Aerial Silks Near Me on Frederick Street: AcroSports' Monday Silks and Sling

AcroSports holds one adult aerial class a week, and it is a good one: Silks & Sling, Mondays at 7pm, 90 minutes, $40 as a drop-in. The nonprofit gym at 639 Frederick Street, near the southeast corner of Golden Gate Park, offers new adults three classes for $75, and that pass also works for tumbling, handbalancing and parkour. If your search for aerial silks near me ends on a Monday night, this is the class to book.

AcroSports was founded in 1993 by a local resident and community activist working with two acrobats from the Moscow Circus and a gymnast from Ukraine. More than three decades later it is a 501(c)(3) that says it reaches over 12,000 young people and adults a year, counting in-school and city outreach programs. Much of that outreach is subsidized, and tuition assistance is offered to adults as well as children who qualify.

The organization has been recognized by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and the California State Legislature, and its guiding rule is printed everywhere: Safety First. Every coach holds CPR and first-aid certification. Day to day, though, the building is mostly a children's gym, with toddler playgroups at noon, youth tumbling in the afternoon and camps in school holidays. Adults take over in the evenings.

The class is listed as Silks & Sling (Beginning/Intermediate), taught by Ashe, and runs from 7 to 8:30pm. A sling is a looped piece of fabric, also called a hammock, and it gives beginners somewhere to sit, hang and invert before they can climb a straight pair of silks. Spending part of the 90 minutes in the sling means newer students get real time in the air while stronger students work on climbs and wraps in the silks.

The gym's aerial area lists three fixed rigging points rated for silks, hammock or rope, two lifting points that can take any apparatus, and trapezes at five, seven and eight feet. Thick mats go under every point. With only one adult silks class on the timetable, though, the room is busy, so book a few days early. A youth Aerial Tier 1 class for ages seven to ten already had a waitlist when we looked.

New adults start with the three-class intro offer at $75, which expires one month from the date you buy it, not the date of your first class. After that, a single class is $40, a five-class pass is $185 and a ten-class pass is $350. Monthly plans include every adult class type: Silver is $155 for up to five classes, Gold is $240 for up to eight, and Platinum is $375 for unlimited classes.

Private lessons cost $100 an hour or $500 for five, and the gym's description covers aerial arts as well as tumbling and gymnastics. Members-only open training costs $25 a session, but beginners must take at least three classes before asking for approval, and walk-ins without approval are turned away. Classes in a monthly plan do not roll over, so the Silver plan only makes sense if you add another discipline to your Monday silks night.

Cancel more than 12 hours before class and your credit comes back. Cancel later and plan holders and punchcard users pay a $10 late fee; no-shows lose the class, and Platinum members are charged $20. The gym also states that it does not guarantee specific coaches, and a coach change does not count as a reason for a free late cancel. Monthly plans must be cancelled seven days before the next billing date, and charges already billed are not refunded.

Punchcard expiry dates generally cannot be extended. The gym also warns that buying a pack does not guarantee a spot in any particular class, so it advises against buying a large pack for one class. For a silks-only student, that is the honest takeaway: buy the intro offer, see if Monday night fits, and only then think about a five-class pass.

On a Monday evening the adult crowd is split. Stretching and mobility students are in the main room from 6:30pm, breakdancers have the floor for Open Break from 7pm, and the silks class shares the building with members doing open training until 9pm. Expect music, thumping on the sprung floor and a few people waiting for the foam pit. It feels like a community gym, not a quiet boutique studio.

The rest of the building is worth a look on your first visit. The main floor has a 40-foot sprung floor, a foam pit with a ledge, a Max Air trampoline and a high bar, and an area called the Outback has a parkour climbing wall. If silks clicks but one class a week is not enough, the gym's tumbling, flexibility and handbalancing classes build the strength that inversions need.

Circus Center, at 755 Frederick Street, is on the same block, and both organizations occupy similar old gym buildings. Circus Center even warns visitors that the two are easy to confuse, so check the number before you walk in. That closeness is useful: Circus Center runs Intro to Silks on Thursdays at 7:30pm for $45, so a beginner could train Monday at AcroSports and Thursday next door.

After class, Haight Street is a short walk north. Amoeba Music, at 1855 Haight Street in a former bowling alley, stays open into the evening and is a fun place to browse if your hands need a rest. Kezar Stadium and the park's southeast corner are even closer, and the walking paths around them are quiet after dark, so stay on the lit streets.

Address: AcroSports, 639 Frederick Street, San Francisco, CA 94117. Adult Silks & Sling meets Mondays from 7 to 8:30pm and costs $40 as a drop-in. Book through the Recess schedule linked from the gym's adult class page, cancel at least 12 hours ahead, and use the three-class $75 intro offer within one month of buying it.

Muni's N Judah stops at Carl Street a few blocks south, and the 6 and 7 buses stop on Haight Street, a short walk north. Parking near the park is hard in the evening. Wear long leggings and a fitted long-sleeve top, remove jewelry and bring water. If Monday does not work, book Circus Center's Thursday Intro to Silks next door instead.