It closed and now they are Jersey aquatics in new Providence with the gorgeous huge new facility

This is a review for the swim team, which my 8 year old daughter loves! She's been on it for about 2 years, and she's improved dramatically. They keep it fun, but it's also challenging and helps them improve their times. The coaches are very encouraging and teach good technique. And the team is very friendly, so they love going to practice and to meets to hang with their friends and try to get best times & win relays etc.. Highly recommend it. We had my younger (5 year old) son doing Clinics there and he improved dramatically as well. They even let him participate in a meet there, and he loved that. And all of the older, more experienced swimmers, cheered for him as he swam down the pool as a beginner swimming a 25 butterfly. It was awesome, and shows how friendly and encouraging the culture is there. Highly recommend to swimmers of all ages and abilities. read more

Facility is beautiful and super organized ! Their staff is super friendly and their waiting area is super large. Definitely recommend for young children ! read more

Berkeley Aquatic Club & Swim School - Pool - Swimming Lessons/Schools Near Me - Berkeley Heights, New Jersey

See all

The worse swimming school I have ever seen. My kid's teacher never went into the water and corrected any single gesture. They also want parents to stay in another room while the kids are learning and now I know the reason. They never answer the phone, always tell you to leave message or email them. I don't even know whom to complain to. Take a look of the class before you register it, there is no refund once you find out after the first class! read more

BAC has given my two athletes a place to grow as swimmers and as teammates. The coaches care about the swimmers. For a sport that can be so individual, there is a strong team atmosphere. The facility is unmatched with onsite dryland space with trainers and a yoga studio. read more

I'm being super generous w the stars. I'm about to send m y 3rd kid to Berkeley Aquatics .... They've really done a great job teaching them to swim. I've yet to come across a coach / instructor that isn't great, and I like their semi-hardcore approach to lessons --- no parents in the pool area during lessons ( too distracting) ., small class size ( like 5, 6 kids). Kids seem to thrive there and learn fairly quickly to become confident swimmers which is the ultimate goal of sending them there . That said, the place is a dump. Like Zero stars dump. Even if they scrubbed this pool deck, the dismal waiting area or locker rooms/ restrooms, the place would still be vile. They've been in some political brawl for a few years trying to build a new location, so I imagine they haven't invested much in maintenance, but it's shabby. Really shabby. Like u don't want to put ur bare feet on the ground, or sit in the nasty windowless waiting area. The pool looks clean tho, and I've never had any pink eye, health issues w my kids, otherwise I wouldn't set foot in this dump. And yes, their in-person 1950s style class registration is antiquated , and slow. Their online registration only begins after the in-person registration day is complete , so u risk missing class times/days. Because that makes sense. And yes, Towney (sp) the guy who runs the programs is a little db-ish , but either he has gotten a little better/ more personable in recent years, or I'm just getting used to him. So , swim instructors/ instruction : 4 stars Actual building/ amenities : 0 stars read more

So sad that I did not read others' reviews. We wasted our money and time, driving one hour one way every day. They do not teach or do anything good for the swimmers but spent a lot of time on dry land and having breaks. You paid for those meaningless activities. We enrolled 4 weeks programs and are not sure whether we can have a refund. read more

This review is for the swim team. At one time, BAC was an elite swim club with a great reputation. However, in the past 4-5 years, they've become a complete joke. They have an elitist mentality and it hasn't served them well. Families have left this team in droves. The coaches are pompous jerks. They are nasty, unapproachable, unknowledgable and just generally not nice people. The team hardly goes to any swim meets. They just hold intersquad meets and swim against themselves. I'm not sure what the point of this is. One of the few meets they do attend is up in Buffalo NY. The coach schleps the kids up to Buffalo the week before Christmas and they have to miss school for a lame swim meet that is not competitive in the least. They also have absurd rules and expect swimmers in the senior group to basically live at the pool with no life. We aren't talking about olympians here. These are run of the mill high school swimmers. But they are expected to give up any life they have and be at the pool. The coaches are rude beyond belief and offer really nothing. My child came in there an already formed swimmer, however, it would be nice to have a coach actually coach and offer advice, instead of sitting on the pool deck on their ipad as the kids swim lap after lap. Kids burn out on this team from the garbage mileage. It's great to see BAC knocked down to where they belong. read more

Great place to train. Beautiful facility. Nice bathrooms, nice rehab pool, nice coaches, rat trays are good

in the last week-Edit Unfortunately, DO NOT RECOMMEND - very rigid-minded business practices and customer service. Manager is clearly overwhelmed and confused. Just lost $180 to them for no apparent reason. Signed up 2 kids, going their for the first time. Had no opportunity to pre-test kids for the appropriate level, despite multiple calls, messages and emails to the administration (got a phone call back with incomprehensible message, finishing with to "see everything online"). When one of my kids apparently was signed up for the wrong class with no options for the correct class that semester due to timing availability (working mom here, who needs to coordinate schedules of both kids), they did not allow for a credit of the fully prepaid wrong class charges that I could use for further classes, and was refunded only 75% of the pretty large charge. No amount of begging that it was my first time and I had no opportunity to pre-test my children mattered. Seeing I won't be able to have my kids learning in such an environment, had to take both kids out. Young instructors seem nice, while pool and changing area are very sub-par. Look for another place... - Alena read more

I haven't even been there yet and I'm on here giving one star because the website redirects to something called teamunify. Can't even navigate the site. It just scrolls by super fast. I just want to know when open swim is the costs. Looks like I'll be heading over to Summit Y instead. read more

I have not been happy with my daughter's swim lesson experience. Overall communication is terrible and this is not an isolated incident. Each week, we arrive 5-10 minutes ahead of our lesson time and wait for the class to begin. There is never any signaling that the class is about to begin and it is never clear which teacher is running my daughter's class. This week we ended up missing the first 5 minutes of class because it wasn't clear that the lesson was beginning. We were very obviously waiting for a class to begin but none of the teachers thought to check in with us to see if my daughter was part of their next class. Another student in my daughter's class was in the same situation. When the class is taking place, the teachers seem distracted and disinterested. We will not be back. read more

I agreed with comments from other people. My two sons took their lessons there in 2012 because we heard some good report about this place. The director was very busy to answer any questions from parents and did not allow us to watch. The cancellation/make up is hard. Although they said we can make up at any time, it was based on the availability. Since it is a good 40 min. drive for us and they said there was a waiting list in summer for makeup, we did not bother to try the makeup in summer and afterwards. The bad thing about it is that we were not sure about the level to register, so we registered based on our report from prior swim lesson at Y and Y's reports. After the first lesson, they put them in a lower level because my children's level were actual in between the levels. They promised a move-up to higher level. But they never did. Both higher and lower level groups were already filled with enough kids. Water was colder than other indoor pools. read more

Indeed, the old pool *was* antiquated, but the pool/program has moved to a top-of-the line building/swim complex in New Providence (629 Central Ave). There's a huge olympic pool for the swim team, and a smaller lesson pool now. Water is warm. Amazing space with ample waiting rooms for parents. No, you still don't get to watch your kid. They're on their own (and perfectly capable of learning without you). Yes, Towney is a character, especially when he's stressed (which has been a lot because of the development issues of the new pool). The lesson schedule is tight. The kids/lessons get his attention. There's no time to hand-hold parents and he seems anti-hover-parent (rightfully so). Sign-ups are a mess, especially via the site too. But... I think it's all worth it. Our child has had only *one* year of swimming lessons there and the style of teaching has worked wonders for her. We can't believe the progress she has made. She qualified for the main swim team of the local community pool and won her first race yesterday. The new pool(s) is nothing short of amazing, especially for serious older swimmers. The BAC program is known throughout the state (US?) for delivering top swimmers. People drive for many miles to be trained there, as was the case in the old grubby pool. I would suggest that people check out the new location before dismissing it based on the gripes of just a few. Giving this 5 starts to offset the bad reviews. read more

Yes, I read the years-old reviews from the old facility, but those have nothing to do with the current Berkeley. There is no "Tony", and the new pool complex has 4 pools including a full Olympic-size pool with electronic timekeeping and computer uplinks. Don't even bother to read a bad review pre-8/1/16, it has nothing to do with the present. They do take swim seriously, and that has propelled my grade-school kids on BAC swim teams to swim well and also taught them how to have some commitment to a team - it is not a negative. They also know the kids and coach them with care and heart. I'd recommend them without reservation. read more

Swim school is disappointing. With the exception of Jen, the instructors are not very effective. The water is not deep enough so our children walk without supervision. Classes are overbooked And the rest room/changing rooms way too small and flooded by the showers. Chaos. If Towney Brewster - who runs the school - is not admonishing parents for entering the deck 2 minutes to stand by for their kids because they face hypothermia coming out of the pool if waiting for us too long - he is probably out selling someone the Brooklyn Bridge. A real sheister. Go to YMCA in Summit. read more

After I experienced what's beyond tolerance today with director Tony, I saw the reviews here and realized I wasn't alone. He wouldn't let me finish even one sentence. After I almost "begged" the third time "can I finish my sentence PLEASE", he yelled at me "you should cool down". Well said, but by the wrong person! Because it was so hard to find a kids swimming class without requiring private membership, I almost wanted to talk to BAC owner directly. But after seeing what others experienced, I feel I already wasted my time with Tony. Without level setting my manner with this director, I am not positive I won't waste time by talking to other BAC management members. I might just have to be forced to leave BAC after 2+ years, as Tony indicated that I should. And, the other reviews were correct. My son didn't progress in the past 2+ years either. read more

Decided to try this school based on neighborhood recommendations. No complaints about the swim instruction. However, the manager is disrespectful and completely unprofessional. I wasn't surprised to read more negative reviews specifically about him. We are new to the area and chose between several schools. The enrollment is not cheap, and for this price, I would at least expect management to happily answer any questions. When I asked a very straightforward question, I was completely disregarded and told to just read the website for information. And this was just the start my my encounter with this school. No thanks. If you can't answer my questions as the owner in a professional and respectful way then I will go somewhere else. There are several well rated swim schools in this area. For anyone reading this, please remember to read the reviews in the bottom link that are hidden by yelp. read more

I read the negative reviews, and I'm a bit disappointed to see that people fail to see the real quality of the place. If you are looking for a fancy place, it's not for you. If you are looking for great customer service, it's not for you. This place is run by one person, and he has no time for wasting time. Class is 30 min. You drop your child and you come back in 30 minutes. 30 minutes is not enough time to address personal water phobias. Towney is there every day, if you have special issues address it before class. Way before! Somebody mentioned money hungry. I never noticed it, price is very reasonable. Towney is the director, the secretary, the finance person and the cleaner from time to time. And he does it in his own way. Yes, it's old fashion. Nothing wrong with that. Yes, the places and the style is archaic, I agree. So??? I'm not there for the decor. Finally, Let's talk about the quality of teaching: as someone else commented, the quality of teachers is great. Both my kids learn how to swim, improve their styles and their confidence in the water. If you meet the criteria for the level, you move up. If not, you stay another semester. No, I'm not an insider. Just a parent that sending her 2nd child to swim school. read more

When I went to enroll my son for the first time this summer I did not like the swim school's director demeanor but shrugged it off. A friend of mine that has two kids there told me that the director is indeed very rude and that everybody hates him but they can't do anything about it. I decided to cancel my son's lessons and after not succeeding with the phone (each time the answering machine turned on but did not give a chance to leave a message), I filled the form on the web. I never got any response from the swim school, my check was cashed already, so we decided to give it a try. When we showed up for the first lesson the director called all the kids for that session but not my son. It took us good 5 minutes to make our way to him, he was there but to get his attention was hard. After going to his office and looking through the stack with the enrollment forms he asked "Didn't you cancel?" I said that I tried but since I did not get a response and the check was cashed I assumed that I did not cancel. Then the director started walking telling us to come with him and we followed, my son talking to him at that time. Not paying attention, just following, the next thing I realize is: WE WERE IN THE MEN's BATHROOM AND THE GUY WAS USING IT! I just turned around as quickly as possible, I could not believe it! He came out and told my son to go to the teacher and shoved me out of the pool area. I did not have a chance to tell the swim instructor that my son had just 10 swimming lessons at the YMCA in Summit, and although almost 8 he is very uncomfortable with putting his head in the water. At the end of the lesson my son came out crying, he said he attempted to tell the instructor twice but he wouldn't listen. The classes were supposed to be of max 8 kids, my son was the 9th that day due to the "cancellation". The pool is 3 feet deep so the swim instructors are just walking occasionally, but mostly they sit at one end of the pool and yell at or cheer the kids. The water at the Berkeley aquatic's pool is colder than the water at the Summit YMCA. The pool at the Y is much deeper - from 3 to 9 feet. The swim instructors there are much more devoted, they swim the whole time with the kids. We were able to get also private lessons at the Y (Berkeley aquatic does not do private lessons at the club, although their brochure states otherwise). At the Y's pool they also have family swim time and if the kids are YMCA members the parents can join them in the pool if they pay just $60 for 10 hours, without having to be members themselves. The kids at the Y also use floatation belts if they need support. When I was deciding on swim lessons this summer, I wished there were more reviews about the YMCA in Summit and the Berkeley aquatic club to make my decision easier. This is the reason I took time to do that here. read more

I had heard great things about the teaching here and the new facility looked nice. Unfortunately I haven't had a great experience. I agree with not having parents in during lessons because it's distracting. However what I see as I stand outside before the lesson is over isn't great. The teachers aren't really paying attention or giving direction. The pool is shallow so kids can (and do) stop at times during laps and the teachers don't say anything. The owner emailed me two weeks ago to say my daughter is finally ready for the next level. However when I picked up her report card yesterday it said I should register her for the same level. And the two things not checked as skills were two things I've seen her do even while I wait outside. And the funny thing is the last report card for the same exact class, one of those was actually checked. My daughter is swimming the same today as she was a year ago before these last two sessions so for me it's not worth the time or money to send her back. read more

I wish there is a negative star I can give. I was told by some friends this is a great school years ago , then I decided to send my 6-year old boy to the school. but it turns out a disaster experience. I registered him for two advanced one class, they two instructors are not consistent, they got the new location but the water was always very cold in the morning session and not suitable for young kids. After we finished the two sessions (two months for each), we got complete two different reports, one suggest him to stay in the same level, one suggest to go next level. we choose to stay on the same level for next session. After the first class of the new session, I was told by their director go back to a lower level, and with a schedule that impossible for us. We decided drop out and request refund, the director over there simply rejected and say "no refund after the first class". I have never seen any swim school treat people like that. Even if my son is not good enough, after being confused by three different instructors and told to change schedule without even consulting us? I also filing complaints on the local BBB. read more