Category: What’s FOSSible

There is a famous scene in the 1953 John Wayne movie “Hondo” where he encounters a six-year-old boy fishing. Upon learning the boy can’t swim, The Duke takes it upon himself to remedy the situation in the most direct way possible—throwing the boy into the water. Today we know throwing ...

Any time is the right time for learning to swim, of course. Swimming has been shown to have a positive impact on health, child development, and safety. But in our view, the biggest benefit of swimming is how it opens the door to confidently participating in a wide range of ...

Log In to View Classes and Enroll Swimming is a lifelong skill, and one that can’t be learned overnight. If your swimmer can hit the pool more than once a week, however, swim skills can develop more quickly since less time between classes leads to faster progress. That’s the idea ...

Hunter wanted to go deep-sea-fishing, but his parents set one condition: Before they’d let him out on the big water, he needed to continue his swimming lessons to build his skills and confidence. “Hunter really, really wanted to go fishing with his dad, who loves to go deep sea fishing,” ...

When Patricia decided to set a goal of finishing a sprint triathlon (half mile swim, 20-kilometer bike, 5-kilometer run), she had one overriding question: “Do I really know how to swim?” By no means a newcomer to the water—the Minnesota native had grown up playing in lakes, had taken basic ...

Learning to swim is good for kids in a lot of ways – for safety, of course, for physical health, and even for cognitive development. But did you know that, as a structured activity, swim school and swim teams also can help kids succeed socially? Swimming can be competitive or ...

The butterfly is considered by many swimmers to be one of the most difficult strokes, both because it is physically demanding and because of the timing involved. Rachel Bootsma, Foss Swim School alumna and Olympic gold medalist in the 4×100 meter medley relay, shares some of the tips that helped ...

Laugh, play and grow—for brain and body! Whether splashing in the pool or paddling around the lake, did you know your child is also building their brain along with their muscles? A child’s intellectual development is a function of more than mental stimulation—it is a physical process as well. At ...

Gretchen is a FOSS alumna and former U.S. record holder in the breaststroke. She shares her thoughts on swimming, parenting and life with our readers. As much as I loved swimming breaststroke, the individual medley (IM) was one of my favorites. The medley was truly an event where I could ...

There’s no athletic competition quite like the Olympics. As we gear up to watch the winter games, we asked Rachel Bootsma, a FOSS alumna and Olympic gold-medal winner in the 4×100-meter relay at the 2012 summer games, what memories stood out from her time on sport’s biggest stage. 1. The ...

Gretchen is a FOSS alumna and former U.S. record holder in the breaststroke. She shares her thoughts on swimming, parenting and life with our readers. When I was 12 years old, I felt on top of the world as far as competitive swimming was concerned: Personal-best times almost every meet, ...

By: Gretchen Hegener Rech Gretchen is a FOSS alumna and former U.S. record holder in the breaststroke. She shares her thoughts on swimming, parenting and life with our readers. I have never had a fear of water and when I finally learned how to swim, my parents could not get ...

If your schedule is already jam-packed with work, family and fun activities, adding a weekly swim lesson can seem impossible. Good news—it’s totally doable! Here’s a peek at one mom’s morning routine—swim lessons with her 2-year-old daughter Charlie included! First up: Carb loading with a cheese quesadilla and raspberries, and ...

Swimming competitively is hard work – but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun. We asked Rachel Bootsma, a FOSS alumna, Olympic gold-medal winner and national college backstroke champion when she swam for the University of California – Berkeley, for some of the things outside the pool that were unexpected sources ...

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