Axe ’Em, Jacks!
Learn to swim at your own pace in classes taught by certified, knowledgeable instructors in a safe environment. Developed by the American Red Cross, Learn-to-Swim classes will help adults and children at every skill level improve and gain confidence.
Jump to: Private lesson information
Group lessons will be offered summer 2025
Group lessons are held in the outdoor pool. Patrons are notified if lessons are moved to the HPE indoor pool due to inclement weather.
Group class levels and lesson details
Our Parent and Child sessions are very different from other group lessons.
Parent and Child: 6 months - 3 years
Parents or guardians of children 6 months to 3 years of age will actively participate in their child's swim lessons. You must be in the pool with the child during the lesson. This not only helps increase the child's comfort level in the water, but can help parents understand the process and practice skills with their children between classes.
- Age: 6 months to 3 years
- Class covers:
- Familiarizing children with the water
- Introducing swimming readiness skills
- Games, songs and activities are integrated to keep children engaged and comfortable.
- Parents are provided with safety information and teaching techniques they can use to help their children get accustomed to the water.
- Criteria to advance: Age, along with child being able to move freely through water without parents
Patricipants 4 years and older
Explore the description of each class level below to determine which level is right for your child. Adjustments may be made on the first day of lessons to accommodate skill level and class size.
Preschool: 4-5 years
- Age: 4 to 5 years
- Skills taught:
- Blowing bubbles
- Opening eyes underwater and fully submerging
- Floating on back and front for three seconds
- Making alternating and simultaneous leg and arm movements on front and back
- Criteria to advance: Moving independently through the water (submerging head and being comfortable making front movements and being on back)
Level 1: Introduction to Water Skills
Children who have had little to no experience in water are encouraged to start on this level.
- Age: 5/6+ years
- Skills taught:
- Floating on back
- Kicking and making arm movements on front and back
- Submerging body
- All skills will be done mostly independently but with some help from instructors.
- Criteria to advance: Performing skills independently and being able to submerge whole body comfortably
Level 2: Fundamentals of Aquatic Skills
- Age: 6+ years
- Skills taught:
- Rotary breathing (side-to-side breaths)
- Different types of floats
- Improving alternating kicks and arm movements
- Combined kicks and arm movements while floating on back or stomach
- Criteria to advance: Swimming independently using combined arm and leg actions on front for five body lengths and float for 15 seconds
Level 3: Stroke Development
- Age: 7/8+ years
- Skills taught:
- Improving treading and stroke development for freestyle, breaststroke and backstroke
- Dolphin and scissor kicks
- Criteria to advance: Swimming front crawl for 15 yards and changing direction as necessary and swimming 15 yards of elementary backstroke
Level 4: Stroke Improvement
- Age: 8+ years
- Skills taught:
- Improving proficiency in performing the swimming strokes introduced in Level 3 and all the stroke techniques learned throughout Learn-to-Swim program
- Butterfly stroke
- Criteria to advance: Performing a feet-first entry into deep water, swimming front crawl for 25 yards, changing direction and swimming elementary backstroke for 25 yards
Private lessons
Based on the swim ability of each individual, private swim lessons are one-on-one sessions that are 30-minutes in length with a certified American Red Cross swim instructor.
Registration for private lessons is not currently available. To inquire about future availability, contact campusrec@sfasu.edu.
When registration is open for private lessons, registration forms will be assessed on a first-come, first-served basis. You'll be contacted to schedule a time slot, with lesson session times offered during outdoor pool hours.
Once a schedule is confirmed, you'll receive an online payment link. Lessons may begin once payment has been received and all lessons must be completed by the stated date unless authorized by Campus Recreation staff. Canceled lessons may be rescheduled at the discretion of staff members within the aquatics program.