Berkeley Aquatic Club

LUTHER V.

This place is not a place of instruction: it’s a factory. Cash the check, throw the kids in a pool, and have them do rep after rep with little to no personalized feedback or instruction. These are simply facts. “Son, did a coach even say a single word to you today at practice?” Answer: No. Is that standard operating procedure day after day, week after week, year after year? You bet it is. My son switched to another local option (wont share the name: don’t want this to be an us vs them thing) and IMMEDIATELY improved, as he’s extremely coachable and the coaches at BAC don’t, you know, coach. They don’t watch. They don’t speak. They. Don’t. Care. Red flag after red flag at this place. Shame on me. Charge dues, and then charge some more dues for personalized focus and specialized training for things that should be taught in core lessons (dives, turns, etc). Zero communication with students/parents re instruction, no semblance of anything resembling a core dev plan. Wonder why parents aren’t welcome to watch practice? There is too much to hide, is why. High turnover of instructors and the ones that stick around? “I see my coach looking at me but they don’t teach me.” Tragic. Begging to be taught. Given guidance. To no avail. That’s just not the structure of the program. DM me if you want more color, parents. Top down failure, bottom line. And fwiw I’m using my alias because A) communication with them (from top to bottom) is nearly impossible so it would take a lot of work to get a reply and based on experience the reply is never of any substance and B) I’m not doing them the favor of sharing constructive feedback for the 36283823826th time. It’s been a monumental and shameful waste of time and I failed my child committing to this place for years. Enough is enough, better late than never. To be clear: It’s not about the money. I spare no expense for my children, would be happy paying double for what is missing here. This place is a travesty, my 0.02. If this review gets deleted I’ll repost with my real name. So don’t delete, Tristan. You know the facts. Update: place went belly up. Shocker. The world is an efficient place.

Scott Bartleson

The pinnacle of privately funded indoor training pool facilities on the East Coast. A well ventilated clean 50 meter pool is the focus of the facility, but it also has two teaching pools, a dry land training area, and an auditorium.

Sarah Blaum

Very nice pool and i liked swimming there

T M

Is it still open for business? I called and emailed, no response. Was in communication with Deuel Stephens. He finally responded after couple of weeks leaving msg and emails. He said they are having phone and email issue. I replied back and nothing again.