Top Swimming schools in Fremont, United States

This was a particularly good experience. It was the best decision I ever made, that the hippo swim club as my two daughters’s first time to learn swimming . The coaches here are patient and friendly. My daughters like them very much. Their progress is also very obvious, from being extremely afraid of water to being willing to swim, It only took 2 lessons to accept it. The coaches made different learning plans according to different children's personalities, allowing the children to have fun and study seriously. This is a good place for kids to learn to swim

My son really likes Happy Fish Swim school.
Most of teachers are very friendly. especially My son likes Daniel.

My kid is getting trained in Hippo .. this is the best place in the bayarea.. all the classes are one to one which is the best part and front desk is super helpful had never had such great support for make up classes and they support when you need to cancel the booking

So far this is the better place to learn swimming compared to any other swimming institute. It’s mainly 1x1 and kids learn better .

I would highly recommend this swimming school

Pros:
Easy to get spots.
Friendly Staff

Cons:
Small Pool
swim Coach keeps changing in the middle of the season.
After you sign up for a season, no-one bothers to update swim passport or inform about the swim level/status.

One of the most friendly and well organized swim schools in Fremont.

My daughter has made decent progress while learning to swim at this place. Their shower rooms are clean and not crowded. They do need to improve on offering make up classes that they ask to select from an Excel tracker which never seems to have a slot available. The other big area of improvement is they need to work on making fewer changes in instructors. Kids like consistency and changing instructors every now and then without informing us is not a good experience for the kid.
Update 5/2024
Continued my kid here and I must say they have made big improvements in both selecting make up classes and not changing the instructors.

It is unfortunate that I have to put this disappointing review for this business while i have been going here for the last two years. I entirely understand the rules of the land- but I was just thrown off when it was said that they could not waive a class cancellation fee because I canceled a class one year back.  The customer service and the administration are adamant; I want to get the rest of my son's swimming lessons and get rid of this place.  Caution for new joiners- Be prepared to work with non-customer-friendly administration.  Bay Area demand will probably keep them thriving; however, there is a need to introspect on understanding customer requirements and needs.

Been to several swim places and this is the best one around, by far. My daughter loves it, when she didn't even want to get in the pool at some others. And kudos to Marisa for all her assistance, and the instructors are great.

The coaches are kind and patient with kids. manager Jake is very friendly and welcoming. they know lots of engaging methods of teaching in this age group. I can see progress in my child's skills and we look forward to each class. they are excellent swim instructors.

My daughter attend lessons twice a week at ASA Fremont and we could not be happier!

The teaching staff are wonderful and have helped her make great progress in such a short period of time. They have helped her progress from not wanting to get her face wet, to fully swimming independently from dock to dock. They've been patient, caring, and safe with her at all times, balancing their kind and gentle approach with also challenging her when appropriate and always instilling swim safety and proper technique.

We've had two primary instructors (one for our Monday swim class and one for our Thursday swim class) as well as three different substitute teachers on an occasion, and all teachers have been wonderfully. Each have their own unique personalities, but all giving great instruction to my daughter.

The front desk staff has been nothing but kind and helpful for any questions I've had and are very friendly and considerate every single time we come to the facilities.

The swim location itself is clean and very spacious. We do attend classes during the quieter day time hours so I can't speak to how busy it gets during weekends or afternoon sessions.

I'd definitely recommend ASA Fremont to other families looking for a safe and effective swim school.

There seem to be a lot of complaints around the makeup policy, however I will say that the swim school in extremely transparent around their makeup policy stating this at many points in the sign up process. First, on their site when you first learn about their swim school. Second, when signing up and selecting your classes. Third, in your initial receipt email you receive when your join the swim school. If you don't agree with their policy, you have ample chances to choose another swim location before signing up. My daughter missed a class when she was sick with a fever and we were able to mark the absence online as well as schedule the makeup class online and have another swim lesson in place of her missed class.

Thank you ASA for a wonderful swim session and we look forward to seeing you again in the next one (:

Had to take out my kids from this swim school even though they enjoy swimming and I am still looking for a good one for them. But even at the cost of them skipping swimming , I will never go to this most unfriendly place with arrogant management . The worst part is not that they are super expensive to begin with , it is the fact that they are so inflexible and feed of parents inability to balance between a sick child , loads of office and house work. They have barely 2 or 3 makeups and good luck with even those since you will not find any slot for making up hence mostly skipping those altogether . And for those with more than 1 kid will know that sometime even 2-3 makeups are not enough. I have lost so much money with both my kids fue to either more than 2-3 makeups or the inability to find slots for the makeups. Life happens, we all know that and this place makes life even more difficult for kids . They are shamelessly feeding off our helplessness and our hard earned money . The management is the most rude of all , who just repeats the policy like a robot whenever you go to them with any request. I want to share the experience around so that no other parent has to go through this experience again. The biggest loss I feel is to take my kids away from what they live most - to swim, until I find a decent swim school nearby . I wish American Swim academy’s scam is caught soon by authorities and that they give way to something which understands it’s communities and suppers instead of being money vampires .

I would advise anyone to stay away from this establishment. This review is to show Calphin’s gaps in coaching, evaluation, and operations tactics and the impact it can have on a child’s morale.

1. Coaches lacking motivation + Gaps in evaluation.
The grief started when my son enrolled in the intermediate Crawler 1 level in Spring 2023. Since then, he has failed in their evaluations with notes of needing improvements with kicking faster and improving on his backstroke.

We kept re-enrolling him in this level and went through discussions with the Director on Deck and the coaches on what is needed for him to progress to the next level.

My son kept on insisting that he had been following the coach's instructions and was confused as to why he was being held back. We started seeing a real morale impact on him in the Fall of 2023.

The coaches change every season and there was no internal communication to address the gaps for my son. We had to start from scratch with a new coach every season.

2. Lack of transparency with parents
In the Oct 2023 evaluation, again my son failed for not reaching the 3-yard line in backstroke. There was a new comment that he struggled with listening to the coach and paying attention. Considering he has been at this level for almost 8 months, this new feedback surprised us.

The week after that he was given a re-test but no communication came on the retest result.

The day before the Fall 2 season was to start, I checked with the reception on the retest result. They told us that he had PASSED.
On the day of the new season start, we got a call from Calphin saying that my son had FAILED the evaluation and he would need re-enrollment in Crawler 1 again.

My husband realized that our suspicion was true and that we were being played. Upon more questioning and asking for a refund and unenrollment, he was connected to the operations manager Jennifer. Jennifer checked with the swim staff and confirmed that my son had PASSED. Frustrated by this flip-flop, we still stood firm on our refund and our conversation with Jennifer brought to light some serious gaps within Calphin management and leadership.

3. Blame game within staff and management
Jennifer blamed one of the new staff members on the miscommunication and hoped we would let go, considering they had actually PASSED my son. Any manager worth her salt, would not throw a new employee under the bus for their mistake.

We questioned how the new staffer could make such a basic mistake if the coaches signed off on my son's success a week ago. Jennifer said that there was a miscommunication between the evaluation coach and the head coach and they had missed updating the results of the retest. (again the coaches are being blamed than the manager taking responsibility)

When we didn’t budge from the refund, Jennifer said she was trying her best to change the evaluation criteria and internal software system and she needed time to implement these changes. She insisted that we as parents should keep faith in her and keep the enrollment. This is coming from a staff member who failed a 6-year-old child for 1 yard and did not keep faith that he would cover this gap in the next level eventually with more practice.

4. Stand By Your Child: My son kept on insisting that he had been doing all of the things that the coaches asked him to do and yet we took the academy’s evaluation feedback and kept re-enrolling him in the same level. The Calphin Academy said they would re-evaluate his progress during each session (irrespective of the tests) and transition him to the next level when he is ready. There was no effort on their part to work in favor of our child. The Oct 2023 FAIL and then their flip flop on the actual test result convinced us that they were not on the child’s side but actually in the business of making as much money as possible via re-enrollments. In hindsight, we should have listened to our child and unenrolled him sooner.

I was thinking about giving a review to this facility one year ago but not done until now due to my procrastination. My daught had private swimming lessons and she picked up the skills quickly in few months. She liked most of her assigned tutors. One time she had complain to one of the tutors; the admin team addressed the issue after communicattion. I also gave my special thanks to the facility manager Jack. I forgot my wallet(with Cash, cards and driver license inside) in the facility after one class, He drove 6 miles to my house and gave it to me! I can't appreciate more!

On the day of Calphin Swimming's 20th year anniversary one must praise the professionalism of Calphin Swimming's teaching team and the systematic game-learning program that Calphin Swimming has planned for the children! Whether you just want to learn to swim to gain survival skills, or you want to learn to swim to develop your child's resilience, self-management and physical strength, Calphin Swimming is the best choice. Luckily my 7 year old became a Calphin Swimming student in the fall of 2022 and went through a structured program to learn 4 strokes in 10 months of team lessons. This fall, passed the test to make the CDST swim team. The original intention of just learning to swim and learn to protect themselves has been sublimated by the quality teaching of Calphin Swimming. The professional teaching of the coaches has allowed the children to discover their own interests, which is more meaningful than learning 4 strokes. We hope that Calphin Swimming will be more and more successful and will always accompany the children's growth!

My kid started swimming at 5-yr old at Calphin. The facilities of Calphin are top- notch, providing a safe and conducive environment for swimmers of all levels. Coach Lei truly stands out in coaching. His expertise and dedication are evident in every session. His approach is not only professional and experienced but also infused with a level of patience that encourages swimmers to surpass their own expectations.

My child has been going for three years now. Since last 4 months my child didn't learn a single skill or got a ribbon. Definitely there is a issue in teaching technique.

Today talked to front desk, and she gets ribbon. It's like if you don't ask for it, you won't get it. Basically they are milking the cow and extracting money quater by quater.

So parents better be aware and keep them asking about the child progress otherwise, be ready to spend bucks. Each class is $45 and it's not worth the money.

I regret now why I didn't keep a tab on my child's progress, a big parenting lesson.

Seems good with their coach. The facility looks average.

Absolutely HORRIBLE. Like the other reviews, all they want to do is just to steal money from your wallet. The owner & managers are extremely rude. Once we entered the swim school and saw a parent fighting with the owner. The "swim coaches" are inexperienced. Some are actually very mean, and my daughter didn't even want to go to the classes. A few coaches though are very nice. Some young coaches don't really do their job and just talk to the lifeguards while in the water, TEACHING A CLASS. Classes are also expensive. HATE HATE HATE THIS PLACE. LISTEN TO THE OTHER 1 STAR REVIEWS AND DO NOT COME HERE !!!!

My 3.5yo has been in ASA for a year and half, first at Newark location and then Fremont, and I've observed his pace of progress decline markedly. The instructors at Fremont location are all teenagers with very little to no experience. I asked the front desk what sort of training they receive, and was told basically that instructors for young kids just get a 2 week orientation. At $80 an hour ($40 for a 30min class), I don't think it's worth the price. May look elsewhere after the current quarter is over.

On the plus side, the pool is big, clean, with lane markers and overall really quite nice. A+ for that.

My son goes there, place is nice and people are good too, little too crowded at the peak hours around 4. Good parking. Over all it is a good for what it is for.

Very bad experience with refunds. They unnecessary took 380$ from my card by mistake and taking more than 2 weeks to process the refund. They continue to delay the refund by another 3 business days which is really very bad after having waited for more than 2 weeks.

You have a lot of time slots available at this location for kids and adults alike. The instructors are well trained and engaging. Like this facility. The teaching method is a little slower than expected but effective long-term, so prepare not to be impatient. It may take longer depending on your skill and practice outside the facility. In my opinion, 30 minutes per session seems a little less, given that there is one swssion per week, and adding another 10 minutes should be very helpful.

My daughter is 11 and she is swimming at a local year round swim team. I took my daughter to Calphin for semi private lesson, my daughter improve her score from C to A standard in 4 month. I am very happy with the coaching team.

This school is mediocre. My child swam here last summer. The instructors were not consistent in their confusing approach. If your child likes an instructor, be forewarned there is no guarantee your kid will get them again. Their lessons are so short and repetitive that it feels intentional to get more money out of you.

Also, they are supposed to give each student a booklet with benchmarks for each skill. The student gets stamps when they accomplish the skill. However, my child didn't get a booklet until halfway through the season. Their attitude about this oversight was lackadaisical, like they didn't care.

The school should also offer parents the choice to get text notifications to give updates about their kid's progress. Again they forgot to tell me until halfway through the season when I asked for feedback about my student.

The bottom line is this school is more invested in working with advanced and elite-level swimmers. If you are an inexperienced swimmer, you will be strung along by their haphazard curriculum . More lessons = more classes and money. I don't recommend this scam of a school.

Very well structured program and seasoned instructors!

Have been with Happy fish for 6 months now. My 6year old joined their summer class which was spanned for 4 days a week. She quickly finished her beginner level under 3 weeks and then continued to the regular monthly 4 sessions classes. Every instructor is patient and nice with their teaching but we love Mr. Daniel.

My kids have been going to Davenport facility for 6 months and our experience is fantastic. Amazing instructors, friendly and professional front desk staff. Overall, clean and welcoming place.

We attended Happy Fish Swim School for about a year. My kid started from the beginner and now he's an intermediate swimmer. He had classes with Ms. Stacey, Mr. Marcus, Mr. Daniel, and few other teachers. His favorite was Mr. Marcus since he was strict yet fun at the same time. It really depends on the child to advance to the next level. My kid sometimes stuck to one level for months but then he sped through the next one fairly quickly. The thing that motivates my kid was getting the ribbon when he finishes the level.

One drawback was short staffed & limited schedule. I felt that in the past 4 months, it's kinda hard to book the make up class. However, they sometimes has a special make up class on the weekend. Overall, the teachers are very good and are patient to teach all the techniques. I highly recommended this swim school.

Grand opening. Coaches are very encouraging and patient to kids. Very clean facility with separated bath room and changing room. Best price to quality!

Staff is great +
Teachers are great+
Pool is also decent size +
Ample changing rooms +
Only 3 open showers —
Each teacher has around 4+ kids —

so for 1/2 hr class each kids get teachers attention for about 5+ minutes of learning each week so learning curve is very slow. They have 11 levels from start to finish and each level has around 4 skills to to finish this course with 5 minutes of teaching kids take around 3-4 years to cross those 11 levels , I wish there would be only 2 kids per teacher or they have this program available I would have given 4 starts

Great instructors- my son has been going to Happy Fish now for over 2 years. He loves his swim classes and we are impressed with how much progress he has made. All our instructors have been friendly, encouraging and persistent with the techniques- just the right mix you would need to keep kids engaged and learn at the same time.