30 minutes · £25 · any age
One-to-one lessons
Just you and a teacher. Half an hour. Built round what you need.
Plenty of adults can't swim. Far more than anyone lets on.
Some never got the chance as children. Some had a bad experience and never went back. Some can manage a width if nobody's watching, but wouldn't call it swimming.
If that's you, you're in better company than you think, and nobody here is going to make anything of it.
How it works
There's no syllabus to get through. We work on whatever you actually need — putting your face in, floating without panicking, getting a stroke that doesn't exhaust you after ten metres.
Two or three of our teachers take one-to-ones, so we can usually find someone who suits you.
And when you've got what you came for, that's that. We'll tell you when you're there. We're not trying to keep you on the books.
It isn't only adults
Most of our one-to-ones are adults, but not all. Some teenagers would far rather learn without an audience. Some younger children do better one to one than in a class.
We don't charge more for SEND lessons, whatever your age. You're paying for the pool time and the teacher. Nothing else.
Right for
- Adults who never learned
- Nervous in water
- Improving your strokes
- Children who'd rather not be in a class
- Additional needs
When you can come
- Early morning
- Lunchtime
- Early afternoon
- Evening
Slots run through the week and we'll do our best to find one that fits. Evenings and weekends are the ones everybody wants, so they don't come up often — but they do come up.
Paying for them
Different from our class lessons. There's no four-week block. You pay for two lessons when you start. After that you pay for your next lesson each time you come, so there's always one in hand.
Let us know you can't come and the money rolls over to your next lesson. If we don't hear from you, that lesson is used — the teacher was booked and paid either way.
The teacher is booked for you and paid whether you arrive or not, which is why we can't credit a lesson nobody told us about.
What to bring
Yourself, a costume and a towel.
Bring
- Yourself
- A swimming costume
- A towel
Nice to have
- Goggles, if you like wearing them
Don't need
- Equipment — we provide woggles, kickboards, pull buoys, flippers and anything else we need
Water does two things nothing on land can
It takes your weight
Nothing jars and nothing pounds. Joints that have started complaining about a hard floor don't complain in water. For a lot of people it's the one kind of exercise still properly open to them.
And it pushes back
Water is far harder to move through than air, so every movement meets resistance — steady, even, and from every direction at once. You don't need weights; you're already working against something.
Which is an unusual combination: something that asks a great deal of your muscles and almost nothing of your joints.
It also means you can work harder in water than you can on land. Nothing is braking you — no impact to absorb, no landing to brace for — so you can push further than your knees would ever let you push on a pavement.
It's also one of the few things that gets more useful as you get older, not less. Plenty of people come to us having given up on exercise that hurts.
If you're swim fit, you're fit for anything.
People don't learn in cold water.
A cold child isn't learning anything except that they want to get out. A cold adult is holding their breath and bracing. Warm water is the first condition for teaching anybody anything in a pool.
You step in and there's no shock, no standing on the steps working up to it, no sharp breath. Ours sits at 33 degrees. Most pools run around 28, and five degrees is the difference between bracing yourself and just getting in.
We've babies in there, children, and plenty of women well over sixty. Our teachers are in the water for hours at a time. It has to be warm.
For a nervous swimmer that matters more than anything else on this page. The first thirty seconds decide how the rest of the lesson goes.
Price
- One to one, 30 minutes
- £25 — The same price for everyone
Nobody's watching but your teacher
Ring us on 01422 247500 and tell us where you're up to. No need to explain yourself.
Ogden Hall
24 Causeway Foot, Ogden, Halifax, HX2 8YB
There's a large car park on site, and it's free. You won't be hunting for a space.
Before you book, our Parent & Carer Code of Conduct, Safeguarding & Child Protection Policy and General Terms & Conditions are all published.