Both my children learned to swim at DACA swim school, and love to swim now. Most of the instructors are engaged and effective, though we've also had a few less engaged ones. The pool is also less crowded than other swim schools we've tried. We have one child now in the pre-competitive program, which is held at various locations. We're at the De Anza College pool, which is outdoors and beautiful. At his time slot, he's either been the only student, or one of two, and we've seen his progression. I just wish they had a make-up classes, especially during the summer: there is no rescheduling of missed classes. For the Swim School, you can buy a drop-in class "splash class" for a $20 discount but that must be booked the day of, which makes it hard to plan for. read more

DACA's competitive program has provided my son a great summer training environment. Training load is moderately high but with some flexibility. Environment is good, coach Christian is excellent and the other kids are nice. read more

While many folks think about DeAnza Cupertino Aquatics as a swim school, you should know that they also run a competitive Water Polo club for boys and girls. Commonly known as DACA by the logo emblazoned across their swimsuits. Water Polo practices are at Saratoga High School (Sat), Monta Vista High School (M&W nights) or Mitty (boy's High School club team). They have 6 coaches and offer Summer Bug Ball for young kids just learning the game. read more

De Anza Cupertino Aquatics - Swimming Lessons/Schools Near Me - San Jose, California

Please note that the pre-competitive and competitive swim programs from DACA are completely different programs than at the DACA Swim School. They are both DACA but DACA Swim School is only for those learning how to swim, the pre-comp and competitive programs assume you can already swim. My 8 year old daughter goes to DACA and is on their competitive team (green level). Originally she tested for and placed in their pre-competitive program back when she was 7 in fall 2010 and progressed to where she is now. She trains at the DeAnza College location. They have another training location at Saratoga High School. I can't say enough great things about the training the DACA staff provides, the love of this sport my daughter has now, and the level she has reached as a swimmer (I constantly get parents asking me how she learned to swim so well at public pools). The DACA coaches are amazing and know this sport and know how to teach it; many coaches are experienced (they coach swimming for a living) and some are in college (they are the pre-competitive coaches), does not matter, they are all great coaches and all have real world experience as competitive swimmers themselves. There are two major levels taught. Pre-Competitive and Competitive. To enter the program you must first try out and are evaluated and then placed into an appropriate level. Don't expect or be disappointed if your child does not initially qualify for the competitive program since they must know ALL four swimming strokes and how to turn and do them properly to qualify to enter the competitive program; consider the pre-competitive program a great opportunity to learn and hone their skills. Pre-competitive program ----------------------------- My daughter, and two of her close friends (who are all still in the same class together as they have progressed) were initially placed into the "Dolphin" level, which is the 3rd (out of 4) tier in the pre-comp program. She and her friends after that first quarterly semester of training qualified to go to the "Emerald" level, which is the last level before the competitive program. There is no guarantee kids progress each quarter, some of her original "Dolphin" and "Emerald" classmates are still there; it's up to the child if they want to apply themselves and learn to progress their skills. Pre-competitive is 2x/week for 30 minutes each sessions (as I recall), at least for the Dolphin and Emerald levels. Competitive program ------------------------- Once your child gets to this level training can be as many as 4x/week for at least 45 minutes (green level, which is the lowest). You don't have to go that many times each week but it's recommended you go at least 2x/week. My daughter goes on average 3x/week since we have another activity she attends on day 4. Parents have to volunteer at swim events at least 4 hours per half year of their own time (again, at the green level) which is fine with me. At this level your child needs to invest in a kick board, fins, goggles, etc. which are all sold by DACA onsite every other Monday at very reasonable prices (just get their stuff if you don't know what to get). All of this stuff will be used on a regular basis in practice so it's not a wasted investment. I can only comment on the Green level, which is the beginning competitive level for children 10 and under (I believe). They also have two other advanced levels for for this age group which are Yellow and White. The more advanced levels amaze me, I had no idea children as young as 8 could swim that well or that fast! I am blown away that my daughter can, without hesitation, swim 300 yards for her warm up. I have seen her nowadays swim 500+ meters and it does not even phase her. In fact, she enjoys it and keeps swimming as she learned in her competitive practice sessions. DACA has a great pre-competitive and competitive swim program and I highly recommend it for children and teenagers of all ages. read more

My two children attended DACA swim school, which (my opinion) can only be handled during the morning on week days and DACA competitive program. DACA is a swim club, similar to Santa Clara, Palo Alto, PEAK, etc. I'm only familiar with SCSC and DACA, which have two different philosophies. SCSC is a very serious club that drives kids hard since the age of 9 (or younger if your child is ready). Some kids swim phenomenally! DACA is much more relaxed club. It doesn't mean that your kid will not swim sets or compete, but DACA encourages young kid to participate in other sports, coaches don't yell as loud :-) Each club has pros and cons. As a college athlete, I feel "driving hard" at early age leads to injuries (statistics, not my opinion) and "running out of steam" in HS. If you want your kid to be very serious about swimming, SCSC might be a better club. If you want your kid to always improve and like the sport, most likely DACA will accomplish it better because there is possibility of higher training loads at older age (i.e. if your kid swims 10 times a week at the age of 14, it's hard to swim more at 16). At the same time winning Far Western will likely be easier to accomplish at SCSC. In terms of cost DACA is more reasonable than SCSC. The amount of volunteering at SCSC or payment for not doing so is just outrageous. Instead of hiring min-wage students SCSC makes parents volunteer at events not relevant to our children (I guess International swim meets could be considered relevant, but I don't think so). DACA volunteering is easy to accomplish and simple to understand why it's needed. It all happens during your child competition. No need to volunteer at irrelevant super-busy events. read more

Very disappointed. They put upto 8 kids per lane in summer Pre competitive program at Saratoga High. They are supposed to have 1 teacher watching 8 kids in one lane. Twice already some of their instructors have not shown up and they have one instructor teaching 2 lanes (16 kids) at the same time. My child just waits and waits for her turn and has not progressed much. I had called their office to tell them about it. They said it happens sometimes, but it has already happened twice in this session. The program is expensive and they don't have enough instructors. read more

Awful. The coaching has gone dramatically downhill over the past few years as the best coaches moved on and were replaced by clearly unqualified people. As the swimmers progress to the more senior levels this difference shows in the meets where DACA rarely if ever places anyone in the top 8. The better swimmers quickly move on to competing clubs. Specifically, coaches are either incapable or unwilling to do any stroke corrections, there is no attempt what so ever at motivating swimmers, and coaches use random methods to control practice. Our personal experience is that they took a rapidly improving 12 year old Far Western Finals level swimmer improved nothing and after 4 years demotivated him to the point he's given up on the sport. ACES DACA coaching staff! Simply terrible and the results show it. read more

I agree with the review of Julian E. The swim school and the competitive programs are different. My child has participated in both, and the competitive program is just stellar! At the last Junior Olympic Championship Meet as well as the Far Western Meet that I attended, many DACA swimmers make the Top 8. In fact, the boys team won almost all the relays. So I'm not sure what the previous reviewer is talking about. My child gets personal goal setting one-on-one time with her coach, there are team activities planned, and there have even been away trips for the kids to bond. Coach Tammy is just fabulous as well as every other coach we've had the pleasure of working with. The coaching approach is positive, and after many years, I have never heard a child reprimanded for their performance. The coaching staff is extremely experienced with some having involvement in Olympic Trials as well as training Olympians. Parent involvement is not only welcomed, but required at swim meets. I really can't think of anything negative to write about DACA!! Well, I guess I'm not too crazy about the $3 parking fee that DeAnza College charges! read more

My child is currently enrolled in the competitive swim team program at DACA and i would say the learning depends on the coaching skills. Some coachs are better than the others. If you are lucky your child will get good coaching and advance quickly in his/her swim techniques. In general DACA is good. The coaches are quite friendly and my child is very happy being part of DACA swim team. There is one thing about this swim club that i have noticed is that if you go to DACA website (http://daca.org), you can't find the DACA logo on the main web page. I see that DACA has really nice logo and none of their swim team clothing have it on beside the big word "DACA" (swim team t-shirt, hoodie, swim cap, swimwear or even swim parka). It is kinda disapointed a bit. I think it would be great to have DACA logo on the team clothing and be proud of the team logo. Also, another recomnendation for DACA is that their color scheme is red, navy blue, gray and white. Then i would suggest that DACA website could use these main colors for their web pages instead of teal background and yellow buttons since these colors do not reflect the team's spirit. read more

Their pre-competitive offering is not what we were looking for. We understand instilling discipline and can tolerate some shouting to achieve this. What bothered us was that our child was constantly singled out, shouted at, and then given a very poor explanation of what she needed to do differently. Needless to say our child started to believe something was wrong and no longer wished to go to swimming classes. We partly blame the DACA teachers for their lack of patience. The administrative staff took a very defensive stance and started blaming me and my child when I asked what we could do to help with the situation. Giving 1 star for not being able to listen to kids and parents when they need a little extra help. read more