Charles River Aquatics in Wellesley

My experience at CRA started out great but has gone downhill, and currently, I'm really disappointed. When I started last summer, I had a great instructor and learned a lot. I continued on after the summer, paying $200.00/month for adult small group lessons. Some of the lessons were cancelled due to "black-out dates" or swim meets. Other lessons involved substitute instructors, some good and others who seemed young, inexperienced and lacking in teaching skills. CRA states that "there are occasional dates on which programming is cancelled. These interruptions are taken into account when calculating monthly tuition." So there were at least 9 cancelled classes and it is hard to wrap my head around the math - it seems like a few months, we were paying $100.00/class. I guess the money spent is OK if the instruction is consistently top-notch, but not if it is otherwise. Recently, there was an abrupt change in swimming instructors, and I wanted to talk to someone in management about it. I wrote two emails, waited a week, and was promised a call which I never received. So I'm finishing out my time with CRA since I already paid $200.00 for the final month of May, but as I said, I am SO disappointed and will likely not return. It is a real bummer. Addendum: Yes, I would appreciate a credit for the May classes. The transition was not handled well. The new instructor is a very, very nice person, very personable and professional and I'm sure he is wonderful with his usual assignments. I wish management could listen deeply to what I am saying and consider my viewpoint with an open mind.

Charles River Aquatics is a great swim school. My two daughters have taken lessons there the past 2 years and it's a very thorough and rigorous program. Both of my children are confident and safe in the water. My oldest child has now joined the swim team and she loves it! She has improved her technique, made friends, and found a love of swimming.

The best to improve!!!! All the coaches are fantastic and welcoming. My 2 daughters swim for CRA and they still say it was the best time!!

No matter where your kids start taking swim lessons, you will end up at Charles River Aquatics. My son tried YMCA, Gold Fish (far and near). My daughter did Brookline Rec. Nobody will teach your child the real efficient and modern swim technique. The instructors will watch arms and legs moves and correct them until the child has the proper technique. Besides that the staff is really nice and very helpful. My daughter finished level 4 at Charles River Aquatics and she swims beautifully.

My five year old son has been attending swim lessons at Charles River Aquatics for the last couple years. He loves it! Small class sizes, just three people in his lane with one teacher. During COVID, the instructors remained on the deck, but we strongly prefer the current set up with instructors in the pool. He is very comfortable in the water, and we're thankful for all of the excellent instruction. There is a family changing room and showers which he loves so he's not so cold after coming out of the very warm training pool.

Best swim programs in New England! Both of my kids have taken swim lessons with CRA and my son has swum on their competitive swim team for 4 years. We tried tons of different swim lessons and programs in the area and found them to teach incorrectly and waste tons of time. Our son is an amazing swimmer thanks to CRA and our daughter is well on her way to being water safe and learning correct technique. All of the coaches and instructors are fantastic but most of all they have real swimmers in charge that oversee the programs well and pay attention to the individual kids. On top of it all, they have the nicest facilities around!

My daughters truly could not be happier with their experience on the CRA Dragons Swim Team. They had been on a YMCA swim team for many years before deciding to make the move to a bigger, more competitive team. We joined CRA right as the pandemic was shutting things down, so when my girls were first able to swim there in summer 2020, they had to get temperature checks and wear masks when out of the water, plus social distance from peers and coaches, yet they were quickly able to make strong connections with other swimmers and coaches. The facility was wonderful about COVID protocols through the past few years and now that those protocols have relaxed it has been a true gift to spectate at meets again. The coaches are so experienced and professional yet are also warm and engaging with the swimmers, and it's obvious how much they care about not just the physical growth of the swimmers but about their social and emotional health. All communications from all CRA staff have been clear and as a parent I feel like I'm truly in the loop and everything is transparent. We have been thoroughly satisfied with our CRA experience!

Had my son here for 3 months. Not a good experience. When I originally had him evaluated, they told me he just needed to work on a straighter kick and pointed toes. We swim regularly, and I noticed that after 2 months of lessons, there was zero improvement. If anything, his kick had gotten significantly worse. And he had started coming out of streamline positions to doggy paddle. Observing this, I checked in with the instructor, and the evaluator told me that he was doing a hybrid breast/freestyle kick with very bent legs. (Which he had not been doing previously). When I asked my son (he is 9 years old) about what he did in his lessons, he told me that they had him and another kid just kicking and racing across the pool, with little instruction. Thankfully, last week was parent observation. I watched as for the entire first 20 minutes, as he did 4 laps kicking (incorrectly) with a barbell, breathing forward. He received zero feedback or encouragement from the instructor. We pulled him out of lessons that day. $450 to be a worse swimmer!!!! What a rip-off!!! This was such a disappointing experience for us, since I have older children and we had a really great experience with CRA lessons 8 years ago. My older son still credits his good swimming ability to the lessons he took. Sad that they have deteriorated so much!