Dolphin Academy Swim School

We spent a lot of money and time at this place trying to get my kid ready to swim or at least survive around water. After at least six months, I don’t feel we are closer and the process is so slow. It may create a false sense of safety around water, which is more dangerous.

The facility is clean and convenient, staff is friendly, the pool and changing areas are comfortably warm. However, I am embarrassed to admit how much time and $$$$ our family has wasted bringing my kid here to try to learn to swim, without any success. The method they use may work for some children but it did not work for our child. Other than that one method, they had nothing else to offer. The instructors, although they were very nice, did not seem motivated at all in getting my child to swim independently. Of the 30 minutes long lesson, children were only spending a few minutes total each on swimming, and the rest of the time they were sitting at the edge and chatting. After almost 2 years of weekly lessons, my child was still not any closer to knowing how to swim then when he started. We then finally switched to the YMCA swim classes where after only 3 weeks (2 weeks of group lessons and 2 private lessons) my child is now able to swim across the pool all on his own.

The staff is wonderful and the facility is clean! Our daughter is 3 years old and has always refused to put her head anywhere near water. However, after 3 sessions at Dolphin Academy she is completely submerging her head! It was like a flip of a switch. Now she is in the Tadpole class swimming on her own without our assistance and she is learning so fast. if you want your child to excel this is the academy for you.

After 4 months of lessons, our 5 yr old child has not progressed very far. She has no basic survival skills and has only learned streamline with no paddling, floating on stomach, and putting her head underwater (holding breath for 8 seconds or so). She still cannot tread water on her own. Many swim lessons by other companies in the US do 2-4 day swim lessons for 30 minute sessions for 2 weeks and provide decent swimming improvement. Dolphin Academy is catered more to long term technical swimming training and only does one 30 minute lesson a week. If you are looking for a program to build confidence in the water, this is it. Our child was already comfortable before starting here though. But if you want your child to be able to swim on their own at a reasonable pace, you should look elsewhere. We were told that some kids take a year or more to learn basic swimming techniques here. If we were better informed as to how their program was structured, we would have chosen a different location. For the price they charge, we certainly expected better basic swimming survival skills. They do have very attentive, caring coaches but we believe their program structure is not conveyed properly.

We've been with dolphin academy for 6 months. Faculty and staff are friendly. However if you want your child to advance in swimming good luck. My daughter is a good strong swimmer and was advancing at the YMCA after every class. At dolphin I was there for 6 months and no advancement and they do the same thing every class. I would love for my daughter to be on a team but I felt like dolphin academy was holding her back and not teaching her the new skills she needs.