Eric and his brother Jason both started club swimming at the age of 10 before moving to Massachusetts for high school. Over the summers they attended FM’s summer camp and learned a lot, which they applied back to their swimming during the season. He went on to drop substantial time, and went to Massachusetts State Champs his sophomore through senior year, senior year he was elected team captain along with his brother. He went on to attend Grinnell College in Iowa for four years to get a BA in psychology.

Collegiate Swimming Highlights at Grinnell College (Div III)

• Voted “Most Improved” Freshman year after dropping over 2 minutes in the 1650 and getting all personal best at conference meet
• 4x Mid-West Conference Finalist
• Voted Team Captain Senior year

Post-College Highlights

• 2nd in age group in 2013 Fat Salmon (3.2 miles)
• 3rd in age group at 2012 USAT Aquathon National Championship, qualifier for ITU World
  Aquathon Championship
• 5th overall in 2013 Martha lake (2 mile open water race)
• competed in sprint and olympic distance triathlons

During the summers while he was attending Grinnell, he began working with Fluid Mechanics to assist them with their summer camps. After college he became a FM consultant, and would work with John in further developing FM’s technique program which he still does to this day.
In addition Eric Thumma took over as head coach of Storm Aquatics in fall of 2018, after acting as an assistant coach for 4 years. Storm Aquatics is a growing USA swimming club team out of Lake Stevens, Washington.