Looking for a place to teach your kids how to swim? Swimwest is a great little place to start! The…read moreplace has some great staff and clean facilities. There's only one pool which is split into multiple classes at the same time. Most of the kids are younger than 4 years old. My son started here when he was 1.5 years old and it has been great. I highly recommend this place if you're looking to get your baby or toddler acquainted with water.

Swimwest Fitchburg has been an amazing place for our kids! We started our first at 9 months old…read moreand he has progressed rapidly through the levels. He is now 4 and has amazing confidence in the water, knows how to get to the edge or roll to float and can get about 10 feet across the water alone. Our younger one we started at 5 months and she is not yet 2 but swimming with a teacher and 2 other students. She also has learned to roll to float and put her hands out to get to the step. We have been very impressed with their flexibility in scheduling, their nurturing encouragement to make all kids feel comfortable in the water and the overall confidence and love our kids have learned to have for swimming thanks to the staff at Swimwest Fitchburg! Pros: The pool and area inside the pool are warm, the space is clean and the pool water does not hurt the kids eyes (just the right amount of chemicals), the teachers or deck person checks in with you about your child's progress, and the staff is friendly and fun - you can tell they enjoy their jobs! Cons: The weekends and evenings can be crowded but your child still gets the attention he or she needs in the water and classes can fill up quickly. *We love the Fitchburg location due to size and smaller community feel*

i think that your experience will depend on your instructor and, if you have to encounter one, what…read moremanager you have to talk to. I've had very pleasant and positive experiences here, and I've had horrid ones. In regard to the latter, a manager derisively spoke to me about the language their website used, because I was too stupid to understand that their written words and options weren't what they meant, and then hung up on me when I asked her for her name. And she then called me back and lied to me that she had hung up on me. But the instructors have been nice and attentive enough--some have been wonderful, some not so engaged. But given what I experienced as management's tone to a customer, I don't don't fault staff for not being fully enthralled with their job.

We love Goldfish! Our child has been here about a year off and on. His development has been steady…read moreand solid. It's so fun to be able to watch them, especially when they achieve new heights. The instructors are great overall, and some are simply naturals at this. The front desk staff is fantastic as well. They provide excellent customer service and support. They have always been pleasant when we have asked for anything. I actually look forward to our visits there, seeing the instructors and saying hi to the front staff. Because you go routinely, you end up feeling inclusiveness--kind of like being a regular at a restaurant or bar! If you're considering Goldfish, give it a try. We did and will continue.

Swimming competency is crucial for safety around water and Little Strokes helps children learn at…read moretheir own pace. The building contains a heated pool and locker rooms allowing for lessons any time of year. The little ones do a celebration of their choosing with the instructor every few swims to help keep things fun and at the end of the session, swimmers are given a bracelet the color of which lets parents know which level would be appropriate for the next session. Our kids have enjoyed attending.

Very well-run business. Small and personal enough to address each child and parent by name. The…read moreowner/main swim instructor, Bill, is really a pleasure to work with. He has the perfect combination of authority, warmth and humor to be a teacher of younger kids. The skills he teaches even very young children are amazing. Staff is very flexible and accommodating. Facilities are clean and well maintained, and the pool and air are warm enough for the very youngest children. Highly recommended!

This, I think, is the some of the VERY best money we have spent on any of our children. Alyssa is…read morea true professional and the peace of mind she has given me is priceless. I cannot believe the transformation in my child. She went from having a pretty intense fear of water to being a total fish-loving to swim independently! As soon as it is a bit warmer, I can't wait to get her back in the water with Alyssa! We LOVE ISR!

I can't say enough about what Alyssa has done for our family. While other swimming lessons taught…read moremy sons to splash and kick on command, ISR has taught my children to swim, quickly, eyes open, fully underwater, and to float completely unassisted while wearing heavy winter clothing. Serious, life saving skills. I was hesitant at first to sign up for 3 reasons: time commitment, expense, and more than anything else, fear that my kids would freak out and develop a fear of water. As for time commitment - you get used to the routine of coming daily very quickly and it becomes a fun activity that is just a part of your day. As for expense, first, it is an investment in your child's safety. Second, given the training and serious time investment Alyssa puts forward with each student, you get more than your money's worth. And as for fear: the opposite came true. My boys are so PROUD of what they have accomplished (because it's hard work!), and are more excited than ever to be in the water. I would not hesitate to recommend ISR lessons with Alyssa to anyone and everyone.

Good really isn't enough, but for Yelp purposes, 4.9 We've been Catch the Wave family for 6 years…read morenow and both of our boys have learned to swim under the program. We're so grateful for the wonderful instructors and staff- THANK YOU

We've been bringing our kids to Catch the Wave since the baby swim classes, and it's just been a…read moregreat experience. They've definitely learned a lot and are way more confident swimmers. The safety/survival stuff they teach gives me peace of mind, which is huge! My kids love going every week, their instructors are amazing especially Jennifer! Classes are small and price is great for how much fun my kids have. Plus, they're veteran-owned and have a military discount, which we appreciate. Just awesome choice all around if you are looking for swimming lessons!

We had our two kids enrolled here for about three years. The facility is nice and most of the…read moreinstructors have been pretty good--albeit, there was quite a bit of turnover on instructors. However, the front desk and administration is quite poor. They frequently would not have people able to take phone calls during business hours leading to many phone calls going unanswered. The biggest problem is that they don't manage accounts well. Since we joined a private pool for the summer, we had cancelled lessons for one of our kids (the other had already been cancelled) at the end of May, which was too late to cancel for June as they billed for the next month on the 20th of the month prior. That's fine. Though, it was quite the process to cancel. We tried to cancel in person at the end of a lesson with the desk worker. They told us that they would put in a request to a supervisor to see if we're able to cancel. What?! They ended up telling us we were unenrolled, but that's quite a bizarre way to manage accounts. Whatever, we continued through June and planned to be done at the end of that month. One of the weeks during the month of June, we asked to switch the lesson to another time that week, which was a fairly standard request and which they did. Fine. However, what they didn't tell us is that they then instead re-enrolled him for that time slot going forward. So, to our surprise, we got a tuition charge for the month July on June 20th, which we didn't notice for a week or two. We called and asked what happened. They admitted that they re-enrolled when we asked to change the lesson time for that one week. The desk person said they would have a supervisor look into fixing it. We waited a week or so. Nothing. We called again and left messages. Eventually, they said they credited our account for that month. We said, "No, we unenrolled, we don't want a credit, we wanted a refund as it was your mistake." They said they would make that correction. Okay. We kept checking calling about once a week to no avail. No answer, no returned calls. Fast forward to July 20th while we wait for them to resolve it. We get billed again for the month of August! We noticed it right away as we were waiting to get refunded. We called again and actually got a hold of someone. They apologize and told us a supervisor would look into it as well as the charge on June 20th. On June 31st they refunded just the charge on July 20th but not the one on June 20th. We call again on August 1st, no answer, no return message. We call a few more times to no avail. Then, on August 20th we get some random charge of $25. Ugh. We have no idea what's going on. I suppose we'll just have our credit card block all charge from them. Moral of the story, DO NOT GO HERE. This is basically stealing, right?

We love Swim West and have had great success with lessons for my toddler (now preschooler) and…read moreolder daughter. They focus on safety and provide a fun and engaging curriculum for all ages. I highly recommend!

Let's first start off I'm happy with the outcome of how comfortable my son is after this spring…read morecourse in and under water. Now let's get into why I rated only 2 stars, the instructor well the one my son had been assigned to talked more than actually teaching and making my son engage in the water and missed too much session with my son so I felt by missing too much session with my son how would that instructor knows how my son has improved and where in what area he can improve on. So then I had them switched to a new instructor. Lessons are too short only 30 each time and with each time it's literally only like 5-10 min because there were also others in the same lane as him too so less interactions. Added to that, each week gone by were the same routine until the last 2 session they just added 1 new thing which is safety. So you are basically paying for the same movement each week they go in for lesson. Although all staffs were friendly it needs to be a bit more organized.

We've been coming here for swim lessons for the past few months. Due to COVID restrictions, they've…read morebeen offering private lessons at a discounted price. It's not cheap but our son has learned a lot and really likes his teacher. I wish there were lockers in the locker room so we didn't have to haul everything onto the pool deck or leave it unlocked in a cubby. Everything is new and they follow COVID guidelines closely.

The gym is fine and everyone is very nice, but I am calling BS in one issue. Since I joined this…read moregym I have been inundated with signs and notifications stating that credit card payments incur a fee to cover charges from the bank , who is implicitly blamed for the problem This is gaslighting. The fee from the bank to the company is a cost of doing business that they are passing onto the customer in order to save money. If the heating bill goes up, will that expense be passed onto the members? What if the pool breaks down? Let's be honest, and please take down all the signs. I don't need to be gaslit when I am working out.

Outstanding health club. Friendly folk. Super clean! Easy parking. 2 pools have fresh sea water…read more Best club ever.

When I first visited this Y (maybe 6 or 7 years ago) I was underwhelmed. The weight room was small,…read moredisorganized, dated. I'm glad to report it is much better in 2024: very updated equipment, spread out, bikes and treadmills near the weights. I'm mainly there to warm up and cool down with cardio, before I ldo weights, so this is convenient for my routine. The facility is old but they seem to be doing the best they can with the space they have to work with. Genuinely helpful staff, too, which was not the situation 6-7 years ago. Why three stars? The summer hours are terrible and they actually closed early on a Saturday that was already closing at 5pm. For what a Y membership costs, I think I'll have a better experience value-wise trying Madison East or the other locations, but this is better than it was.

My name is Kat, and I worked at the YMCA as a teacher for seven years. Based on my experience, I…read morewould strongly recommend finding other care for your child and to show this to anyone considering enrolling their child. During my career at the Y, the directors made special exceptions to allow violence toward students and teachers for specific students, leaving the rest of the class in danger. Such as letting children run around the entire building, hurting other children or teachers without repercussions of their actions. There is no behavior modification or specialists to help aide the children either. Teachers are heavily reliant on using communication but receive little to none in return from directors. Teachers are expected to make note of all incident and accident reports via paper copy which caused three months worth of incident reports were "lost" and never recovered. When tasks are delegated there is little to no time to complete them. I was given two hours to move my whole classroom alone with less than a days notice, resulting in the loss of our key to the med box. Teachers at the Y are planning children's day to day and do not need to be worried about the state of their classroom aesthetic only if the materials are developmentally appropriate for their age. If you care more about your child's safety and well-being than the aesthetic of your child's classroom, find another facility.