing! Swapping Taipei where its 35° in the day and 32° at night (and yes that is centigrade) for Hove in autumn tricked us. We could work air conditioning just fine but as for heating a baby’s hath to the right temperature and maintaining the correct ambient temperature afterwards? Epic fail. So it was that Owens first bath was too cold for him. He squealed. We whipped him out in to a towel but the room must have felt like an ice hotel to the poor little soul. He squealed again. First bath was not successful. Even less successful was first hair wash. Meanwhile we were very good indeed at mollycoddling him in other areas of upbringing. And so it came to pass that he associated water with the greatest tortures of his little life. Baby swimming followed by full swimming lessons didn't help. In baby swimming he would not go under the water. In the older class he would not even get in the car if he knew we were going swimming, Then we had Amy. By now we were bath and ambient temperature ninjas! What’s more, it’s impossible to mollycoddle a second child - you're much more likely to absent mindedly leave them in the understairs cupboard instead! Amy loved her first bath. We signed her up for baby swimming sessions immediately which she also loved. She would cry if you didn't dunk her. On her first jump from the side she went for a little scuba dive sans breathing apparatus. "Not many do that" said Sue, the instructor. Sadly her ability only highlighted Owen's inability! Finally, a friend said we should try one-to-one coaching with MXT Swim School. We signed him up and told him we were going to a football party to get him in the car. When he saw the pool, he howled. When he saw the shower, he screamed. Within fifteen minutes he was riding on Mario the instructor's back. Then he voluntarily dunked! He had responded to the one-to-one coaching instantly and with their wealth of experience, the swimming school had managed to make water fun in a way that had eluded me.. The next time we went swimming as a family he got me to dolphin ride him. Then we played 'face in the water games. Then a few months later I received that phone call about the swimming badge. It was like watching someone with a phobia of grass and spherical objects turn in to David Beckham. Amy? She was happy in groups and graduated from her first class with honours before moving on to the next level. She still makes you dunk her and her eyes light up at the mention of swimming. She has done some intensive lessons with her older brother too. On the day he got his hundred metres she got her five metres. The day before that she jumped in from the springboard - she is two and a half years old! Now our family swimming sessions are the highlight of the weekend, but our children both started enjoying the water in very different ways!