Apex Swimming

I’m a 30 year old woman from the Caribbean that didn’t know how to swim. I finally had enough of the, ‘what? you were born and raised on an island and don’t know how to swim’ responses from people.
I reached out to Apex Swimming back in July for swimming lessons. I was pretty skeptical because a few people tried to teach me in the past, and it never worked. I would tell from the first lesson that I would have different results. Joe was a very patient instructor, and he used a variety of techniques if I didn’t catch on as fast. Within ⁴⁄₅ lessons, I was able to swim a few laps in my apartment’s pool, and I could even float on my back with no issue. I went on a cruise to the Bahamas for my birthday in September, and I was swimming with the best of them. I even sent him a picture of me floating with no issues.
I highly recommend Apex Swimming to anyone that needs swimming lessons. If he could teach me, I swear he could teach anyone!

I first signed up for a swim lesson with Coach Joe at Apex Swimming when I stupidly signed up for a triathlon without any previous swim experience. I had taken swim lessons as a kid (the kind where they teach you how to not drown and basic strokes), but that was my not so extensive swim background. In my first lesson with Coach Joe, we talked about my swimming goals and what we wanted to work on. My goal was to learn proper swim technique enough to not drown during the swim portion of my sprint triathlon.
I have now had a few lessons with Joe, and he has worked with me on swimming more efficiently to save energy for the bike and run portions of the tri. He does a great job of explaining drills in a straightforward way that make it easy to remember when swimming on your own. He also breaks technique down into manageable pieces. The way we work on things one element at a time makes the task of learning to swim unintimidating.
In the time I have been working with Joe, I have gone from swimming one 25 meter lap and clutching the wall huffing and puffing when I reach the other side, to swimming 20 — 30 laps before needing a break. He is a very approachable and patient instructor who gives instruction in easy to understand terms. He can work with people of all levels to improve technique whether it is learning to swim, or trying to get faster for a race.

A few months ago I had the great idea of signing up for a triathlon even though I had no experience with 2 out of the 3 events (I’ve been a runner for a few years). I figured the toughest leg of the race would be the swim for me personally, and fears were confirmed as I could barely get myself across one lane at the local LA Fitness pool without drowning. Luckily, another first time tri buddy heard about Coach Joe and we signed up for group lessons immediately.
We’ve had 5 lessons to date and I can say that I feel much more confident in the pool every time I leave the Ravinia (lesson location). After lesson #2 my swim efficiency was so much better than where I had started that I was able to do ~20 laps in the LA Fitness pool (yes the same one I almost drowned in). I’m definitely far from being a competitive swimmer, but I am at a point where I feel comfortable that I can have decent results in the swim portion of the tri. Joe’s a competitive triathlete and we’ve definitely benefitted from his coaching with a «tri» slant to it. He also helps to put together drills for us to use during our practice sessions. Joe also coaches a lot of kids and uses examples and terminology that is easy to understand for people of all ages (even a big kid like myself :)
When I read reviews on anything athletic, I’m always curious on the profile of the reviewer, so here goes — I’m an adult swimmer who had not been in the pool in years (aside from a margarita in hand and sitting under the shade) and could barely swim 25m. I run and bike 3 – 4 days out of the week and am in decent shape (but could definitely lose a few pounds!). I currently swim 2−3x a week.