Locally owned Playtime Swim School will open in Katy's Elyson community in April.

The details

The business offers swim lessons for children ages 2-8 in an indoor facility with warm-water pools set to about 92 degrees Fahrenheit, said co-owner Andy Korda, who has been a swim coach for roughly 30 years.

Playtime Swim School's instructors aim to teach swimmers the four basic strokes—freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly—while being safe and having fun, Korda said.

About the owner


Korda is a Katy native, beginning his swimming career at Katy High School. He then went on to be a swim coach at Katy Aquatics and later coached six swimmers who qualified for the Olympic trials, he said.

He decided to open his own swim school to provide his son with financial support in the future. Korda's son, who has autism, initially struggled during his lessons with Korda to put his face in the water, but now at 12 years old he's a "fish in the water," Korda said.

“We definitely want to help the community that has autism or special needs, but we want to also offer regular lessons to everybody," he said.

Additionally, Playtime Swim School won’t charge additional fees to teach children with autism and other disabilities how to swim—something Korda said can be hard to find with other swim programs.


"If you have a special needs child that has to have one-on-one [instruction]—maybe they bite, hit, whatever, so they can't be with other kids—they're going to charge them two to three times the amount for the class because they're taking up other spots, and we're not going to do that," he said. "Anybody who has special needs children already knows it's more expensive. So we're going to charge them the regular rate even if we have to go one on one."
Playtime Swim School has a waiting area for parents whose children are in swim lessons. (Courtesy Playtime Swim School)
Playtime Swim School has a waiting area for parents whose children are in swim lessons. (Courtesy Playtime Swim School)
Looking ahead

In the future, Korda said he plans to offer adult swimming as well as mommy and me classes. Classes and schedules could be adjusted in the future to meet the needs of the community, he said.

"We would like to start servicing more areas and offering the same programming so we can help more athletes or more swimmers be safe in the water," he said.