When a long-standing client of personal trainer Jack Smith suggested he should consider training children and teenagers, the 24-year-old could never have predicted how much the initial experiment would take off.

Working in the heart of a town blighted recently by stories of badly-behaved youngsters repeatedly running riot - the former supermarket worker tells senior reporter Lauren Abbott he’s discovered there is plenty to be positive about when it comes to young people in the town.

When I speak to Jack Smith days before Christmas, he’s in the middle of completing a government course about special needs and learning difficulties.

Not because he needs another career alongside his full time job at Snap Fitness in Sittingbourne, but because since welcoming children into the gym he’s keen to learn all he can about the ways he can best support some of them.

It was a regular client that first suggested Jack, who plays football for Faversham Strike Force, could branch into sharing his personal training skills with youngsters - putting forward his own offspring as potential test cases.

Initial sessions were conducted, all the feedback was great and within a few weeks, with the help of social media, word rapidly spread.

Since July and those early classes, Jack estimates he’s now had upwards of 50 to 60 children through the doors - his youngest customer aged just four who came along with an older sibling to enjoy some age-appropriate indoor games.

Some children are already heavily into sports like boxing or football - including a handful competing at very high levels as signed academy players for some of the biggest men’s and women’s professional football clubs.

Others, without a particular hobby, want to get fitter or do something fun and productive with their time.

There are young clients with ADHD or autism who have struggled to fit into sports in other settings and are thriving on the one-to-one input Jack can offer.

And there are also those to have been brought in by parents looking for ways to improve their children’s confidence or boost their mental health.

More recently entire sports teams have also asked to bring their young squads into the gym for fun, motivational fitness classes under Jack’s expert guidance.

Sessions are paid for hourly but young clients don’t need to have a Snap monthly membership to book.

He said: “Mental health is a big topic at the moment.

“I had a young girl come down, she wasn’t really into any sport.

“And this is what I say to anyone after the first session - I sort of guarantee you’ll feel like a different person.

“This girl was shy at the start, but her confidence grew and she still trains with me now.”

Jack’s work has become so popular in just a few months, that a range of JS Performance Training branded items is also in its infancy - with the kids wearing hoodies, tshirts, hats and snoodies with pride.

“They feel like they belong” he added. “It makes them sort of part of a club.”

Jack, who lives in neighbouring Teynham, is acutely aware of the reputation Sittingbourne has developed in the last year - where a steady stream of low level anti-social behaviour incidents has affected residents, traders and visitors.

In March 2024, football pitches at Sittingbourne FC’s Woodstock ground were churned up by a group on off-road motorcycles who rode roughshod over the grass.

In June, water was sprayed at medical staff in East Street as they wiped paint from a wall and in August, an automatic door was smashed and cars were egged at nearby Sainsbury’s.

At the end of November a dispersal order had to be put in place at the local retail park after McDonald’s workers were headbutted and punched during a weekend of disorder by youths, which followed trouble caused by a group at the Christmas lights switch-on in the town a few weeks previously.

And earlier this month a KentOnline reporter went into Sittingbourne town centre to witness issues after dark for himself - where hooded children as young as 10 were seen targeting drivers and cars going through the one-way system.

Despite the disappointing reputation some of the town’s youths have attracted of late, Jack says every child and teenager to have come into Snap Fitness has been nothing but ‘100% respectful’ of both the facilities and the equipment and the paying adult members also there working out’.

He said: “The kids like coming into an adult environment.

“You do have to be strict with it. They come in, I greet them in - so I always make sure when they come in with their parent I’m at the desk waiting for them.

“We don’t want kids just coming in and roaming around.

“We want it to be a respectful environment because at the end of the day there are adults paying for their membership and it’s important the kids understand that.

“I do tour them around the gym - show them this is the adult area, and that we’re going to be in this area. And make that clear at the start.”

Jack credits Snap, and his manager, for embracing such a unique concept back in the summer and for allowing children into what has traditionally been a place only for those aged 16 and over and putting all the right measures in place.

He said: “It is safe, if you do it right with good technique. Teaching kids early - professionally - the right way for when they leave school or are at school - they’ll know what they’re doing.

“That’s such a big thing as well, giving them an education on what’s right in the gym and what’s wrong in the gym.”

He says the experience so far has ‘added another layer’ to him as a person and enabled him to meet some exceptionally dedicated and talented children, who are committed to working hard at sport, regularly putting in long hours around school and homework.

“There is local talent in this town,” Jack explained.

“I don’t think people realise what they’re doing.

“A lot of people don’t realise, all the travelling they’re doing, all the hours they’re putting in.

“And not just at football, at other sorts of sports, at after-school clubs, that all adds up as well.

“They’re dedicated.”

However since mixing with more young families, Jack, who has been a PT for almost four years, says it’s also very apparent how hard it can be to regularly find older children something to do locally with good facilities.

Last year cash-strapped Kent County Council (KCC) announced £1 million of funding cuts for youth services to help it balance its books and claw back money for essential services.

In December, Newhouse Table Tennis Club in Sittingbourne said it was looking for a new home because of the closure of their council-owned facility - the Newhouse Sports & Youth Centre - which is believed to soon be going on the market.

But ultimately, something which Jack admits he initially thought hard about starting, has turned out to be an extremely worthwhile move.

“I wasn’t hesitant, but I wasn’t sure how it would work with the gym and I did think ‘is this a route I want to go down?’

“But I now have people texting me from Beckenham, from London, wanting to come down during half terms.

“I’ve had people come from Chartham near Canterbury and Bexleyheath way.

“I started this because I wanted to help kids achieve.

“Some of the kids want to be professionals and I’d love to play a part in that.”