By Mike Brown, UTD Scuba Diving Instructor
What are your overall thoughts about the scuba coaching program, or Jeff’s fitness coaching program, or both?
I’m thrilled to overwhelmingly endorse Jeff and his coaching program. Initially, I contacted Jeff for scuba training, and at first, I felt the price seemed a bit high when compared to traditional scuba classes. However, after a few conversations with Jeff and another UTD instructor, I took a leap of faith and started the coaching program for scuba, fitness, and nutrition. Jeff was very attentive, thorough, and always accessible. The level of detail was amazing and perfectly suited to my needs. For example, Jeff is a highly competitive cyclist holding various world records as he loves riding, but for me, exercise is a chore and not something I pursue for sport or enjoyment; it’s strictly a means to an end for me. Jeff quickly understood I did not want to become a competitive cyclist and that I hated spending money or time on the endeavor. Jeff helped me find ways to meet my fitness goals in a cost and time efficient manner. He has expertise and guided me where to spend and where it was ok to go cheap. Not only that, Jeff took the extra time to learn my sport of choice, dinghy sailboat racing, and customized a program to improve my sailing fitness.
Can you expand on the benefits you received or the goals you acheived with Jeff as your coach?
Before learning about UTD, I had been a certified diver for many years holding cards from three different agencies for Open Water, AOW, and Nitrox. And frankly, I thought I was a pretty darn good diver based on my comfort in the water and comparisons to other divers I met on trips. The reason for contacting UTD was to take my diving to a higher level. I wanted to learn some of the more advanced skills as well as improve my diving safety. I quickly discovered, there’s so much more to diving well than I had imagined. My time with Jeff took me from an ok recreational diver to an outstanding recreational diver. I now have a ton of control in the water, advanced knowledge, and a keen awareness of my team and surroundings. The fantastic by product of all this is that I really enjoy my diving so much more. Of course, I enjoyed diving before, but I simply did not realize how much more enjoyable it could be. Oh, and the quality of my pictures has skyrocketed too. Additionally, Jeff helped me advanced my skills to include dry suit diving, doubles diving, technical diving, and more. If you are the type to do things well and are driven towards excellence, rest assured that UTD is the right place and Jeff is the right coach!
What would you say to someone who was considering Jeff as a coach?
Just try it! There’s very little downside and tremendous upside; this is a no brainer for sure.
If you’re not convinced, I challenge you to hop in a pool with your scuba gear and hold yourself completely still in trim and neutrally buoyant. Do this at any depth around four feet or deeper. No hand movement, no fin movement, no touching the side or bottom; just breathing and hovering in place. I suspect you’ll be quite surprised at how difficult it is to be still in the water column. No worries, just call Jeff and sign up for coaching. If you have already mastered this, call Jeff and sign up for advanced coaching. You may ask, as I did, “If I’m enjoying my diving, why does any of this matter?” You’ll simply be amazed at how much better and easier everything becomes when you have control and awareness.