Testimonials

I’m 21 years old, and contacted Julia for some one-to-one lessons as I wanted to relearn how to swim. 

From the beginning, Julia helped to build my confidence in the water and with Julia’s teaching techniques I found I was picking up the swimming strokes faster than I expected. Not only were the lessons productive, but they were great fun and I looked forward to every lesson. From my lessons, I learnt how to do three swimming strokes (front crawl, breaststroke and backstroke), and I also learnt how to do butterfly and diving, neither of which I had never attempted before. 

She also taught me techniques for treading water which built my confidence because I now know if I ever panicked in the water I could do this to ‘regroup’ myself and I will never be stuck. 

Julia was a super teacher and thanks to her I am able to go to a swimming pool with confidence to stay afloat and swim a full length with ease!

Dear Julia,

I am writing to let you know how delighted I am with the excellent service delivered by you regarding Skye's swimming lessons. As you know the two blocks of eight, one to one lessons were funded by Fostering Achievement. Your style of teaching suited Skye's personality perfectly. You have a quiet confidence which seemed to quieten Skye's naturally over exuberant nature! You were always well prepared for each lesson, informative about progress and professional in your manner.

At the start and end of each lesson I had the opportunity to observe and I am absolutely delighted with the progress Skye has made. She is now much more confident in water and has now learned to behave more responsibly around water. The bonus to this is the fact that I now have more confidence in taking her swimming with me.

I also had brief conversations with one of your adult pupils and the foster parents of two younger pupils. Everyone agreed that you are an outstanding swimming instructor and equally as important, a thoroughly nice person.

Once again, I would like to thank you most sincerely for the invaluable work you do. I am only sorry to hear you will no longer be teaching in Bangor. We were so looking forward to catching up with you again in September. I wish you all the luck in the future.

Because of a prank at the age of 16 I developed a very real fear of water and never was able to swim.

So at the age of 66 I decided to take the plunge, I was directed to a swimming instructor named Julia Wilson. Julia not only had wonderful patience and understanding for me but gave me more confidence every week and never pressed me too much to put me off.

I began to look forward to my lessons and I can now swim.

I have also observed Julia teaching children and she has a lovely approach to them. I would recommend Julia to anyone adult or child, it has been a wonderful experience.

Thanks so much for all your help, which has made a big difference, now if I could master counting to 3 I'd have the breathing completely sorted.Take care.

You do a great job and are a fantastic teacher.

Hi Julia, I want to thank you so much for your time and patience.

Thanks for all your help, didn't think I'd even be able to float!

Hi Julia, just wanted to thank you on teaching me to swim a few months back, I completed the Iron-man Lanzerote yesterday. Thanks a million.

Hi Julia-We would like to thank you for all you've done for Daniel and the confidence you've given him. Without you he wouldn't be where he is today. 

Thank you so much.

Thank you for your lessons to date, and for your tremendous patience with me, it is much appreciated!!

Thanks again for you excellent teaching and patience.

Dear Julia, I would like to take this opportunity to thank-you for the progress Nikita has made in her swimming ability.

Nikita will really miss her swimming lesson on a Tuesday and on behalf of myself, my wife Lynn and Nikita we wish you every success in the future and if we hear of anyone who is looking for a swimming instructor we will have no hesitation in recommending youself.

Thanks Julia, Emma has really come on well with her swimming and even more with her confidence in the water! Great to see, so glad for your help!

I approached Julia when I found myself about to turn 40 and still unable to swim. Julia was very flexible in arranging lessons to fit in around my own work schedule. The lessons were a great mixture of covering the basics, ongoing revision, and gradual progress at a pace that I was comfortable with. Julia is a great communicator and very patient! Now, I'm really enjoying swimming.

Dear Julia, Just to thank you for such an excellent job you done on restoring Kelvins confidence in the water! He is now very happy in the water and has impressed everyone with his swimming. Your bond and dedication with Kelvin gave him the ability to swim. We wish you all the best in the future and will pass on your details to friends and family!

I have really enjoyed my lessons with you and my technique has improved greatly. Thank you for being such a patient teacher and for making the lessons fun!

A quick note to say that Fintan managed to swim 25 metres at his group swimming lesson last night and I would like to give you credit for this! Even the one lesson with you has made a big difference in terms of him taking his time and having some sense of what he is trying to do with his stroke. So thank you. We are looking forward to the next lesson!

Just wanted to say thank you so much for teaching my two children the basics of swimming. To be able to do what they can already (at aged only 4 and 5) is amazing. They have built up strong foundation skills which they will carry through for the rest of their lives, so am very grateful to you for your time and patience with them, in making them so confident in the water. I will certainly be recommending you to anyone who needs lessons! Thank you so much again.

I'm very happy with my progress, you've been a brilliant teacher and I will definitely recommend you to everyone I know. I've no doubt that I will at some point come back to you to learn some different strokes etc but at the minute I've achieved my goal for holiday's. If there's anything I'm not sure of I'll give u a text to arrange a refresher lesson in between though and thank you for teaching me so well :)

I had never taken professional swimming lessons before, but I found Julia to be an excellent teacher. She managed to explain each of the different strokes and techniques in a clear and concise manner. She took her time to make sure that I understood the purpose of each movement and explained were I was going wrong, and doing things right. In a matter of weeks I had gained confidence in the water and was managing to swim at an extremely competent level. I highly recommend Julia for anyone who is considering taking swimming lessons.

I booked lessons with Julia 4 weeks before my holidays hoping to learn to swim, from the onset she was extremely professional and put me instantly at ease; she worked with my strengths as well as teaching some basic but essential water safety skills. My lessons were structured but fun and I found Julia both informative and encouraging. 

I have just returned from holiday, I swam every morning and night to improve my technique and also played water polo and took part in water aerobics every day, things I couldn't have imagined doing 4 weeks earlier, I cannot recommend Julia highly enough.

Hi Julia, I just wanted to say thank you so much for the one to one swimming lessons with our five year old son Reuben. I am not sure when or how his anxiety developed but the one to one lessons really built his confidence. He also wasn\'t self conscious as there were no other 'pupils' there, which seemed to create anxiety for him before. His technique also came on really quickly as there was focus on him alone for the 30minutes. I highly recommend your swimming instruction.

Thank you so much for teaching my son Daniel what you have so far, swimming is an important life skill i want him to learn and you've been great in building his confidence up in the water and making the lessons fun too. Thank you again for your time effort and patience you have put in good luck in the future.

We are so impressed with the progress Julia made with our son, Fintan. Several months of group classes with other providers had made him almost afraid of being in the water. With much patience and understanding, Julia has got him to the point where he loves to swim and his confidence is high. The one-to-one instruction she provided was ideal for him as he has some difficulties with attention and listening. Thanks so much.

After the death of my mother in 2013 I decided it was time to take the bull by the horns, face my fears, and do what I have wanted to do for many years, learn to swim. As a 45+ year old, though young at heart, woman I thought I would never achieve it. Well I did, with the guidance, patience, and boy did Julia need it, encouragement and professional teaching by you Julia. I know I have a way to go but with all you have taught me I am looking forward to learning more and more. So, for all you scaredy cats like me I most certainly would recommend Julia as a swimming coach who gives 100% to every lesson.

Julia is an extremely skilled and focused swimming teacher. Anna progressed very quickly from being a non-swimmer to being completely confident in the water. She is now able to swim 25m breast stroke, front crawl and back crawl. I am absolutely amazed at her proficiency in all three strokes.

Anna loved her swimming lessons with Julia and she is completely at home in the water, she loves jumping in at the deep end and swimming under water. The one-to-one swimming lessons were terrific in every respect. I highly recommend Julia as a superb swimming teacher.

Hi Julia, I just wanted to thank you for teaching me how to swim and to build my confidence in the water. I had a fear of swimming since primary school days and I'm heading towards the big 50 so I really wanted to conquer my fears and learn to swim properly! I certainly could not have done it without your help and encouragement.

For anyone looking for an excellent teacher I would definitely recommend Julia as a teacher as she gives clear, concise instructions and let's you know where you need to improve and she has the patience of a saint!

Thank you again Julia and all the best for the future.

I would just like to say a big thank you for the swimming lessons over the past 6/7 months. I really enjoyed the one to one lessons which brought me on a great deal. Thanks for your patience and fitting me in as often as possible during your busy schedule, I would strongly recommend Julia as a teacher to anyone taking swimming lessons for the first time or looking to improve their stroke. 

Thank you for everything and all the very best in the future.

At the ripe old age of 51 and with a lot of soul searching and sheer embarrassment-I finally decided I need to learn to swim. I am a father to 2 wonderful girls and having had them taught to swim properly from 5 yrs old-I needed to catch a grip and learn myself.

I got in touch with Julia and from the outset-she has been a great teacher!!

I was genuinely afraid of the usual things in the pool-head under water-floating unaided etc/etc-but with Julia's calm manner and patient coaching she helped me immensely. She is a very natural coach and was very understanding to my needs.

I would highly recommend Julia to anyone wishing to start to swim-believe me-if I can at my age-ANYONE CAN-with Julia's vast experience-YOU WILL learn properly how to swim. Now thanks to her- I go swimming at least 3 times a week with my girls and have even been scuba diving on holiday-all this within a very short time. 

To anybody wishing to see results quickly -do not hesitate to contact Julia Wilson.

Dear Julia, Thank you so much for teaching me how to swim. Even though I can swim now, I dont want to stop going!

I hope you enjoy teaching Niall (my brother) how to swim too. I maybe swimming around too, so will see you again!

I would strongly recommend swimming lessons with Julia for young children. After just one lesson, I could see a difference in my six year old’s understanding of what this swimming-lark was all about. After a course of about 10 lessons, his front crawl is good, his back-stroke is underway and he wants to learn the breast-stroke. He loves lessons with Julia! So, thank you Julia for the work you have done with Fintan! We look forward to working with you again soon!

Many thanks Julia for teaching my daughter to swim. She has gone from having no confidence whatsoever in the water to being confident and capable of swimming several different swimming strokes and has mastered the basics of diving. Just as important, she has thoroughly enjoyed her lessons and has always looked forward to them. You have always made her feel very comfortable, have been very patient with her and most certainly have a gift for teaching in a way which is understood and enjoyed. Being able to swim is an essential life skill and I would highly recommend your one to one coaching for anyone who wants to learn. Many thanks.

Many thanks Julia for teaching both my children to swim. They felt comfortable and relaxed straight away. I am happy to recommend you to friends. Both of them loved the lessons.

As someone who had a fear of the water, I was astounded by the remarkable patience shown from Julia when we first began my One to One lessons. Not only is she skilled in breaking down the movement of a stroke in order to take you through it at your own pace, but almost more importantly is the patience and encouragement she offered with her help and advice, as well as her manner in keeping you composed if it doesn't progress as quickly as you would like. She was able to help me greatly, and I would highly recommend her to anyone considering learning to swim.

Our son started to learn to swim with Julia when he was four. Our son was quiet and wary of strangers and we worried if he would stay with Julia. Julia has such a friendly and warm manner he instantly took to her. As a young child Julia had a lot of patience with him and now he is a confident swimmer. Julia also has a fun side which our son really engaged with. We would recommend Julia to anyone her manner is approachable and professional. Thank you Julia, our youngest child will see you soon!

I would recommend Julia to absolutely anyone who needs a swimming instructor. My 18 year old daughter has mild Cerebral Palsy (right sided hemi paresis), so learning to swim was always going to be challenging for her. Julia has been extremely patient, and my daughter can now swim. Julia also has a great personality, and is simply a nice person, so my daughter found it easy to get along with her and looked forward to her lessons each week. Thanks for everything Julia.

My daughter Jessica was not terribly confident when she began lessons with Julia. Now she can do a range of different strokes, has great confidence in the water and has thoroughly enjoyed her classes. I would have no hesitation in recommending Julia as a swimming teacher- she's done a great job.

I am writing to say thank you so much for helping all of my three children to learn to swim. I have two children with special needs both of whom have autism and other difficulties, and struggle at times to understand instructions and maintain focus. You stuck with them and showed great patience and humour in tailoring the lessons to their level of ability and focus. They both have made significant progress to the extent that now I'm confident with them when we are in the pool or near any water. This has made such a difference to us being able to do things as a family and to go on holiday without having to supervise them constantly in the water. Thank you so much for your patience and time and I wishing every success for the future. I would not hesitate to recommend you as a swimming teacher for all children with special needs or otherwise or indeed anyone is not very confident in the water.

I would recommend Julia to anyone, as a Mum of 2 children who were both not confident in water and especially nervous of deep water Julia really made an effort to help them overcome this. She is extremely pleasant, reliable and professional at all times and I can\'t thank her enough for helping them both learn to love to swim.

All the best for the future Julia,

If you are anything like me, I was afraid to learn to swim. I decided last year to add it to my to do list and this was when I came across Julia Wilson, from my very first lesson I knew that she was the right teacher for me. Her instructions are simple to understand but most of all she is a great at encouraging and has lots of patience. If you are thinking about giving it a gothen get in contact with her, well worth the call

I can whole-heartedly recommend Julia as a great swimming coach. Last year I decided, at the age of 61, that I really wanted to learn to swim. I started with absolutely no confidence in water but with Julia's calm, extremely patient and very encouraging approach I was determined to persevere with the lessons.

Progress was slow. Being able to relax in the pool was much more difficult than I could have imagined but I'm happy to say now, even though I still have more to learn, I am no longer classed as a non-swimmer much to my great delight and, at times, disbelie

When I finally managed to float unaided, face down in water and return safely to standing position the sense of achievement was immense and still is even now. This was very much due to Julia's meticulous method of working through those basic steps in the first few lessons especially when I really needed to gain confidence in water.

If anyone out there has any doubts about their ability to learn to swim, give it a go. Don't hesitate to contact Julia and arrange to have a few lessons. Based on my own experience it is definitely worth it.

I'm in my 30s and I decided to take swimming lessons. A friend recommended that I take lessons with Julia. She is very patient and breaks down the technique of each stroke so that it is easy to understand. Julia is very reliable and worked around my times of availability. I hope to return sometime in the future to learn even more from her. I would recommend Julia as a swimming teacher to anyone.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Julia with the excellent 1 to 1 lessons she took with my son Coby who is only 4 years old. I started the lessons for his 4th birthday and as we were going away on holiday I wanted him to have the confidence in the swimming pool. I could not believe how quickly he came on with Julia and how proud I was off him. Every week he was so excited to go to his lessons. I can honestly say this was the best choice I made for Coby and the confidence he has in the pool. Not only is he confident in the pool but Julia has taught him proper breathing and he can now swim front crawl and back crawl across the pool. Julia is an excellent teacher with a lot of experience. She is friendly and very patience and puts in a lot of hard work. And will always meet your needs. I would highly recommend you book with her if you want to have the best ability in the water. Once again Julia Thank You so much for everything. I will not hesitate to get in touch with you again.

Before my daughter Lola started lessons with Julia she wouldn't even dare to put her face near the water and was very anxious when in the pool. By the end of the first lesson with Julia she was happily submerging her whole head, I couldn't believe it! Since then she has come on leaps and bounds and is now swimming front crawl, back crawl, and breaststroke. Julia has also worked on developing her confidence in deeper water. I would highly recommend Julia as a swim teacher. She has a lovely calm and reassuring presence in the pool.

A while back I was looking for a swimming teacher who had the experience to teach me swimming technique as I enjoy learning about this aspect of swimming. I’m 43 years old. I was very glad to have found Julia through her website. She is very patient and reliable, and I have really enjoyed the lessons with her over the past 12 months. She helped me improve my front crawl, back crawl, breaststroke and taught me the butterfly. I would completely recommend Julia to anyone wishing to learn how to swim or learn more about swimming technique.

I never learnt how to swim as a child and then developed a fear of the water. However as an adult I decided to learn so as not to pass on this fear to my children. Julia was very patient and took me from being nervous getting in to the pool through to being able to put my head in the water, float, kick, front crawl and breathing techniques. I have now reached the stage that I can swim a full length of the pool and actually enjoy going swimming. This would not have been possible without Julia teaching one-to-one with her relaxed friendly style, patience, attention to detail and lots of encouragement throughout. I can strongly recommend Julia whether you are learning to swim or just looking to improve your technique.

Hello. And Bye.