MEET and GREET WITH SWIM COACH ALEX OUT OF BOCA RATON, FL!

everybody this is Coach Alex and Coach Alex is in bokeh he's not far from me which I did not know that I feel like he with held this information from me so I'm very upset about that no but um before we go any further um why don't you tell us a a little bit about your program uh how you got started you know just you know nothing too deep just summarize it and uh we can go from there yeah um so I'm a oneman show um I've been for the last I would say 16 years I've been teaching privately at people's homes I go by swim with Alex you know I don't have I don't have much I don't have an Instagram page with it I don't have a website because knock on wood I've been lucky enough to never need them to Market you know I've always been word of mouth and I've always been full um and and and that yeah I mean that's I guess when it comes to my program it that's that's my program is I I teach from six months up to adults but mainly two years old and I go to people's homes and that's that's really what I offer right now how did how did you get started like what was um I I know you're telling it to me earlier but yeah for everybody watching yeah so I I when I was uh when I was 12 years old I was hired as a CIT for a local Swim School uh quality swimming uh the owner I was it was a family friend so she she you know I grew up going her around she said hey at 12 years old you're gonna come to the pool and work for me and and it never it never stopped I mean she she was amazing we're still friends she has taught me everything that that I know and I've I've been so grateful for her and and and lucky that I was able to get under her Wing because she she's I there's no words I mean she's amazing when it comes to the swim school and that's um and you're you're talking about Coach Andy yeah yeah she is amazing and uh you know it's funny you said that um she told me when I was 12 I was coming to the pool and you know I've known her now for just just under a year and I could easily see her doing that like oh yeah you're coming and you're gonna work for me and this is how it's GNA go yes yes I mean that's how she is I mean that's how she is with anybody she tells you exactly how it is and and um and you learn from it you know i' I've learned so much from her that's so awesome man um and yeah she she is planning on joining the community too which is awes it is super exciting we will all be super honored to to have her in here and to hear from her and and just listen to her stories of owning a business for so long how long did she own quality swimming here how long was that um I would say she owned it about 25 maybe 30 years and then she sold it and then she started the the Su consultant business but now she goes worldwide and just consult Swim Schools and I think that's amazing I mean imagine doing that when you're retired and done teaching so tell me a little bit about your program like what's the um what uh type of lessons do you do do you do like once a week twice a week what what's tell me a little bit about so I'm more of a traditional um approach and I think as of like recently like I would say the last three years I've been changing a little bit to more survival but for the most part I'm more traditional once a week 30 minutes lots of games lots of singing um you know just easy and slow pace and kind of gain the the child's trust and and I feel like once we have that connection we make jumps you know we we we jump through these skills I mean it might be lesson five right but then once I gain the child's trust um that's that's kind of what I'm waiting for and and once I know I can I I can I can push then that's that's when we go through those hard skills but now recently honestly I've because of the the pressure from parents and because of I honestly because of social media I I feel like I mean the videos are out there babies floating you know you got a huge following you and Michel Patrol got a huge following so I mean these parents are watching these these instructors um make leaps and and doing getting these results quickly so I've had to Pivot a little bit you know I've had to I've had to change a little bit and and maybe sing a little less play a little less and and hit those hit those skills you know um so I'm kind of and I'm enjoying it actually I'm enjoying it I'm seeing the results um awesome yeah and the parents are loving it yeah it's funny that you bring up um that you've had to Pivot um because that's interesting you know I I think that you know that's it's it's kind of almost the reason I started making videos now that the original reason I started making videos was because a parent on Facebook was looking for a course this was during covid um how to teach their because nobody could go anywhere you know so they were their house but then like the more I did it I realized that like I'm I'm setting a standard you know what I mean like there should be some expectations for swim lessons I'm not saying what you're doing was not good like don't don't uh mies up what I'm saying but like there is coaches out there that don't do anything yeah they don't coach the kids like they they get them swimming but like maybe a couple years down the road or or they just let the child lead the whole way and you know what that might fit for some families but like here in Florida where we are at that's not going to fly you know it's not gonna fly so you know we got to save the kids we got to keep them safe and uh you know we need results not not immediately but you know within a month or two months you should be getting something there should be you should be able to swim back to the wall at least you know yes yes um and you know it's funny when people always call me too to sign up for my parent and me class I offer parent and Me classes in West Palm Tuesday Thursday you said that you sing a lot and the first thing I tell them is listen I'm not a singing song coach I can make up a song if you want me to yes but I teach with love I still teach her the love I just that's just not my style that's just not I think I need more singing though so I'm gonna what though I I think with singing I find myself with singing and especially with group classes and especially with parent and classes it almost Blends the Les Blends your skills your your lesson plan you know it the lesson plan almost goes by the songs and then you know what's funny is that these parents learn these songs and then next thing you know they're singing the songs at home and then the kids are asking to sing the songs I mean I had a mom text me the other day she's like hey my daughter just wants to swim but with your songs you won't do it without your songs what songs are you singing and so yeah I think it it really helps me kind of like blend my lesson plan together and it just meshes well well and you're so right a children learn through songs they learn through play and they learn through through love they learn for real if you truly love them you will teach them and you will find the path to get there and like I said you know I I need get better am I seeing okay so tell me yeah tell me a story like what's like I don't know I know this will be super difficult but like one amazing story that you have like maybe of a kid turning around from beer to to swimming or anything any maybe a kid saved his life or something what do you got something cool um yeah I mean it is tough I've been teaching a long time and I probably have a lot but the ones that always stick out and unfortunately I don't I don't do as much with special needs but whenever I get the opportunity to work with special needs and um it it could be anything right I mean yeah autism is is the the most popular one that we all work with but anything and you just feel when you when you you go home after that lesson you can't stop thinking about that child right and then as you go through the swim lesson and you and weeks go by and you see progression and you hear the the mom saying hey my child is doing so much better in therapy now after swim lessons can we schedule swim lessons before therapy so my son can do better in therapy um can you know he's speaking now more he's putting words together now because of swim lessons I don't know how that all works and I'm sure there's a science behind it not smart enough to know why and how but um that's the feedback that I've gotten and that's that's probably one of the best um stories that that I have is is whenever you work with special needs it's it's it's beautiful you know it is yeah and you know what those parents are the most thankful yeah and that you know we we witnessed that um in our in our business about a year ago we how thankful these parents really were and we we really considered just only doing special needs kids for a while like man you know like because we we deal with so many families and yes the other families are thankful too but like man it's so different and so I I really resonate with that and understand what you're saying what value have you found in the community and what um you know what what do you expect um in the the time to come uh for the community is there anything that you'd want to see more of or what what can yeah I I think um I think this is this community is on a on a really good track I think um I think there's so many possibilities you know I I when I walk my dog it's like my time to think and I'm I'm constantly thinking like what what can we do as a community to to like engage all of us you know together do swim lessons together learn from each other um you know I I feel like sometimes Swim Schools think that they're um you know kind of like competing against each other but I feel like there's so many kids yeah and so many families and there's endless amounts of pools in Florida there's so many pools that yeah there's no competition there's just learning from each other you know um and and yeah I I I'd love to share some ideas of of what of what we can do as a community to to yeah learn more you know learn as much as we can you know and teach younger instructors you know that's the idea teach the younger instructors um I've been trying well that's why I've been using social media to try to to try to get them in there and try to just talk to them through direct messages show them the opportunities for learning you know they got to choose it just like we had to choose it you know we had to choose this career path it definitely wasn't my plan here I am yeah I wasn't put into it at 12 you know I I was put into it at 24 just because I didn't have enough money to do other things and I started teaching swim on the side and then one thing led to another and I really realized hey man I really like this like this is cool I could do this for like 30 years you know and so anyway you can tell you have a passion I mean that you can't you can't hide that and once you find your passion that you it doesn't become a job now you're just following your passion and and fulfilling it you know and I see that in YouTube man like I your passion I can tell you love it and again I I I watched that video that you posted of you having the kid jump in turn and grab the wall I watched it like five times I'm like hey man if if it wasn't you know it looks like me in the matter like hey yeah yeah we're all doing the same thing that's that's been great we're all it's it's almost like uh you're you're you're you're like okay I'm I'm doing a good job because I'm not the only one doing this you know especially especially with me and instructors that are working by themselves you know we have some instructors in this community that are like in the middle of nowhere like I don't know I'd forget her name but she she was posted and I'm like there's there there's gota like she probably doesn't work with any other people this is this is probably her only opportunity to to learn from others as well yeah well well it's a lonely business it really is it's a lonely business just all you do is teach kids and then you go home and you're freaking exhausted and yeah if there's no one to chat about with it it's It's Tricky and and it's hard too if you if you're an owner if you're the business owner man it's and especially if you start like bringing on like staff and other things like that it's just more and more stress I'm really thankful to have my wife I tell you that I'm very thankful your wife also teaches right she does yeah I wouldn't she loves it she's really good at it she always says like well this isn't my passion but then then she'll come home and she'll tell me about each individual kid how they did how they handled this how they handled that so it's like maybe it's your passion every other day like yeah yeah that's super that's cool though