History 101

How Foss Swim School came to be…

The history behind the idea really begins in 1957.

Jon Foss’ mother, then 17, tragically lost her nine year old brother to a lake drowning incident in North Dakota.  With that memory, Jon’s mother made certain her four children became strong swimmers.  The importance of swimming was ingrained in Jon’s life.  He joined a Bloomington swim team at age 9 and continued competitive swimming through high school and at St. Olaf College as an All American athlete.

Jon’s personal NCAA experience competing against many of the top national swimmers provided him with first hand knowledge and examples of how successful swimmers swam.  He started to note particular and specific techniques and made a conscious decision to create a system for teaching and training strokes that was unlike anything before.  As head Age Group Coach for Eden Prairie Foxjets (1987 – 1995)  his coaching lead to seven overall State Chamionships, nine national records, and 4th place our of 3,300 age group teams.  That is the foundation for Foss Swim School’s technique based teaching method including our 225 specific technique skills.

Between 1993 and 2006, Foss Swim School opened seven metro locations. In addition to private facilities, Foss Swim School also provides swim instruction and swim team coaching for area summer country clubs and the Edina Outdoor Public Pool.  In 2007, Jon’s swim team, started in 2002,  Aquajets, was successfully transferred to a parent run board and today holds some of the fastest competitive youth records in the nation.  Lastly, the parents of the Blaine location have created a parent run board to manage their team, FASTjet, which partners with Foss Swim School coaching staff for practices and meets.  All in all, as Jon said one night waking up from his sleep……”Minnesota needs more good swimmers!”  Foss Swim School has been steadily providing legions of well trained swimmers as “feeders” for most of the Twin Cities based competitive swim teams for many years.

Foss Swim School today is LUCKY! to employ well over 200 talented and energetic professionals dedicated to teaching your child to swim.  Co – owners, Jon and Susan Foss and their collection of outstanding staff,  have proven their culture is unique, unlike any other learn to swim program and executed better than any other program following our lead.  Our program has produced over 80,000 swimmers since 1993.