Lucile Cowle’s Swim School

The younger girl instructor just grabbed my baby and barely introduced herself to us or the baby even though I told her that my baby has major stranger anxiety. She snatched my baby and took him to the pool while he was screaming and crying his head off. What an idiot! Advice for this school: at a certain age, babies have major separation anxiety. Be sensitive to that fact, and at least take 5 minutes out of the 15 min session to greet the baby, put his feet in the water and just let him play with toys involving the parents. DO NOT just snatch the baby and force him to «kick» while hes swallowing/​inhaling water from screaming his head off. I mean, his BARBER was more sensitive to that fact. The first session should be about making the baby comfortable with the water and instructor. Nope, no common sense here.IDIOTS. I tried taking my baby to an aquatic center today just to get him used to the water and of course he is now traumatized! My baby used to be happy and excited about going into the pool just right before his first session at Lucille’s…right after the session he’s completely different and terrified of swimming pools, thanks to the stupid staff here!

This is a great school. Amazing instructors, very nice staff and very well organized. The facility was always very clean. Too bad it’s not open year round. Register early as classes fill up quickly.

This is our second session in the same summer and I’m very pleased with the school. My 2 yr old loves his instructor, Jeremy, who is extremely patient with him. I’m so happy with the experience that I think we’ll do a third session this summer. My son gets very excited for his lessons.

This was the first summer my daughters attended Lucile’s. My youngest daughter loved the experience, she couldn’t wait to see her instructor Rebecca (who was great with my 2.5 yr old.) Max was my eldest daughter’s instructor; he was patient but kept challenging her. I was very thankful to have had such great instructors.
As for the facility, there was plenty of room for kids to change.
Beware, finding parking will take some time.

I love this swim school!
2 years ago, we used a different (more famous) swim school. That one was much more expensive, very chaotic, and my daughter didn’t have the same teacher for every lesson. So each instructor never really knew where she was skill-​wise. One had her jumping off the diving board and the next lesson, the instructor would say «Let’s sit on the stairs and drip water on your head to get you used to the water!» It was weird.
Because Lucile Cowle was so much less money and hadn’t (that I knew of) been featured in the news and voted best swimming in various magazines… I assumed we were in for a somewhat sub-​par experience. I couldn’t have been more wrong!
My daughter (who is 4) started off by barely even wanting to get her face wet (she’d regressed from her lessons of 2 years ago). By the end of her lessons, she was jumping off the diving board, swimming to the wall, and climbing out all by herself. Her teacher, Rebecca, is awesome. So we signed her up for MORE lessons and now Rebecca is teaching her different swim strokes as well as how to dive. We’re so happy with this school!

We are on our 3^rd summer here. My daughter has made progress each year, and started out her first lessons at 3 years old. She is building great memories here, and overcoming her fears /​anxieties about swimming. Even though she loves the pool so much, she has these childlike nerves (duh), and Lucile’s staff are amazing at helping her ENJOY making progress.
Plan to burn a few minutes parking — so give yourself enough time to be there on time. But they also (pro tip here) run the clock back about 5 minutes to help those who might be running late. So if you show up to your lesson «on time» you’re going to be 5 minutes early on the Lucile clock ;)
They have suckers for the kids. I guess that’s a «must have» for mine lol.
Before our first year we did price out the lessons. They were comparable with the Rose Bowl. I think this year we may sprinkle some winter lessons in for her at the Rose Bowl to «keep her skills up».

We began when my son was 4 and returned every year. He learned to swim, gained confidence and now is building his skills in his strokes. The staff has been open to requests we have made as to the type of teacher we would like and the area of instruction we would like. I highly recommend this wonderful school.

I’ve taken 3 children to Lucile Cowle’s over the last 7 years. The experience my son had was good; the experience my middle daughter had was pretty good, and my youngest still hasn’t learned to swim despite a package of 10 30-​minute lessons.
On the whole, our experience has been ok. But my primary gripe about this place (besides the parking, which shouldn’t be legal — they have two parking spaces available, one of those is disabled — otherwise, you need to use street parking in a residential neighborhood) is how they schedule lessons.
Folks, it’s 2014 — why are you still asking people to leave a message on an answering machine and making people repeatedly dial in when getting a busy signal? When I’ve asked this question in the past, I hear «the place is run by teachers who don’t know technology well enough to change the system.» My response — spend a few hundred dollars and hire someone! Having to argue with someone about what time and when you left an answering machine message and having to wait for weeks to get your schedule is very 1980s — not in a good way.

My 6 year old son went from being completely petrified of getting his face wet to diving into 8 feet of water from the diving board and swimming to the edge to climb out of the pool. I can’t saw enough about the care and attention my son received here. When I first enrolled him in swim classes I figured that if we could get him to hold his breath under water and dunk his head within the 10 lessons it was money well spent. Well, that was accomplished in lesson two. After that it was smooth sailing. I regret not signing my 3 year old up for this summer but I will be the first one to book an appointment with them next summer.

This school really helped my older son (now in H.S.) after three summers of lessons. However, when I had my 2^nd child, it was less friendly in 2010. I tried to bring my non potty trained 3 y.o. into the ladies room even though he was a boy. I got called out on it and told I could have peed in the «family» bathroom, which is right by the sinks upon entry. All stalls are covered by only curtains on rings. Also, my older son, whom I paid for 3 seasons of lessons was highly scrutinized when he and I entered the pool for open swim and he wanted to try to hold his little bro under my supervision in the water. I will come right out and say it. It was open swim lifeguard Teacher Jim, who actually instructed my older son.

Thinking of swimming lessons for the kids. This place is great! We brought our son here when he was 2 and probably not the best time as it just wasnt happening. We just brought him back at 4 and its been about 2 weeks and hes already swimming on his own. The coaches are great and so is the instruction.
Only downside, its a bit pricey and the sessions are generally 15 minutes.

We just had a 10 lesson set (3 times a week) and my kids (3.5 and 6) went from zero confidence and little ability to a great deal of both. Our instructor, Spencer, was great — calm yet firm, caring — and both kids looked forward to lessons. The one on one structure makes all the difference. More money than the Y, but a great value for what you really get. We will be going back next summer!

Love this swim School. My little guy went to another swim program for years but never learned to swim. I then moved him to Lucile Cowle’s for one on one classes. After 8 classes with Michael he was swimming across the pool. He was afraid and cried a good bit (age 5) but Michael gave him the right kind of tough love to believe in himself. I should note, before getting in the pool my son had no fear of the water and had a lot of the basics of swim down, he just didn’t know how to put it all together. Thank you Michael. You are great!!!

LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS PLACE!!! My 11 month old son would scream in the bath tub! Since meeting with instructor Michael he LOVES swimming! AND LOVES the tub! Michael is a patient & caring instructor!

My daughter has been going to Lucile’s every summer for the past 3 years. The instructors have been great and the price is reasonable for one on one instruction. I am not an über sensitive parent myself, so I have told her instructors every year to push my daughter and not sugar coat the lessons.
The first year, at age 6, she cried the first few lessons, but the instructor was great at keeping her focused on the lesson and not on crying for me to pick her up out of the pool. Now, my daughter is hooked on going every summer and now pushes herself to accomplish the goals set by the instructors.
We do the 30 minute lessons three days a week and it has been well worth the money. My daughter has enough confidence to get into a pool now but is smart enough to know her limits.
Only negative I have with the joint is lack of parking. They don’t have a parking lot, so you have to compete with the surrounding apartment buildings and the public park across the street, but with the lessons being on weekday early afternoons, it hasn’t been too bad.
And, for those with tablets and iPads, they offer free WiFi.

I took my 5 ½ year old daughter to this swim school for nine 15 minute lessons. It was a 3 day a week cycle consisting of Mon, Wed, and Friday. The instructor she was assigned was Paul. He did a good job and was great at motivating my child to do better each time. The one con I have is that I missed the 2^nd lesson because my daughter was sick with a fever. I found out that they charge a 6 dollar fee to reschedule and it seemed hard to try to get a make up lesson. However it was a great experience for my daughter to see other children learning to swim too in the pool.

BAD BAD BAD instructor JESSIE at LUCILE COWLES SWIM SCHOOL.
The Lucile Cowles swim school knows nothing about teaching babies how to swim!
One teacher named Jessie dunked my child under the water while she was crying TWICE. What a horrible instructor Jessie is; be forewarned if you have a baby, don’t let THIS MONSTER NEAR yours. I ran to get my baby away from the awful girl and all Jessie had to say was «I’m the best instructor here» and scoffed away. She never apologized to me. A previous lesson with Jessie was when she pinned my little girl onto the side of the pool for 7 minutes to make her sit there. She just pushed on her and pushed on her until I said stop Jessie you are going to create a block, this is supposed to be fun. Well I have a news flash for you Jessie… GOOD TEACHERS DONT ABUSE THEIR STUDENTS!!!
Each time Jessie came to pick up my daughter for her lesson she didn’t even greet me with a smile or a hello. She walked around the pool like she was in a permanent bad mood. Well she’s not going to take it out on my daughter. What a nasty, mean, horrible girl that Jessie is. She should never be around babies. My daughter rarely cried until she met Jessie from Lucile Cowle’s Swim School. What a despicable person she is.
The other mothers in my group thought Lucile Cowles Swim School doesn’t know how to teach babies; they do not have an understanding of kids under 3.
The owners don’t care about the students and they are very unfriendly toward the people that spend 170 dollars for 3.5 weeks at this lousy swim school.

They taught me how to swim after a near-​death experience in Hawaii. They give you lollipops from what I remember and the teachers there are really really nice, even when you’re screaming and crying and terrified of the water. I think it’s a good place for a kid to learn how to swim, I mean, I turned out all right…

What started off as a pretty good experience really just turned into a nightmare of unfriendly people who really don’t care about your children.
I would not suggest this place to anyone.

My boys were fortunately gifted swim lessons last summer at Lucile Cowle’s Swim School in Burbank. I was a little skeptical since I had never heard of the swim school before and because the lessons were pretty expensive (although a gift to us). The lessons here are different — one on one lessons at 15 minute intervals either 2, 3 or 5 days a week depending on your preference.
My older son was paired with Paul who was really tuned into the individual needs of my 4 ½ year old. My tot was paired up with Lacee who was fantastic as well. By the end of the summer my kids had progressed beautifully and next summer, gift or no gift, we’d like to send our kids back.
This is a 5 star swim school, however I’m hesitant to give 4 stars just because it is not year round, is on the expensive end, and the parking situation sucks. But all in all, I do feel the lessons were well worth it. The instructors are fantastic. A true hidden jem.