Sandwich Aquatic School

SANDWICH — The Sandwich Aquatic School has tought many thousands of people, children and adults, how to swim. Al Switzer, who founded the business 50 years ago as a summer break from his collegiate coaching career, has a particular style, and not every child responds to it in a positive manner. He stands by his teaching philosophy, though, and he has story after story that assure him that he's got a good thing going.

One story in particular, though, stands out for Switzer. He taught all children from a large family how to swim over a period of several years, and one of the boys in that family, "Chuckie," disliked the lessons so strongly that he would often climb out of the pool and sprint across the yard – only to be corraled by staff members and returned to the water. He finally submitted himself to the lessons, but only after he was convinced that there would be no escape.

Many summers later, Chuckie returned to watch his younger sister's lesson. Afterward, he approached Switzer with a gift: a badge he had earned after training to be a helicopter rescue swimmer – someone who is lowered into the arctic surf to rescue fishermen who get washed overboard.

"This is not play time," Switzer said of his lessons, which are offered to students as young as three-and-a-half. "This is the first organized class they're going to have. And, by the end of the two weeks here, they all go off the side of the diving board and motor their way over to the side (of the pool)."

Switzer's style is something of an earlier era. He doesn't coddle his students, instead, he lets them know his expectations for them. He is confident in his program, and he makes it known to his students that he is confident in them. Chuck Thorndike, of Meredith, is well familiar with the Switzer style. His experience with the Sandwich Aquatic School began decades ago, when he and his wife took adult swimming lessons there. Since then, their children, and their grandchildren, have also been in and out of Switzer's pool.

Thorndike said, "We've got a couple or three generations – both Karen and I took lessons from him. That's when I really learned how to swim. Then we had our kids, two kids went. Their children went... We brought a lot of other people to Switzer's as a result of the success we had."

Switzer can sometimes be interpreted as "gruff," said Thorndike, but he's really communicating his expectations to his students in an efficient manner.

"I think he's developed a way that gets through to children from a younger age. Those younger years are difficult to coach. He's understood the psychology that gets children beyond a fear level, that they're able to take in the coaching that he provides. He exudes a level of confidence... He's just got a nice easy manner with them. He might sound gruff, but his manner with them in the water, moving their hands and wrists and feet, building that muscle memory and building good swimming technique.

"He has a firm style, but he has a way of reinforcing what he's done. He says to his kids, you're doing a good job. It might sound gruff, but the words are there. A high-five here and there, and a squirt of water tops it off."

He tells his students when they need to improve something, and he lets them know when they've improved, said Thorndike.

"Once the kids get a comfort range in the water, a lot melts away in terms of what people might see as gruffness or fear of the water." Thorndike said his favorite part of Switzer's lessons is the last day of the beginner session, when the young children line up, shivering with anticipation,  They look forward to jumping off the diving board for the very first time. Doesn't get any better than that.