Nitro Swimming

We have 2 of our kids at Nitro Swim School at the Bee Caves location. Our [almost] 7 year old has been enrolled for 3 ½ years and he is about to graduate Nitro 2. Our 5 year old has been in it for 2 years now and just graduated from Nitro 1 to Nitro 2.
It’s a serious commitment. We go every Saturday morning for the 30min class and in 3 ½ years we have missed only a handful of classes. But the training they get and how they structure it with the different levels WORKS. Our 6 year old a couple of months ago swam 4 laps of the pool at our neighborhood pool. Both of our boys absolutely love the water & swimming.
The training is awesome though. The coaches are all great and the way it is set up you never have more than a 3 – 4 to 1 ratio of coaches to swimmers since they have 10 different levels in Nitro 1 and 10 levels in Nitro 2. There have been many times when other kids didn’t show that we had a 1 to 1 ratio; we are basically getting a private tutor that week. Many other times it is a 2-​to-​1 ratio which is awesome. Other swim schools will have 10-​to-​1 ratio and we have a friend that went to one that was 20:1 ratio. You really get individual time at Nitro and that is what differentiates it.
The only knock is (1) the commitment [but if you want your kid to learn to swim, it takes a commitment] and (2) the cost [it’s pricey]. We love it and I’m giving it 5 stars!

The best place in Texas to learn to swim, as well as train for competition. Coaches are excellent, facilities are top notch. Emphasis on being a good swimmer, student and person. I’ve been impressed with the universities that recruit Nitro kids. Also, very family oriented.

The Coaching staff and the Staff in the front office are excellent, however I am not sure about the owner and how he ran his business. I have never seen a place that have such a high turn around on both the Coaching staff and the front desk office. We notice Coaches were there one day and gone the next, we even saw Coach Meghan ran out crying and never see her again and now more Coaches leaving. Something is not right behind close door especially if they have such a high turn around on Coaches and Staff. Sometime you have to wonder about the Owner hiring process because it seem like he just pick up any warm body to fill in the slot so quickly. The Coaches is what make the team and without them he would not have a team. So sad to see great Coaches leave. Time to find another team.

We love Nitro!!!
My sister highly recommended Nitro, when I was looking for a place for my son, to learn swimming. And it is one of the best decisions I’ve made.
The facility is superb, the staff is great and the swim instructors are absolutely just awesome.
You get a discounted rate when you purchase more lessons at any given time. Plenty of parking choices. My son and I enjoy walking around the facility, if and when we arrive early. Parents can take the opportunity for a good 30-​min run or walk, while their child is in swim class.
Staff is friendly and very helpful. When his regular instructor won’t be available for certain days, Nitro provides a substitue instructor, if the parent so chooses.
My son is autistic and takes private lessons. All his instructors, always look out for his best interests and get the most out of his time in the water. He can have good days and bad days, but he definitely loves the water. My son has come a long way since he started Nov 2013 and we’re very grateful.
We live in Southeast but the drive is definitely worth it!

My 2 sons (5 & 7 yo) are in Nitro since We arrived to Austin almost 4 years ago and when the Bee cave location opened back then. I started with my youngest son (2 yo back there) in Parent & Toddler lessons. He was afraid to water and since lesson 1 He felt so confident with the environment and coaches.
My oldest improve so much in his swimming skills and now both not only can swim but they do it with a really good technique. My oldest is now in the swim team and my youngest is almost graduate from Nitro 2 and going to swim team too. They have the most amazing coaches who are now part of our family, The entire Staff are always in a great attitude to help the students and their parents. the facilities are always clean and the pool too. When my children are struggling in some point the coaches always do their best to support them and help them to reach their goals. For example Once: My youngest kid (5yo) was afraid to swim in the ¨big pool¨¨ (swim team pool) one coach who know my son since He started 4 year ago helping him to have confidence trying to make more fun the change to the new environment, and He did after 5 minutes by son stopped crying and started to swim. The Owner Mike is always checking everything and with a great attitude, We love to be part of Nitro Family !! and we hope to be more years in Nitro! Summer Camps are great by de way!

My son has been going to Nitro for the past 3 years. He took lessons for a year at another place in town before Nitro, but was never willing to put his head in the water. Within weeks after we began Nitro’s Parent/​Tot class, he was jumping into the water and having fun in the class. They know their stuff when it comes to making swim lessons fun for the kids. We do a combination of private and group lessons in the past 2.5 years. The group lessons in Nitro 1 and Nitro 2 never have more than 3 kids per coach. They get a lot of personal attentions and practices. My son loves all of the coaches and works well with all of them. He recently passed the evaluation to move on to Intro to Nitro, a preparation for competitive swimming I believe. He learnt all four competitive swim styles and is able to swim 25 yards without problem in every style. Nitro’s system works great for us and we will continue lessons there.

Both of our kiddos (ages 4 and 7) have been swimming at Nitro Bee Caves for almost a year now. Our son started in Nitro 2 lessons at Station 4 (he was already «swimming» but this helped him learn more strokes and perfect the ones he knew) and our daughter started at the very beginning of their swim school program, Nitro 1, Station 1. Our experience with the swim school has been universally positive. The instructors (a nice mix of men and women, young and older) are very nice, very good at their jobs, and very, very patient with kiddos — those who are exuberant AND those who are reluctant. I have seen a little bit of turnover on the coaching side, but not much at all, considering the number of staff they have, maybe 1 – 2 coaches have left during our tenure at Nitro. As a parent, I’ve found both the office staff and the coaches to be extremely polite and professional — contrary to what I see in a few reviews here. I am there twice a week (which is not much, compared to the competitive swim families) and they know me and my kiddos by name and always greet us with a smile. At the front desk, everyone has always been super helpful with my questions, concerns etc, particularly Kyle, but also Becca and all the others. Within the swim school, the Swim School manager — Jenn, is awesome. She runs the swim school sessions with military precision but also with the warmth of a favorite family friend. Somehow she always seems to know every child’s name, whether its their second lesson or their thirtieth, and always has a smile (and a hug, when the kids want it) for each child. We’ve also done a couple of private lessons with Jenn and she is a fantastic technique coach as well, even with just two private lessons we saw improvements in our son’s swimming.
About six months ago, our son graduated from swim school and moved up to their «Intro to Nitro» swim team, so we’ve experienced both the swim school and swim team sides now, and I can say that our swim team time has been just as great as the school time. The USA Swim coaches are really awesome and again, very patient with the kids. They all seem to have a sixth sense about when to push and when to keep it light and fun. My son LOVES going to swim practice and always has a great time. I’ve literally never once heard him say «I don’t want to go to swim practice today.» Lately, because our Intro to Nitro team group is large, they’ve added a third coach to help the kids, most often its the owner himself, Mike Koleber. I like to call him «Big Mike» because he’s not only tall but he’s one of those guys with a larger-​than-​life personality that the kids just adore! They literally hang on every word! My son is no exception, he loves to practice with Mike and is learning a lot from him and from his other coaches — coach Samantha and coach Felix. We are thrilled to have our son learning from such great coaches and can’t wait for more fun as he progresses through Nitro’s swim team programs and grows as an athlete. Highly recommend Nitro for both swim school and swim team.

Nitro swimming, I can’t say enough about it! My kids have been there since they first opened in Bee Cave 4 years ago, we went from intro to nitro up the ladder, we are now 6 day a week competitive swimming my son goes into high school next year and hopefully be on the swim team there. The coaches … Love love them, very skilled great with the kids and very experienced! Office staff, very helpful, super friendly, not sure why previous post by KM had issues with staff or office manager Cassandra, she has been an incredibly helpful, very sweet and super knowledgable and the go to for information! A great employee there. Always there to help with a smile! Thankyou Nitro, Mike and Tracy for adding us to your Nitro family!
Elizabeth Etheridge

Well-​run program for lessons and team practice. Coaches and instructors are friendly and good with the kids… not so sure about the office manager. Cassandra is her name I believe? Very loud and unprofessional. Caught her making faces at certain customers (eye rolls, etc.) Not great for business.

I worked with Cassandra in signing my four granddaughters up for swimming lessons .
She was very gracious and efficient. My granddaughters have taken lessons from nitro swim in the past, they enjoyed their lesson and learned a lot. I definitely would recommend nitro swim.

We recently received some lessons with Nitro Swimming Bee Cave. We have received lessons at a couple of other places around town as well. I have to say first there is no better facility in Texas let alone Austin. So on to the staff, professional, kind to the kids and very attentive. But more than anything it was important to me with our busy schedule to have a place that actually kept appointments at the correct times. I hate waiting and with kids going in 50 directions, we just can’t. So thank you Nitro for taking care of our little ones and for taking care of our needs as a parents.

Great experience with the 2 teachers we have had for our toddler. They care, have great attitudes, and do a solid job of instruction
The scheduling and rescheduling system is awful. They don’t allow you to make up a class. Any parent knows how hectic schedules can be, and if you go on vacation or away for the weekend, you can kiss those classes goodbye, making the already pretty pricey lessons ($ 15 per 30 minute session) that much more expensive.
I like the facility and the staff but this is a dealbreaker for us because we tend to travel and go away for the weekend quite frequently.

My son was a very reluctant swimmer and had unhelpful lessons at several other places. The lessons at Nitro are by far the best instruction he has received and he is actually joyful and confident about swimming now. I am looking forward to being at the pool with him this summer, knowing that he has the skills to get himself across the pool. The coaches have been incredibly positive. My son likes all of them and feels he has special connections with some of them. The very organized system makes the most of the 30 minute lessons.
My daughter has really benefited from the Technique and Fitness group. After swimming in summer league my daughter was interested in continuing year-​round. She started in the Silver group but was intimidated by the intensity and the huge number of kids. Changing to another training group, Technique and Fitness twice a week, made a perfect fit for her. She has had individual attention from the coaches and has really improved her technique. I really appreciate that there are so many different training group options and that they all seem valued.
I have never seen an interaction between kid and coach here that was objectionable (several objectionable interactions between kid and parent, though!) I see the owner regularly and he seems very approachable and eager to make this an outstanding place in every way.

Avoid Nitro! Chemical burns due to over chlorination, too many swimmers in the pools, kids peeing in the pools, under paid staff, under trained staff, it’s a puppy mill for swim lessons. A real disappointment!

We’ve had our two girls here since they were toddlers in the parent tot program. Now, my 5.5 year old us swimming on the intro to nitro team. My four year old is in the middle of nitro one working on her back stroke. nitro has a solid program that breaks swimming into two programs of 10 stations each of skills to master. They add safety station in between. My girls are now confident swimmers and my 5.5 year old know how to butterfly, breast stroke, freestyle, etc. in fact, she know her strokes better than me now. If you want your child to learn the technical part of swimming it’s perfect. if you are just looking for casual swim… May not be the program for you.

My 9 month old has been attending swim lessons here for 3 months. The fee is $ 70/​mo, or $ 17.50/session for a 30-​min class with 6 other kids in it. This would be fine but their payment systems are not customer friendly at all. I tried to set up a different arrangement to work around their system and was basically treated like if I didn’t like it go somewhere else. If you like being treated like a number or a cattle call this might be a good fit for you.

Like this school due to the level of instruction and coaches’ enthusiasm and good admin, but some things i’ve learned along the way:
Sometimes the water is murkier than usual. Assume they bombed the pool with chemicals the day I notice this going on in the water…
They let bugs go about the place and don’t kill them physically with pest control due to the water getting contaminated but also don’t believe in killing them at all however you could accidentally do it by stepping on them near the pool like I did. YUCK!
Regular school instruction is better than summer time instruction IMHO. (some of the instructors are very young part timers in the summer).
Sometimes in the waiting area the glass you look through to see the kids swim is dirty. Like greasy fingerprints all over the place; less in front of the bleacher seating area since kids don’t sit there comfortably unless they are older I assume.
Sometimes you have to really take the lead in communicating with the coaches on how well your child is progressing or your kid can do the same thing for a long time and it gets repetitive. Proactive parents make good swim coaches too on the sidelines.

This is by far the best place to teach kids of any age to swim! The owners are in the pool to teach, help or answer any questions. Tracy is really outstanding!!! My youngest has Autism and they have been really kind, understanding and have taught him that water can be fun. My 4 year old is just having fun and learning to breath underwater and swim like a champ. It really has been so great we even signed my 15 yr old daughter up for swimming. I just can’t say enough about

This place is really well run. Our kids are 4 and 6. Great place for lessons. Would recommend to kids 4+! We attend swim lessons on Saturdays and the classes have improved our kids swimming.

I love the Bee Cave facility. The coaches are great and my son has had an amazing experience swimming on the bronze team. It was a real pleasure to find such a fantastic program (rated a top USDA Swimming club) that holds practices after working hours so that normal parents can get their kids into the great sport of swimming.
The facilities are fantastic, the staff is great, and the head coach/​owner is incredibly engaged in the practice sessions, actually getting into the water on occasion to help the kids. He clearly expects a lot of his coaches and respect from the kids. He gets both.
I would say that the dressing rooms are too small for changing clothes but I have my son go with his jammers already on so it’s really not a problem.
I would recommend Nitro to anyone.
UPDATE: My son has been having problems learning butterfly. He is upset about it and I asked his coach about getting lessons to help him learn. I received an email telling me to not pressure him and he will just magicly learn butterfly when he is ready. The coach put several other coaches on the email. Posturing I guess. I replied to all that his input was well received by me. Clearly he is a coach and not my sons father so I expect him to understand his place in this whole process and not overstep.
Tonight my son told the coach that he doesnt know how to do butterfly and he was told «It doesnt matter. You will do it anyway».
Nitro has done an awesome job and fortunately lots of other clubs are cropping up to replace them.