The refund request must be made at least 1 week prior to the start of the Session you have signed up for. Anything past this date will be determined based on circumstance and need. We strongly encourage you to look at upcoming Session availability and email us to see if we can transfer your registration to another Session or class.
To ensure you are viewing the most current information on parking on the UT Knoxville campus, please visit their website where they list their options for Visitor Parking. We will also send out detailed information on parking in our Pre-course Swim Lesson email that we send out before the Session begins.
Swim Lessons will be located at the Student Aquatic Center in either the indoor or outdoor pool. The Student Aquatic Center is located at 2106 Andy Holt Ave, and it is the big blue brick building next to the RecSports Parking Lot. The Outdoor Pool is adjacent to the Student Aquatic Center. The check in point for Swim Lessons will be in between the two buildings. From check-in, participants may follow the blue “Enter Here” sign above the main entrance and can change into their swimsuits using the Student Aquatic Center facilities which include a women’s and men’s locker room and an all-gender bathroom. Below is an image of the Student Aquatic Center’s front doors and walkway where our check-in table will be located (weather permitting):
The Student Aquatic Center has both an indoor and an outdoor pool. Swim Lessons can occur in either facility. Whether we are in the indoor or outdoor pool for a lesson depends on factors such as weather, space availability/the use of the pool for user groups, water temperature and others. We work to keep parents and students up to date on changes in location. Please keep in mind that changes can happen due to situations out of our control.
During swim lessons, excluding parent-child lessons, we ask that parents or guardians sit away from the poolside so as not to distract their swimmer. This allows for the instructor to build trust with their class participants and create a positive learning environment for trying out new skills. With this in mind, the outdoor pool has first-come, first-serve deck chairs and tables, and the indoor pool has bleacher seating in addition to deck chairs. The seating is a balanced distance away from the water’s edge to allow parents and guardians to enjoy watching swim lessons while also promoting an independent learning environment for the students.
We have Learn-to-Swim Level descriptions located on the Group Swim Lesson Page. Please review the descriptions and evaluate how much exposure your child has had to the water and swimming before registering for a class. We utilize the American Red Cross Water Safety Course as a guideline for identifying swim lesson levels as well as what skills and information we teach in a class. Identifying the description that best matches your child’s abilities can benefit them greatly as they are in an appropriate environment to improve and develop their current skill level.
Please visit our Group Swim Lessons page under Aquatics where you will find a “Register for Swim Lessons” button link at the top of the page. Once you have clicked this button, navigate to the “Aquatics” classification and the “Swim Lessons” tag to filter the Learn-to-Swim classes available for registration. Click on your desired Learn-to-Swim Level and scroll to Offerings. There you will find the Sessions (with their corresponding dates) and times slots that they will occur. When you’ve found the dates and times that work best for you, click the “Sign in” button. If you are a UT Member or Affiliate, enter in the NetId of you or the person you are affiliated with. If you are not a UT Member or Affiliate, you must create a Fusion account by clicking “Sign up.” Once you have finished creating an account, click “SELECT” and continue the registration process. If you are signing up your child, you will need to add them as a family member and create an affiliate account that is accessible with yours. When you have completed the necessary steps and received a confirmation email, you have successfully registered for a Swim Lesson class.
One of our Sessions includes the bundle of the dates listed when you go to register typically four lessons. Depending on your availability and time commitment, we recommend signing up for as many sessions as there are available to help the student continue to develop and master skills.
Swim Lessons are between 30 and 45 minutes long. The length of a lesson can be dependent on a variety of factors: how many students are in a lesson, what level the lesson is, the abilities and skill level of each group of students, if the students are exhibiting exhaustion, etc. Our instructors follow the American Red Cross Water Safety Course suggestions of at least 30-minute lessons. It is up to each instructor’s knowledge and discretion about the length of each lesson to help promote a safe and enjoyable swim lesson experience.
With each new session, we will send out a Pre-Course email describing multiple details for parents and students about our swim lessons with one aspect being Instructors. We will send out a table with each level’s corresponding Instructor. We encourage parents and students to look at our Meet the Instructor Bio and/or talk with Instructors before or after lessons. We want to help foster communication between Instructors and parents/students, so email us and request that you would like to contact them. To protect our student employees’ privacy and time, we will not disclose student emails unless you have sent us an email AND we have obtained agreement from the instructor. Coordinators, Graduate Assistants, and/or Student Assistants will be cc’d to any emails to foster healthy and helpful communication.
There is no specific number of Sessions to sign up for, but we encourage you to sign up for as many as you are available for. Consistently practicing swimming skills may enhance the student’s ability to advance levels more quickly.
Our Sessions are open for registration for the entire semester we offer them (e.g. all Fall semester sessions get released before the first session begins). This is meant to give ample opportunity for parents and students to decide if they would like to sign up for only one or multiple sessions. While the registrations remain open 7 days before the beginning of the session, class sizes are limited and thus it is first-come, first-serve. We recommend checking the website regularly for updates on registrations and number of available slots.
Pre-Course Emails are sent 2 weeks before the start of a Session. They are meant to be informative to participants on where to go, where to park, how to buy a parking pass, what to expect, who the instructors are, and more. They also allow a way for communication to begin between Swim Lessons staff and participants.