The former Wales loosehead prop was appointed as the new scrum coach at Rodney Parade earlier this month, following the departure of Danny Wilson to the Scarlets.
Thomas had been weighing up a playing move to the Dragons before a neck injury ended his career but he still aims to pass on his knowledge of the dark arts in the scrum.
“Everyone has different philosophies and ideas,” said the 33-times capped prop.
“Hopefully the boys are getting used to my way of thinking.
“I know that what I am telling them works because I have done it for the last 15 years.
“I’ve got a lot of experience, have learnt a lot from some very good coaches and have done exactly what I am asking them to do.
“A lot of what I will be telling them is stuff that has been taught to me over the years and I know that it works.
“If we can get it in place then I am sure we will be a good scrummaging unit.
“Nothing is going to happen overnight. It will take time to get to where we want to be but the boys’ work ethic is fantastic and I think that we have started to make some progress.”
The Dragons scrum was an area of weakness last season and they are sure to be tested by new Italian franchise Zebre on the opening weekend of RaboDirect PRO12 action.
But Thomas is confident he has plenty of potential and talent at his disposal.
“I’ve been brought here to tighten up the set piece, provide a platform for us to play off and also develop some of the young props so that they can push for international honours,” added Thomas.
“There is some real potential here and competition across the front row. If I can help them brush up a few things and improve by 10 per cent then it’ll be a job done well.
“We have some very good individuals in our squad and we need to come together as a collective and force our way forward as an eight.
“The boys are big enough, strong enough and fit enough; perhaps it’s just putting the technical pieces into place so that we can take what we do in training onto the pitch.
“It’s not rocket science. As long as we do things as an eight and work as a unit we can get a positive outcome.”
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