Take Me To The Water – Upper East Side

My 2 children — 7 and 4 — finally learned to swim at TMTTW! The instructors are engaging and help my children out of their comfort zone to challenge them while keeping them completely safe! I will definitely be back to further their swimming!

Took my 2 kids there for a trial lesson. Lessons are given in a residential building that has a pool. The pool and facilities are fine. There were a handful of lanes in the narrow pool, yet at least 2 – 3 classes given in one lane at a given time. So, even though there was 1 instructor and 3 kids, it was crowded and they had to course around each other. Not great when you’re learning how to swim.
The worst part was that the instructors and even supervisor had ZERO enthusiasm or knew how to make the class exciting for kids. It was a trial class, and the instructor nor the supervisor even introduced themselves to the my kids. The woman instructor, I think her name was Danielle, never even smiled once. The kids got in the pool and she said «do the backstroke» to my 7 year old. My son, thinking he’s a good swimmer and giving it a go, tried to swim or float on his back but only sank. She didn’t say anything like, «OK good try» or «let’s work on your form». She just told him to swim to the other side of the pool. Meanwhile, he can barely swim. I spoke to the supervisor about my concerns that the instructor is not giving my kids any pointers or tips on how to improve their swimming. Just barking orders. He said, «oh, she must be off today, she’s usually good.» After 30 min watching her completely destroy all the excitement my son had in learning how to swim, I complained again to the supervisor and even spoke to the Take Me To the Water office on the phone. They said they will speak to the instructor after the class and that we won’t be charged. No apology. No other solution. And, they even said that instructor was one of the senior ones.
This is a swimming farm that has no business teaching young kids. You’re lucky if you’re instructor is nice. I ended up booking at Asphalt Green. They have great kid-​friendly instructors.