Lucky Duck Swim School

I honestly cannot believe how quickly my kids are becoming water safe at this swim school.
Yeah I know the negatives. It’s an older facility without curb appeal. I got over it. I have paid much more for lessons at fancy-​schmancy South Bay places that did a whole lot of nothing.
Lucky Duck teachers were all attentive and super focused on getting the kids to a place where they could be safe by themselves in the water.
I’m very happy with the experience here so far.

I have always been hesitant to look into this school because the outside doesn’t have much appeal. But I guess what the day is true that true beauty is on the inside.
Both my children are enrolled. This is a great school with attentive teachers.

I had the pleasure of planning an event at Lucky Duck Swim School this past month with Dreamcatcher Entertainment. The staff was very flexible with all the activities we were planning and allowed us to use their pool toys. After a fun evening of team games, underwater photos, face painting, and birthday cake, I’d say the birthday party was a splash of a success!

After going through a frustrating experience at South Bay Aquatics with my oldest grandson… this was fabulous. The little guy… okay he’s 5 hated the water. Not anymore. By the second lesson he said…“I am going to go off the diving board on my 2^nd lesson.”

Tyler is awesome! Purchased 6 private lessons for our 5 year old, who had no swim experience. In the weeks she attended, she gained the confidence, and had a great experience. Going from level 1 to 3 in a breeze! Scheduling isn’t the greatest. However, Tyler is enthusiastic and a great teacher. We will be continuing after the summer. Headed to Palm Springs this weekend– with no life vest! :)

I’m loving it!!! My kids are 4.5 and 21 months. I love that we have 15 mins prior to class, and 15 mins after class to «practice» in the pool. It’s really raising the kids comfort level in the water and because of my 21 month old, I’m in the pool with them. The instructors have been great. When you sign up, you choose your priorities (same teacher? same time?). I chose same teacher, which means that I had to be flexible on the timing (which I completely understand. and in the summer, I feel lucky I was able to have one consistent teacher). I only wish, I had set up the same teacher every time for both kids as the younger one does seem to need the regularity with the teachers (but that’s my bad. not lucky ducky’s). They definitely worked with me to make the swimming lessons either at the same time or back to back (again, it helped that I was flexible with the schedule). All in all, I’m happy. And the kids are learning.

I’m going to keep this simple and short. My daughter loves to be in the swimming pool. She was taking swimming lessons at YMCA before this school and had a fantastic experience but we had to move.
Took her here and it was such a traumatizing experience for her she would fight and scream at the sight of her bathing suit. She would not even let us take her out of her car seat. (She was 2.5 years old when she was attending this school last year)
The staff is UNFRIENDLY, they are not on time, and it was an older facility. We only did 2 sessions even though we prepaid for a month. They teachers did not look happy, they were not empathetic to my daughter who was terrified. They dunked her head in while she was screaming causing her to take in water and further screaming and crying. I have a picture and videos. The owner called me and apologized and basically wanted to give me an additional 2 lessons. I never took the offer because my daughter didn’t even want to put a bathing suit on. Horrible experience.

Very torn about this swim school. Dominique is a terrific teacher but the customer service is poor and the bathrooms are dirty.

We just purchased our second set of private lessons for both of our children. The first time was alright — scheduling wasn’t easy but we went through the nine lessons by dragging them out too long which affected the impact of the lesson on our young kids. They need the lessons reasonably close together.
Now that we just paid for our second round of private lessons for both boys, we are experiencing great difficulty in booking lessons. It’s as if they over sell their packages and then the customer is screwed when it comes to booking them. This is very frustrating. Their website flat-​out says that they will work around your schedule. For the record, we are very flexible.
Lastly, this is not a state-​of-​the-​art facility or anything. The pool and facility desperately need a facelift especially compared to their one competitor which we’ll likely be moving to once this package is completed.
UPDATE: The customer is disposable to this company and the people employed by them. We canceled our package and then they have the audacity to not refund all of the funds saying that we didn’t give 48 hours notice. My credit card company and attorney have proof in recorded voicemails from them and our responses that this is not the case. Because of being treated so poorly, I will go to fight over $ 70.00 and am only sharing this to spare you the torture.

The facility is OK. It’s an older pool and the changing rooms aren’t great, but functional. We like the teachers and the layout of the private lessons.
I wish they were more consistent in scheduling the teachers. My daughter had Sat morning private lessons at pretty much the same time weekly, but her teachers were constantly switched around. My daughter being only 2 couldn’t really understand why the teacher she loved (Carissa) was in sight, but wouldn’t swim with her, and she had to swim with another unfamiliar teacher (Nicole, and another male teacher– can’t recall his name). I feel like this was a set back in her progression since her trust of the teacher really made an impact with how willing she was to put her head underwater and such.
For the most part, I was happy with this facility until I recently called to cancel a lesson. I’m well aware of the cancellation/​reschedule policy and wanted to do a courtesy call to let them know that morning that my daughter was sick and could not attend (my loss). The lady who answered the phone didn’t even ask for my daughter’s name and just said OK THANKS and hung up. So… since I already paid and you have your money, you don’t really care if my kid shows up or not?
We just finished our 2^nd set of pre-​paid lessons, not sure if I’ll be returning.

My 3^rd year here! Love this place! The private lessons have helped my now 5 year son immensely. Everyone is friendly and I love how they all know my son, makes it more personal and we feel very welcome. I trust the instructors completely; they are amazing with what they can do with my son! My little fish is an awesome swimmer now… for his age!

Excellent instruction, and we have tried a other places. We used South Bay Aquatics, and took a break, but when we returned, our time slot was gone, and they did not have any lessons any where near the time we needed. I tried the city of Torrance, but they babied my girls even more than SBA, so we did not use them again. I thought we would only use Lucky Duck until the old time slot opened up again at SBA. But after only one lesson, we were hooked on Lucky Duck.
Don’t let their modest shower/​bathroom discourage you. The instruction is what you need, and they really get your child swimming well and fast here. At SBA, it took such a long time, and my twins were still just lagging in their swimming skills (not even swimming on their own). After just one lesson here my girls could swim on their own.
This place lets a child come 15 mins. before the lesson to play and reinforce learning skills, and then stay 15 mins. after the lesson. Because I have twins, they generously allow both girls the extra 15 mins., so for a 15 min. lesson, my girls get to be in the water for 1 hour, and they really work. They also enjoy playing with other children.
Parents – you can even get into the water and play with your child during their free time.
Further more, the entire time is dedicated to swimming. At SBA, part of the lesson was having the girls play in the water – I guess to get them comfy, but that sucked up part of their lesson time. Also, the instructor was often late to their lesson and then left it early, so they lost another 5 minutes of instruction time. In the end, at Lucky Duck, your child will learn to swim faster, have more fun and will have better swimming skills. We trust these instructors.
Oh – last note they also have really flexible time schedules for your classes

We love this place my daughter is 1 year and 5 months and she is already learning how to swim the professor there take their time and they are very nice all of them … thank you guys

Based on my experience, I can’t find much to complain about regarding the Lucky Duck Swim School. Before my six year old daughter started her first swim lesson I could not get her to dunk her head underwater for 1 second. In addition, she had absolutely no natural talent for swimming and could not stay afloat for 2 seconds to save her life. After 2 lessons, she could glide (swim by kicking only) about 15 feet. After 8 lessons she could swim the length of the entire pool, flipping on her back for air and rest, as well as jump off the diving board at the deep end with no fear. She was water safe and passed her survival test after 8 lessons (4 weeks). We are now five months in and she can freestyle the length of the pool and backstroke back. All of the instructors follow a carefully developed, step-​by-​step lesson plan focused on developing a student’s skills in a thoughtful chronological order. This insures the student learns proper form and does not develop bad habits when advancing to the next skill level.
Regarding the survival test, the student is not supposed to know when and what will happen during the test. The purpose of the test is to catch the student off guard and verify he/​she can stay calm and save him/​herself under a real life worst case situation. This allows the instructors to evaluate a student’s survival skills and determine if he or she needs more work in this area. My understanding is that the test is voluntary so you can opt out if desired. My daughter enjoyed the test and wanted to be thrown in a third time, but once the instructor (Tyler) saw her smiling he concluded the test.
Some reviewers complain about the cancellation policy, but it is clearly stated on the registration form so I’m not sure what the problem is. It’s a strict policy, but if students are constantly cancelling and rescheduling classes the school will have swim instructors reporting to work with giant holes in their class schedules. How are they supposed to run a business if they don’t know how many kids will show up for lessons on a given day?
Finally, the lessons are 15 minutes in length (which is actually a perfect amount of time for young children). This doesn’t give the instructor much «play» or «fun» time with your child. All of the instructors are great with kids, but they are being paid to teach them how to swim, not play with them. My daughter thinks it’s great fun knowing how to swim from one end of the pool to the other.

Please do not attend this school. Good instructors however the staff and owner are rude and insensitive. They have a two day cancellation policy or you lose your lesson. My daughter is chronically ill and the owner would not reschedule although they have rescheduled my lessons because the instructor was tired. The owner told me she didn’t care if I brought my daughter in with a fever. It is obviously all about the money and not the children. If your child ever gets ill please do not come to this school. I am appalled and outraged that they would risk the health of the instructors and other children by telling me to bring in a child with a fever

Before today I would have given this school at least 4 stars because I do believe the instruction and teachers are worth it. However, their structure is awful, very disappointing. When registering my children I was told we get one absence to make up. With that being said… a couple of weeks ago, a child defecated in the pool and it wasn’t until I got to the school (a 20 minute drive) that I was told the pool was closed for cleanup and the class was rescheduled, but no courtesy call. Today I was held up in a meeting. I thought we could make it to class in time but once I got home it was 5 minutes after the start of their class and when I called (courtesy call) to inform them of the tardy, they told me we’re a no show. I brought up the fact that we have not used our one absence. I was then told because I didn’t call before class started, it doesn’t apply. I understand not being able to attend the class because of being late, I don’t however agree with the no show and losing a PRE PAID class. I have also had two other issues with the school that I didn’t care for but this last one was the cake topper for me. If I could get my money back for these last three, two classes, I would! I also believe the reviews I have seen on this school are not all from actual paying customers like myself. While at the school I had conversations with other parents who also had complaints. Thank you for the opportunity to share a real experience. Think I will try another school and recommend others to do the same.

All the staff here are great! Excellent with the kids. I cant say enough about how all the staff are with the kids! Its amazing how they are all awesome and insyc. All the instructors are great!!! Within weeks my son has learned to swim and be safe in the water!!!

Great teachers very nice and pacient

Great place for kids to learn how to swim. Allicia and Tanya are great! My kids have been coming here for the last three years and we have been very happy with how quickly they have become water safe. Their teaching methods are very effective. Highly recommend Lucky Duck Swim School!

Good place to come when in need of swimming lessons, especially kids. Instructors are very good with small children here… they’re very patient. I am happy with my kid’s progress.
Group and private lessons are available. Costs are $ 149 for 9 group sessions and $ 189 for 9 private sessions.
Because we arranged private lessons on day/​time availability, we worked with a few different instructors. My daughter’s favorites were Kristina, Nichole, and Dominique. All of the instructors follow the same curriculum. Only variance is their personalities.
Pros:
Year-​round facility with heated pool
Flexibility-​Private lessons are arranged around your schedule
Convenience-​Open 7 days a week (at least during the summer)
Not just lessons, there’s also a Swim Team and Summer Camp
Cons:
No parking lot! You have to park on the street