Jonas to this day remains one of my key mentors, not just professionally but in life, and I think that is a true marker of someone who has had clearly a big impact on your world. I started working with Jonas in 2015, first as an intern, then as a paid member of staff. I came to him following my time working as a PT and spending time in British Sailing. He opened my world to doing things differently. The three key things I took from my time with Jonas are:
1. the importance of understanding the human that’s in front of you and how they tick in order to get the most out of them.
2. knowing what you are chasing and keep that central but be flexible in your approach to remain adaptable to the complex problem that is human performance.
3. the value of spending time deconstructing basic athletic movements central to most sports, and developing a coaching eye doing so. This skill is actually quite rare in strength and conditioning practitioners.

I have had the pleasure to know Jonas for close to 15 years now and have worked with him in a variety of roles and functions. I have served on coaching staffs, coaching education committees, research teams, outreach programs and mentoring roles with this enterprising educator. During my 47 years as an educator and facilitator, I have been blessed to teach around the world and develop countless athletes and coaches in a wide array of sporting disciplines at the highest levels. In my extensive history of work I have found that there are certain folks that have the gift for leading and teaching of which Jonas merits the very highest of rankings. This individual is a consummate professional and a lifelong learner. He has a tireless work ethic, is loyal to the highest degree, and knows how to work within roles assigned to him. His experiences are very broad based and involve stops at almost every level of coaching possible. I think his greatest strengths are the possession of a unique drive for excellence and a patience of development with those he works with and beside. In terms of coaching expertise, his record of achievement speaks for itself. While not always given the blue chip athlete he has done remarkably well in producing both international and national level performers at every stop on his career ladder.

Speedworks have had a dramatic and lasting effect on how we do strength and conditioning for football. Building efficient and elastic players has become easier through the use of specific drills and resisted runs. The speedworks framework has allowed us to develop underpinning qualities for hamstring health through specific actions. This is an efficient way to train the players as season where we are limited in the dose of training we can actually do.

I’ve been learning from Jonas since 2015 when I started working with the US olympic teams. His technical model helped me navigate through programming , loading, and technical Cueing for my professional athletes. These past three months Jonas helped me develop my NFL Combine training program that produced 75% of our athletes in the top 5 for their position. The combination of video feedback, late night phone calls, and advice on loading helped us become a top training camp in the US.

Jonas is a brilliant coach - he has a unique ability to quickly develop rapport with his players and operates with a strong methodology. He has good observation skills which make him a great staff member to have on board.

Jonas is a trusted friend and confidant - it’s so important to have colleagues that have a growth mindset, whom you can lean on for advice and at times challenge your beliefs in becoming a better coach and person.

Spending a year working with Jonas and the Speedworks team is one of the most valuable learning experiences in my career to date. Immersion in an environment of elite sprinters, coaches and practitioners, alongside the conversations I was able to have with Jonas around his coaching philosophies and processes, has had a huge impact on my perspective of developing athletes from all sports.* *Jonas has a great balance between a practical, experienced-based approach alongside having close contact with leading evidence-based researchers in the area of sprint training, as well as having significant experience himself of working alongside, and learning from, other world-leading coaches. All of this had an influence on his programmes and approaches with his athletes which he was constantly tweaking and updating. This outlook and manner of learning and working in itself is one that is representative of many great coaches. I particularly enjoyed conversations with Jonas where he would critique what may be popular opinion or the opinion of leading researchers and other coaches, and apply his own experience to come up with an approach that he believed would be best for the particular athletes he was working with at that particular time.* *The results Jonas has had with his athletes speaks for itself. There is no sport as testing as athletics in terms of exposing the physical, technical, tactical and psychological understanding of the coach. In output-based sports such as sprinting, and especially events as short as 100m, there is nowhere to hide if your athlete isn’t in the peak physical and technical condition they need to be. Jonas has proven his expertise time and time again, with multiple athletes over a number of years in various competitions.

Working with Jonas has given me all the cornerstones of my speed training philosophy for the players I have worked with at London Irish, Bath and now Toulouse. His influence on me as a coach has been huge. It is not often you think of someone younger than you as a mentor but Jonas is one of the first I call if there is an aspect of my programme that is not functioning as I’d like it to. His advice is always direct and extends far beyond the remit of speed development. I have no doubt that engaging with Jonas in any format will enhance you as an individual coach and have a marked effect on any team you are involved with. In truth, I’d rather not tell everyone how good he is!!

Working in the rehab sector of professional rugby, running and speed mechanics are absolutely crucial to producing faster, more powerful athletes at the end of our process. Jonas has been instrumental in helping me develop my philosophy around all things speed; from understanding how to adequately prepare athletes for the demands of speed development, to my coaches eye and how to fine tune movement. His ability to simplify complex movement problems and articulate objectives to both athlete and coach are second to none. If running and speed is your interest, I can not recommend Jonas high enough to elevate your practise to the next level!

Working in the rehab sector of professional rugby, running and speed mechanics are absolutely crucial to producing faster, more powerful athletes at the end of our process. Jonas has been instrumental in helping me develop my philosophy around all things speed; from understanding how to adequately prepare athletes for the demands of speed development, to my coaches eye and how to fine tune movement. His ability to simplify complex movement problems and articulate objectives to both athlete and coach are second to none. If running and speed is your interest, I can not recommend Jonas high enough to elevate your practise to the next level!