"Swim towards me," Kerry Sullivan said, standing in the shallow end of the Waterford High School pool.

Her four students looked at the Waterford Parks and Recreation program coordinator with fear in their eyes.

Sullivan has been teaching the swim class for adults on a volunteer basis for the Waterford Parks and Recreation for more than 10 years and the look on her students' faces wasn't going to put her off.

"Ok, Paul, let's see what you can do," she said.

The man pushed off from the bottom of the pool and, with quite a bit of effort and splashing, covered a few feet of water.

Sullivan brushed some water from her forehead and made him do it again.

"Try to look straight ahead this time, where you're going," she said.

After everyone had demonstrated their best forward crawl, the class gathered in a circle. Suddenly, swimming class sounded more like a therapy session.

"The toughest thing is going to be staying calm and having confidence in yourself," Sullivan said. "That's the important part — learn to relax."

With the coaching over, it was back to putting their faces in the water.

"Now remember, it's not a race," Sullivan said as she watched her students splash and splutter across the sea of chlorine. She liked what she saw: "It's so much better already."

Chad Wu started the class floating on his back, wiggling slightly as Sullivan held him up and spoke in soothing tones.

Wu, 37, said he has learned to swim as a child, but had never gotten quite comfortable with being in the water.

"I think it's a good life lesson to learn how to swim," Wu said. "I never got over the hump of learning."

Now, as an adult, Wu said he felt confident getting back into the pool.

"I'm not so afraid anymore," he said.

Sullivan said in the more than a decade that she's been teaching the class, she's taught people who just want to refine their technique, "the ones who come out against the wall," and everyone in between.

Only one student that she can remember was unteachable: "I taught him how to float on his back but on his stomach he sank," she said.

Sullivan taught him to push himself off the bottom of the pool if he ever fell into the deep end, a technique Sullivan's father once used himself when he jumped into a pool trying to save a drowning child despite not knowing how to swim.

Many of Sullivan's students are retired people who have realized they want to be able to swim with their grandchildren or fully enjoy beach vacations.

"They want to go to the Carribean, they want to go places where they can swim," Sullivan said.

Her current batch of students already have the basics down, and need some technique help although "all three of the men have a sinking problem."

Diane Mullen, 70, got through the class without too much splashing, but said she never learned "how to swim properly."

She said her first class with Sullivan gave her renewed confidence. "I loved the slow start," she said.

Mullen said she wants to be able to swim for exercise and do more at the beach than float and "look at things in the water."

"I've got to start learning some new things," she said.

Swimming is one of the many activities the parks department offers to residents. Activities include fitness and cooking classes for adults and life guard lessons and cookies swaps for youths. For more information call the parks department at (860) 444-5881 or (860) 444-5882.

m.shanahan@theday.com