a conscientious and highly effective teacher

I’ve been taught Alexander Technique, ergonomic good practice, Swimming, and Tai Chi by Jonathan Drake over the past 25 years, seeking him out to help with occupational strains on my body, to learn to swim with ease and pleasure, and to help with congenital issues causing the aches and pains of my body ageing. Jonathan is always attentive and highly capable, addressing problems specific to one’s needs. I now live largely without tension and pain, have been on epic sea swimming holidays, and continue to explore Tai Chi at the high levels Jonathan teaches. He is a teacher par excellence!

Great

Jonathan is great, kind, gentle, patient, knowledgeable, a great teacher, he has given me skills and confidence in the water that I thought I would never master. I would highly recommend having lessons with Jonathan he has completely changed my swimming experience.

Utterly Life Changing

Having regular lessons with Jonathan is a must for any Alexander Technique student.

Jonathan is extremely patient and supportive, always providing clear instructions, guidance and explanations around the Technique. His passion and conviction are contagious, developing into a wholly experiential practise.

The surest way to be certain of the Alexander Technique benefits is to work with Jonathan, the results of which rapidly become palpable.

Jonathan changed my life by giving me the knowledge of how to maintain posture and balance thereby eliminating severe back pain of over forty years.

Thank you, Jonathan.

Tai Ch’i Classes

Jonathan is an excellent teacher who imparts his wealth of experience and knowledge in a clear but very practical way. His lessons are fun as well, well structured, and ‘life transforming’ because they also focus on ‘softening exercises’ which enhance the practice and learning of the Tai Ch’i form. Good for body and mind!

Outstanding

I decided to take swimming lessons with Jonathan to improve my limited swimming ability. I never even had the confidence to put my head underwater while swimming but thanks to Jonathan I can now swim the breaststroke properly. He has also significantly improved my backstroke and I am now learning the front crawl with him. He was very considerate and sensitive to my concerns and with a clear, calm, patient and understanding manner has enabled me to make considerable progress. His demonstration and application of Alexander techniques to swimming has been a revelation in improving my swimming.

Change your life – learn Alexander Technique

Alexander Technique has radically changed the way I think about and use my body. Since being taught by Jonathan Drake I have learned afresh how to carry out such everyday movements as sitting down, standing up, walking around, reading a book, writing and typing, driving and cycling – in fact everything that you normally do in a day’s physical activity. You learn how to work with your body rather than thoughtlessly (and lazily) straining against it and unwittingly impairing your physical fitness. Jonathan is the best teacher of Alexander Technique I have had. He explains clearly what you are doing wrong and how you can release tension to use your muscles more naturally and effectively. Learning Alexander Technique involves discipline and practice to get your body used to the new way of thinking. Lessons are necessary to keep you on the right track until you are confident in what you are doing. But it is a life changer, no less!

Better posture, relaxation techniques and so much more during pregnancy and birthing

I visited Jonathan when pregnant to address my changing posture and accumulated tension. What I gained was so much more: better natural posture and movement as well as relaxation techniques I use often in daily life. The techniques I learned with him have improved everything from walking and swimming to my yoga practice. Along with his book I learned the postures and gained the body awareness needed to aid me to have the natural home birth I so wanted for my baby and I.

100% recommend lessons with Jonathan

Like many others, I learnt to swim breast-stoke at primary school and then I tucked it away. I viewed swimming as dull just a repetitive up and down in a pool. Then about four years ago I took a course of lessons with Jonathan on recommendation from a colleague. I started with breast stoke so my stroke could be vastly improved, and then progressed to front crawl (or freestyle) which I had no previous knowledge of. The lessons were an absolute life changer for me. Jonathan breaks down the strokes bit by bit so you can individually learn each piece and finally put it all together into a beautiful safe stroke to avoid injury and maintain it over long periods. I went from absolutely no swimming to finding an absolute love of pools. Now I’ve progressed to outdoor wild swimming, mainly enjoying sea swimming, but also rivers and lakes, including all winter through and the length of Lake Coniston at 5.25 miles. All of this thanks to Jonathan’s lessons – possibly the best thing I’ve ever done.

Tai Chi Class

I joined Jonathan’s Tai Chi beginners class, somewhat sceptically on a ‘let’s give it a try’ basis, after my wife had been going for a year. I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised. It’s good to be able to go beyond simple movement and exercise to discover something deeper that Tai Chi has to offer – a recognition that you can slow down and look at life differently. Jonathan’s great strength lies in teaching you how to do it in a way that gives you maximum benefit.
PeterH

Successful resolution back pain

The treatment I received for back pain was very helpful and ultimately resolved the problem. Advice about improving posture and movement in a variety of work and leisure activities has proved really useful and I feel stronger as a result .

As above.

I really enjoyed my sessions. To this day I still practice some of the techniques I was taught and feel this helps with all aspects of my life both physically and mentally.
Thank you.

Amazing Alexander Technique and swimming teacher

I’m from Switzerland and a year ago I was looking for an Alexander Teacher who was applying the Technique to sports (especially running and swimming) and who could also teach Shaw method of swimming. That’s how I came across Jonathan’s website and booked a week of lessons with him. It was an amazing time ! He’s a very skilled and patient teacher, giving precise explanations and demonstrations, offering most helpful guidance and always adapting his teaching to my needs and wishes. The many inputs he gave me during my week in Norwich allowed me to continue training and progressing on my own for months after. I was finally able to run a half-marathon and to swim front crawl – and this is thanks to Jonathan’s teaching. I was so happy with it that I came again to Norwich for another week of lessons last summer… and am planning to come again in the future! In one word: I most definitely recommend him !

Good use and effortless swimming with Jonathan Drake .

I have had several lessons with Jonathan Drake in the Shaw Technique of swimming, which is based on the principles of the Alexander Technique, emphasising good form, fluidity and ease of movement. I can honestly say that for the first time in my swimming life I have felt that I can enjoy a stress- free experience of gliding through the water without fatigue and can enjoy swimming as a meditative activity as well as a sport. Jonathan himself is a living example of the Technique in every activity that he teaches and I encourage anyone who takes up swimming, rowing , Tai Chi or running to also takes some Alexander lessons to experience what truly good use and function of the body should feel like. I plan to continue my swimming lessons as well as Alexander work with Jonathan- he is a great example of how to apply good use to any activity.

Improvement of lifestyle

It may sound like common sense when described with such patience and good humour , when if fact we have ignored obvious good practice , most likely for many years without awareness of body damage that has been building up .
Hopefully Jonathan’s clients manage to make good use of a lifetime’s dedication to well being and improvement possibilities in understanding of movement functions for which we have been designed .
I will not be recognised as the client swimming round the pool in circles using only one arm , but fully recommend Jonathan where discomfort of movement and lifestyle needs attention and correction .