​Update: We had an great experience with Blacktip Swim School! Over the course of about six months,…read moremy son went from a beginner to a confident swimmer, ultimately earning his way up to Level 3. ​Both Albert and Baylee are incredibly professional, highly skilled, and fantastic coaches. I also recently had the opportunity to have a great heart-to-heart with Albert. We talked about customer service, our respective passions, and found a wonderful mutual understanding of both of our perspectives--which I deeply appreciated. ​While this is my son's last class for now, we are incredibly grateful for the foundation they've built for him. Highly recommended! Old review: I am incredibly disappointed with our recent evaluation experience at Blacktip Swim School in Plano. Up until this point, we hadn't had any major issues, but the lack of communication and disregard for a parent's explicit request has left a very bitter taste in my mouth. ​We learned back in Level 1 that my son needs a specific environment to succeed. When he was tested by a female coach initially, he didn't take it seriously at all and had to be retested. When Coach Albert stepped in to perform that retest, it was night and day. My son simply responds better to a male coach when it comes to the pressure of testing and evaluations--I know how my child operates. ​Because of this, I went out of my way to ensure we wouldn't have a repeat of that situation. I explicitly told Coach Albert that I wanted him to do the evaluation, and I also specifically told Coach Megan the exact same thing. ​Despite confirming this, the evaluation was performed by Coach Baylee. ​To make matters worse, Coach Albert was visibly available on-site during the exact time my son was being evaluated. When I brought my dissatisfaction and disappointment directly to Coach Baylee, explaining that I had specifically requested Coach Albert, her response was simply, "I can do evals too." While I have no doubt she is qualified, that completely misses the point. It was not what I requested, and it completely ignored my child's specific learning needs. ​Unsurprisingly, without the right coaching dynamic for the test, my son did not pass. I've attached a screenshot of his scores from a little over two weeks ago for reference; it shows he was already just about there, and he even attended three additional practices after that progress report was posted. He was ready. ​When he failed due to the environment, I was initially told he would just have to retest in two weeks. I brought my frustration directly to Coach Albert afterward. Essentially, the attitude from the school was that I was out of luck because they had "other classes today," and they admitted absolutely no fault for the mix-up. ​Coach Albert offered a small solution: he told me we could come in 5 minutes early next week so he can personally perform the evaluation. ​The entire reason I advocated for my son and requested Coach Albert was to avoid this exact outcome. It is incredibly frustrating to watch your requests get completely ignored, especially when the coach you asked for is standing right there. I am giving them the chance next week to make this right, but Blacktip Swim School needs to do a much better job of listening to parents, taking accountability for their mistakes, and honoring requests that directly impact a child's success.

Blacktip is a great swim school. My son was frustrated with freestyle and was discouraged by not…read moreadvancing in another swim school last summer. With a few lessons with Brian, he got over with his frustration with free style and moved to the swim team level. Bryan is very skilled in his teaching. We highly recommend this place and hope more kids will join the swim team.

Place is great. Staff is very nice and professional. Only issue is seating. Not enough seating for…read moreparents. Seems like each student brings two parents and grandparents. Which takes up the extra seating for single parents. Other than that, great place to take your kid.

Aqua Tots has developed a very effective system for teaching kids how to swim. They are organized…read moreand extremely punctual. My son went for six months with two sessions per week and he is a great swimmer. It is pricy, but definitely worth the investment.

The instructors are patient, professional, and amazing with kids. They create such a safe and…read morepositive environment that makes learning fun and comfortable. I've seen so much growth in confidence and swimming skills. Communication is always great, and you can truly tell they care about each child's progress. We've had such a wonderful experience and are so happy we chose them!

Coach Gabby is awesome. My 3yr old was scared to jump in the pool but working with Coach Gabby her…read moreconfidence had boosted and she is doing awesome.

Terrible swim school! You get a teenager swim teacher, that doesn't help lead the child or make…read morethem feel comfortable. We tried the trial swim class one time and never went back. Because I told them I may be interested to continue, they signed me up and now I have a charge on my account that can't get rid of. Spoke to the lady about it, since I never went to a class or registered my son. She told me because I was interested that I was registered by her and had to pay. Staff is unhelpful and this school is such a SCAM. if you want to get charged for saying you're interested but never register or attend a class then sign up. RIDICULOUS!

I enrolled my daughter last summer at Safe Splash Garland and didn't realize the automatic payment…read morethat they clearly signed me up for. I own that I didn't catch it sooner on my bank statements but $600+ in, I spoke with three different employees in the hopes that I could get a refund. The end result? They gave me a two-month credit for eight months of automatic withdrawls from my account. My daughter literally only took one class and she didn't like it. That's an expensive class. I own my oversight but a little empathy and integrity goes a long way these days. I was planning to re-enroll her this summer but i'm out so much money now... I'll teach her to swim myself. AND, I couldn't directly communicate the the general management or owner directly. Instead; the employees I spoke with only offered to send an email to upper management on my behalf. That's unacceptable.

Emler Plano is the BEST. The instructors - Sole, Nicolle this year and so, so many the several…read moreyears we've been part of the family - are amazing. Chris and Lynette are fantastic - their leadership, their support, their ability to connect with the children and parents, and the joy of this place is great. We always look forward to the lessons and it's a second home for the kids. They love swimming, they love learning, and it's truly an amazing place!

We love Emler! The instructors and team are amazing and have been consistent since we started in…read moreJuly/August 2022. Scheduling and communication is easy and we haven't had any issues since day one. My child loves all the instructors and is thriving, making me a proud mama. I highly recommend this location!!

This former five star reviewer is being very generous with the three star review…read more Where to start? Cleanliness? The bathrooms don't appear to be maintained and the same goes for the changing rooms. Visibly dirty floors are the biggest offender by the pool, bathroom and changing area. Quality of lessons? Employees are disengaged. I question staff training because there seems to be no consistency. On several occasions I have observed staff flirting with each other instead of teaching class, playing water games with each other and distracting students to name a few examples. Good luck raising awareness or giving feedback with management.

We've had such a great experience at Big Blue Swim - and saw the biggest transformation when going…read more2-3 times a week. DIVO IS AWESOME! He was patient and encouraging but challenged my super stubborn (and hesitant) swimmer, giving him the confidence to swim across the lane by himself. All the other instructors have been amazing too (truly! everyone is great!) but we had an especially amazing breakthrough this summer. Thank you, Divo!!

Love Emler! My little has been going for about 4 months and continues to learn more skills each…read moretime and keeps leveling up! His teacher, Katia is fantastic with his age group and we love her!

This specific swim company does a great job of creating an illusion of a "family-friendly" oriented…read morebusiness. I worked with this school for years and I left the company due to numerous reasons. 1. I was responsible for training a manager that would be sent out to a location in Austin. She ends up coming back 4 months later due to how harshly everyone at the Austin location treated her. She was looked down upon because of her skin color, and was told she would never make it to management. I don't believe that the people up in Austin were ever held accountable. Even despite that "holding people accountable" IS one of their core values. RACIST! 2. Let's not forget the make up lessons! At first you could schedule a make up if you missed it. Then, you got a make up token if you missed it. And then, there was no make up tokens, unless you bought them for $15. I happened to have my sibling signed up to swim, and on the last day of the semester he was enrolled in, they had a code brown (pretty frequent in this location). I was contacted by the lifeguard (not the customer service rep or the manager) that they would call me back to schedule a make up lesson and I have been waiting for 2 years now. I doubt Elmer would be willing to offer me the lesson that I paid for! Seems like Elmer went full corporate. 3. This is not a safe location at all! My ex boss's pick up truck was stolen in broad daylight right from the parking lot during business hours! This happened back in 2021. One of my ex-coworkers car window was broken into in 2022. Police never arrived, duh, Dallas. 4. I WAS FORCED TO TAKE A COVID EXAM BACK IN 2020 AND I HAD TO PAY FOR IT OUT OF POCKET. CORPORATE DEMANDED THAT I TAKE A TEST AFTER A SATURDAY SHIFT. I DID NOT GET COMPENSATION FROM THE COPANY. I PAID $400! 5. The final straw. I left the company due to how corrupt corporate EMLER became. Their own core values were violated by higher ups, Haydon Smith and Melissa Magee (don't forget Austin location) to be specific. The "hold each other accountable" is the most hypocritical statement that this company makes its employees recite at the beginning of every meeting. My coworkers mentioned to me that they wanted to form a union, and I agreed. Although, my co-workers, carried this conversation into the staff room, the camera's "microphone" picked up the audio and it seemed like someone was on the other end listening. Bear in mind that it was a private conversation between two adults that are now getting ready to lock the building & go home. It was after business hours, that's a fact. Well long story short, they got fired over the weekend for "low performance". I was not told why, or when, or even given a good explanation as to why corporate decided to sweep people under the rug. Forming a union is an American right and this company aught to get BOYCOTTED for firing people over this. 6. Swim lessons are expensive and will not get any cheaper! This company was bought out in 2022 so it's best to take your kids to a small business instead. Lessons in California are not as expensive as they are here and teachers are able to make more money in California than in this company. This is coming from a conversation I had with someone who owns a swim school in San Francisco while I was teaching their kid! P.S. EMLER will also make you sign a waiver where if you were to go out and teach lessons outside of the contract, you can get sued for this. EMLER really wants all the monopoly. They have a pay cap. They will not pay you more than $20 hr, but they are steadily raising lesson prices? I came to find out that many of my coworkers, neighboring schools, did not get payed for the work they did. For example, I had a ex-coworker (Walnut-Hill location) & was pushed to do management duties while being paid as a porter for 1 full calendar year. I've had my fair share of good moments but this company is not what it used to be, it's corporate greed.

Ms. Paige is AMAZING! The absolute best swim instructor in the DFW area…read more I chose Paige's Swim School three years ago for my two children who had already failed to learn with another instructor in the area. I had my reservations that anyone would be able to break my eldest of her extreme fear of water or my youngest of her timidity. But, with her patience and persistence, Ms. Paige had them enjoying the water in no time! We have been swimming year-round with her for the past three years. Not because my children haven't learned how to swim, but because the LOVE it! Paige is unique in that she teaches each child as an individual, working with their own personality style and skill level. Over the years I have seen her interact with many different children. She has a gift with special needs kids. She can accomodate unusual requests, like blending groups of swimmers so that siblings and friends can be in the same class, if desired. To me, learning to swim is as important as wearing a seat belt. It is a life-saving skill every child needs to learn. Ms. Paige will not only teach your child how to stay safe around water, but she will teach him/her to love swimming.

Paige is an amazing person and swim teacher. We have been taking lessons from her for over three…read moreyears now and my kids both love her. She is gentle and takes each child's fears and needs into consideration when teaching. She was able to take my "fear of the water" kiddo and turn him into a kid that swims the length of the pool! I would highly recommend Paige if you are looking for a place to get your kids in the pool.