Best decision I have ever made was to finally book Dan. I regret not doing this years ago and wasting thousands of dollars on swim schools that teach absolutely nothing. My 6yr old daughter, after 3 lessons with Dan, was able to swim and understood water safety. Isn't that what we all want? These swim instructors at swim schools just hold onto our children and play with them in the water. It's nonsense and such a waste of time. The only way to teach a child to swim is to let go and make them aware of where the side of the pool is for safety. Dan is no fluff, not there to play. He is there to teach your kid how to get from the middle of the pool to the side of the pool by themselves without needing help. This is a water safety course. Your kid will know what to do if they ever fall into the water and need to find the edge of the pool within 15 seconds. That's the life saving course he is teaching them and it works. It's not easy for the kids for the first 4 days and it's not easy for the parents to watch. There is a lot of crying but after day 4 or 5, the crying stops and they learn that if they cry while trying to swim, they will choke on the water so they should probably stop. I highly recommend every parent to put their child in this water safety course asap. I kept hearing about Dan for years from other friends that had their kids complete his course but I was too scared to do it. And then every summer would go by and my kid still couldn't swim. I finally got so sick of the swim Schools that I booked Dan's 10 day course and it was the best decision. Do not hesitate to do this and know that it's not a pleasant situation. But you know what is? Knowing my kid can get to the side of the pool in one breath if she is ever in a situation where this is needed. I remember hearing this stat while at Dan's lessons last year and it has stuck with me and I hope this resonates with whoever is reading this: it takes 20 seconds for a kid to drown. When a kid is drowning and doesn't know water safety, the first 15 seconds they spend splashing around looking for their parents to come help them or someone to hold onto. That's 15 seconds of wasted breath and time to get to the side of the pool safely. Dan teaches kids to know their surroundings, put your head in the water and find the nearest edge. read more

We had a great experience with Dan for our 3.5 year old. We went from never having had a swim lesson and in 10 days was jumping off pool ledges with excitement and reaching the sides of the swimming pool all on her own! The classes are not for the faint of heart. These are accelerated no nonsense classes and the intent is to teach them to survive. For the first few days, expect a lot of tears and emotions from the kiddos. The last few days, they will be proud of their accomplishment and enjoy being in the water. I was lucky and our kiddo did not cry one day. She loved it so much, she still asks to go back. I am beyond impressed and have a sense of relief knowing she can swim with safety. Thank you so much, Dan! read more

Dan was great!!! We took our twins to his 10 day swim class and within 3 lessons they were little fish! He was stern and direct, but that's exactly what 2.5 year olds need so they understand how important water safety is. My husband and I took turns taking the kids, and we both agree that it was an overall great experience! Thankful to have found him and we feel so much better about having a backyard pool with little ones! Thanks again Dan!! read more

Walking in to someone backyard with screaming, crying kids and babies should be your first clue. This small little man in a large body has no business working with children. It's a sickening display of authority. No compassion, kindness, softness, empathy or ability to deal with children. Will your child learn to swim to the side of the pool? They better! This man is barking orders all the while calling the child winey and manipulative. Pool safety and learning to swim are an absolute necessity. But this is torture and a traumatic experience. There are better ways. read more

Being able to swim isn't worth the emotional trauma of making kids cry their eyes out. He showed zero compassion about it too. Awful experience. read more

Kids learned to trust and listen. He was firm and it may have come across ass too firm for some of the parents. But at the end of the day my kid learned how to survive in the pool. Maybe not swim so great but can at least float and or get to the edge read more

Our 4 y/o had a great experience, she keeps asking to go back. Some days are better than others but Dan knows the right amount to push their comfort level. read more

Dan is the best!!!! Lots of tears by little kids but you can tell they are learning. Every kid needs to know how to swim. Couldn't be happier with the results read more

We are beyond happy we met Dan and got swim lessons with him. He is extremely professional. My daughter did not know how to swim for years now. We have been going to aqua tots in Costa Mesa California and she never learned how to swim. With Dan just for 10 days she knows now. We will do his sessions every year he will be here so my daughter can refresh everything she knows and will learn more new techniques. Absolutely recommend him to all the parents. read more

Swim2Dan - Swimming lessons with Coach Dan. - Swimming Lessons/Schools Near Me

We took lessons several years ago and I have debated many times whether to post, but I felt extremely uncomfortable with Dan's teaching methods and feel parents need to know. On the last day, he invited parents to join in the pool and learn how to teach, and in pushing off my child to swim to the wall, he specifically said 'and you put your hand on their crotch...'. I don't care what your method is, but no teacher/adult should be touching my child's crotch. read more

It's seriously magic. You have to be committed and do all 10 days - it gets better each day, even when you don't think you see as much progress days 3-8 but it's magic. My daughter went from hating water, hating her head being underwater to becoming a total mermaid by the end. She jumps in and out of the pool over and over again. She's doing so great! We're so thrilled. She needed Dan's "tough love" type of teaching for this to work. So, the parents will definitely need to be very supportive of this style. But it worked really well for her! And I can't wait for my younger one to do this too. Wish I had done it this year with her older sister. Whoops :). read more

My daughter (just under 3 years old) went from zero swim experience to swimming with Dan's 10 day program. His method is definitely no-nonsense, and my daughter responded well to that. Yes, the first couple of days were hard as you will read in other reviews. But now she can swim, and it was so worth it. She's so happy to jump in the pool and swim and she's having the best time! read more

Our son Wesley came to Dan after months and months of formal swim lessons and still not being a confident swimmer. After his 10 day class, our son was a confident swimmer. We have a pool at our home and it was super important to trust him in the pool. We have a younger son and we will definitely be signing him up when he is old enough. If you're a parent that can't handle an intense class with kids crying (including probably your own), I would avoid this class, but in my opinion, a few days of crying is 100% worth it to have a child who can handle themselves in the pool. For the record, our son did not cry at all, but most of the other kids did for the first few days. Thank you Dan!! read more

Day 8 (today) was the last straw for us. My son is already a decent swimmer, but we have a pool at home and heard many great things about Dan. I should have listened to my gut instinct on day one. Because my son was the strongest in his group, Dan seemed to go extra hard on him. He constantly berated my son, yelled at him (and only him) in the pool, would flip him over in the water sometimes twice in a row, and even used profanity towards him on day 8. My son has done ISR lessons and is pretty tough, but Dan lacks professionalism and his approach is far too aggressive. read more

Nearly drowned my niece. She left swim lessons with a distended belly due to swallowing so much water. She used to love the water and now she's scared of going near the pool. His methods are barbaric, forceful, and incredibly harsh. If you're OK with watching someone torture your kid, send them here. Most kids are crying. Swimming should be fun, not traumatic. Do not recommend. read more

Big fan of Dans no nonsense approach to swim lessons through his 10 day boot camp. Your kid screaming and crying for the first few days is inevitable given they don't know how to swim and are being pushed to become comfortable in a scenario where they are naturally uncomfortable. After the first few days; you'll become amazed with their process and how much more comfortable they've become with pushing themselves and truly learning to swim. My 3 year old is officially a swimmer thanks to Dan! read more

I would give Dan zero star if I could. I hope everyone reads his reviews before signing their kids to his swim program. We are still in shock with our experience during the first 5 mins of our daughter's swim session. When we first walked towards the swimming pool that he borrowed from other parents, we heard all the kids in the pool crying. We had done our homework to understand the intensity of his swim program. Our other friends also signed up to his early time slots said he was rough with their kids. Striking our child across her hip to try to get her to get back into the pool while she is trying to craw herself out of the pool was definitely crossing the line. The two slaps were loud enough for all of the parents to hear from where they were sitting. All the parents were in shock and felt bad for us. We immediately went into the gate and picked up our 3yo daughter. Our daughter is still in distress & traumatized from her experience and we are in disbelief for what we've witnessed. Since then we have contacted him for a refund. Of course he ignored us just like why he wouldn't endorse his yelp reviews. I have heard from my friend that stayed in the program that her daughter drank so much pool water she threw up two days in a row. He doesn't know how to handle scared kids and those methods will make some kids not trust adults or the water. read more

We just finished our 10 day lesson with day with our 1.5 yr old and HE CAN SWIM! We are so happy we signed up for these classes and rode out the crying for the first 5 days, by the 6th day our son was splashing and no longer crying and holding his breath better under water without intaking water. It was so important to us to have our son know how to swim and we knew that other programs can take a long time so we're so pleased he could learn quickly. Thanks to Dan for teaching our son such an important lesson! read more

Two of my children,a 2 yr old and 4 yr old went through Dan's swimming course. My 4 yr old has been in swim lessons for two years prior to seeing Dan, with very little result. The first day was very tough for both the kids and I. Lots of crying with nervous parents. The intent of Dan's lessons are not all fun and games, it's about survival. As each day passed they continued to improve their swimming skills. By the end of the lessons, my 4 year old was swimming by herself 15ft from edge to edge of the pool with one breath. My 2 year old who has had zero prior swimming experience could jump in and make his way back to the edge. It was such a confidence booster to both of my children knowing what they had accomplished in such a short time. Thank you Dan! read more

Was a little nervous going into Dan's lessons since he has a no nonsense approach but I can honestly say it is why my 2 year old has made so much progress. The first few days are hard to watch but after it clicks, things get easier. My son cried the first few days and just wanted to play but once he learned that he needs to follow directions in the pool, things went so smooth. Prior to Dan's lessons we were in swim lessons for 1.5 years and only have so much to show for it. After Dan's 10 day course, our son can swim to the side of the pool and back. We will be putting our other son into lessons once he is old enough and 100% recommend to others. read more

My 4.5 year old went through the wizardry that is Dan's swimming class and emerged a confident swimmer! Dan is definitely no nonsense but depending on your child and parenting style, I suspect this is what is needed for a 10 day intensive course. Our child went from not putting her head underwater to being able to swim the width of a pool sans goggles. The magic started happening around Day 3 (might be longer for others). There was a substantial amount of crying the first day, similar to other kids (hack: I sent my husband to the first two classes, he has a higher tolerance for seeing crying). Dan himself is very kind and considerate, I enjoyed our interactions. Bring a towel and change of clothes, most pools that host don't have any place to change so we normally put on a swimsuit before class and changed her after the class in the car. Our experience was extremely positive and I would highly recommend this for results with low time commitment read more

I have been seeing people ask about swim instructors lately and saw that Dan's name was still somehow in the mix which is disturbing so I felt compelled to write a review! Too bad zero stars is not an option! My daughter, who is 16 years old, still has HORRIBLE memories of her swim lesson with him when she was FOUR years old because it was so traumatic! She was fearless and could swim across the pool already but we thought she would learn some techniques. Instead, he held her head down and would not let her take a breath for the length of the pool. She started gagging from swallowing so much water and started crying which was very unusual for her because she loved swimming and being in a pool. After holding her head down, with her ingesting a lot of water for several laps, I pulled her out of the pool, and never went back. Meanwhile, while he was holding her head under water and not letting her take a breath, another child was waiting on the steps, crying. The little boy fell off of the steps and into the shallow end of the pool. Dan did not notice and the dad jumped into the pool, fully dressed for work. I am actually surprised that he is still doing swim lessons! I know the police were called by neighbors concerned by the screaming and crying kids the summer we did it. My daughter still refers to him as the guy that tries to drown kids! We would NEVER recommend him!!! read more

Can't thank Dan enough for teaching our daughter to swim!! His approach is definitely rare and although it might not be for all parenting styles, I found it very refreshing to see! Our daughter is 2.5 years old and cried the first few days but at the end of day 4 it was like a switch flipped- she started enjoying it and beginning to swim. Dan doesn't react to the crying and yelling and was able to get my daughter to push through it. She made great friends in the class and on the last day she wanted to give Dan a hug and thank him! Definitely recommend... thank you Dan!! read more

I knew all about how the first few lessons could be hard and was fine with it. My friends took their kids and I saw video. My kid had been to swim lessons before and wasn't afraid of the water. She was screaming the first lesson too though since it's unforgiving and it wasn't fun but I was super encouraging. The second lesson she was consuming so much pool water from being pushed under and screaming that a couple hours later she was projectile vomiting at home. Stressful for her and us. The ped sent us to the ER to check for dry drowning which of course cost thousands of dollars. Dan refused to refund the money of the class saying that he didn't know that she was ingesting so much water. It's his job to keep your kid safe while teaching them to swim so he should've known. Considering how much he charges he is obviously making a TON of money during these lessons and I don't respect his zero refund policy. This was a case of him being irresponsible and risking our kid and costing money. His only offer was to continue to teach her or try again next year. No thanks buddy. There are more responsible and reliable ways to teach your kid to be water safe quickly. Don't bother with Dan. read more

Recently my 3 and 4.5 year old kids had their first swim lessons from Dan. He was highly recommended by friends and friends of friends, and my wife and I really wanted our children to learn to swim so we could be LESS worried when we were near pools. Dan gives children lessons for about 15 to 30 min a day, over the course of 10 days. He mobile and teaches in northern and sourthern california, providing lessons out of a "HOST's" pool. The host is usually a client or former client who generously offers their pool to friends and family members wanting to teach their children and also Dan's direct clients. On the first day of lessons, I was terrified, but Dan clearly new what he was doing. Over the course of the 10 days my children's confidence and abilities increased to the point that I knew that if they fell into water, they could orient themselves and swim to the wall. After the first week, Dan was able to drop our children into water and they would swim to the wall on their own. On the last day of lessons, parents are welcomed into the pool and Dan provides the parents lessons on how best to keep up the training, how to be safe, when to recognize if the child is okay or needs assistance, etc. Our experience was phenomenal and we would recommend him to any one who wants their children to be safe(r) around water. Keep in mind, Dan will not teach your children swim strokes or to swim laps. His focus is teaching your children basic and essential swim techniques as a basis for further development. We still need to be in the water AT ALL TIMES with our children, but it's great to be able to have them swim to you from the wall of a pool, or jump in and swim to you. read more

A bit of background - my 3.5-year-old hates water and is slow to warm to new people. We do once-a-week swim lessons in Redwood City right now with a technique that sounds very similar to Dan's, and were sort of slowly making progress, after about 5 sessions of just coming around to trust the teacher and not cry the whole time. Still, there was something appealing about a 10 day crash course. We signed up for these this last session. FYI, kids were each allotted a 15-minute slot each day, doubled up with another kid, for lessons. We had a 45-minute drive each way from Menlo Park to Hillsborough to get to the lessons. Given the hours needed to commit to this, my husband took the week off to try to accommodate them. But because our three-year-old hates swimming and didn't want to go, that 90 minutes in the car were pure hell - plus the 30+ minutes needed to pin him down and change him into his swimsuit and to change him out of it afterward. Note that there was nowhere there to change or go to the bathroom at the house that hosted in Hillsborough, so you'll have to change at home. In the first session, my son screamed the whole time and had to be pulled back into the water by his ankle by the teacher. He was a total mess. I didn't expect the first day to go well, necessarily, but my husband was completely miserable and did not want to have to deal with doing this for 10 days. That night I had a very uncomfortable call with Dan where he berated me and my husband for questioning his techniques. Even so, we decided that we couldn't put up with this level of torture all week long. There are no refunds, but we just forfeited our payment and did not go back. Your kid may not be as afraid of the water or slow to warm - or you might live closer to the venue, which would make things at least somewhat easier - but if your kid is like ours, I don't think I could recommend Dan. read more

Here is a real review and what to expect. This is truly a 10 day "boot camp" for swim. There is no coddling, warm and fuzzy treatment. You get the most out of your small amount of time because there is no nonsense. I'm not going to lie the first day for me I may have cringed a few times and wanted to run in and save her because my 4 year old could not swim at all and didn't know how to hold her breath and he just went right at it with her. But let me tell you THEY LEARN FAST TO HOLD THEIR BREATH. By the end of the 2nd day my daughter was swimming to the edge of the pool. There was another mom there that said her stubborn 5 year old had run through 4 different swim instructors and never learned how to swim, and did when she attended here. He openly states that neither the child or the parent will necessarily love it at first but the alternative of something happening to your child because they can't swim is by far the worse alternative. Honestly, I feel like a more subtle approach would take 5 times the amount of lessons you will get out of one 10 day session. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone that knows what they are walking into and can be ok with someone not sugar coating anything. read more

Thanks to Dan, my two kids are now really comfortable in water and my 1.5 year old can now jump into the pool and swim to me. I would still not let them in the pool alone but i am glad they are not scared to be in the water and comfortable swimming around a little. I feel that is the first step to a good swimming and that is exactly what Dan taught our kids. read more