Meet Kristin Johnson of Kicks N Flips Swim School

Kicks N Flips Swim School was started in 1996 and has been growing and evolving ever since. There were about 30 students enrolled that first summer and now, 60,000 swimmers, almost 30 years later, about 1,000 students/year swim with us between both locations. I love teaching people to swim and I especially love seeing families come back year after year…and even bring their kids to swim many years later! We started out teaching the Red Cross program but quickly realized that their program was not working out well and was in fact holding swimmers back. Because we wanted kids swimming many years earlier than they were being allowed to in the Red Cross program, we dropped our Authorized Providership and developed our own program. We want people to be able to save themselves ASAP! Over the years, we have developed many tried-and-true methods of teaching that are specific to Kicks N Flips Swim School. You won’t see them anywhere else, and they WORK! We are proud to offer a unique & accelerated learn to swim program that focuses on results!  We train excellent technique which allows for longer distance swimming, thereby doubling their swim distances as they go, resulting in less confusion and faster progression. We concentrate on safety, technique, and endurance in a smaller, fun, environment to get people swimming quickly and correctly. Swimmers are engaged the entire time. It is not unusual for kids to pass out of the entire program by the time they are 5-7 years old, which is when other programs are allowing them to finally start swimming on their own. My own kids finished the program when they were 4-5 years old. This means they were swimming about 500 yards, knew 6 different strokes, could swim in deep water comfortably, tread water for over 5 minutes, dive, as well as knew Smart Swimming Skills.

Ironically, this is actually my accidental career. It may be hard to believe, but I didn’t major in Swim School Ownership when I went to college. I double-majored in Molecular Cell Biology/Genetics & Anthropology with Emphasis on Cultural Diversity. I’m actually published in Blood Periodical for the research that I did when I was working as a research technician at Dartmouth Medical School in New Hampshire. I was originally planning on becoming a Genetic Counselor, but the nearest school was in Boston, a 2+hr drive one way with good traffic. Total Plot twist! Then, life happened. My sons are 12 months apart and the oldest was born out in NH, the youngest born 12 months later here in MN. With how expensive child care was, it didn’t make sense for me to get a job in a lab just to put them in daycare, so I kept growing my business. Then, about 3 years later, my daughter was born, I had 3 kiddos ages 4 and under, and she ended up with a Celiac Disease diagnosis 6 years later. With her illness and the three of them, as well as all of their activities, it still made more sense for me to keep up with my business than go back into the science field. This way, I didn’t miss any of their milestones and was able to be there for them for almost all of their activities and appointments.  If they were having trouble falling asleep, even after hours and hours of school and practices, I would just read them some of that paper I’m published in and they were usually sleeping by the end of the “Abstract.” (Lol)…not that beta-thalassemia switching from infant to adult in hemoglobin isn’t indescribably fun!! Anyway, I digress back to their hours and hours of gymnastics activity multiple times per week.

In fact, it was because they were enrolled in Mini Hops Gymnastics in Plymouth/Minnetonka area, that I started my Plymouth location. I’ve had that location for about 10 years, although the last year and a half I couldn’t be there due to COVID. I would drop the kid(s) at practice, go work, then go pick them up, and drive the 45 min home. This became our routine 4-5 days/week. Now, my kids are grown and none of them are involved with gymnastics anymore. Blake, my oldest is a Freshman at Hamline University and is a pole vaulter on the track team. Devin, my middle kid, is a senior in high school and is Captain of the swim team, and plays baseball. Hartlynn, my daughter, is a freshman in high school and plays club-level softball. So, having my own business and being able to create my own schedule still allows me to schedule around their activities so I can see them in their sports, music, and other school-related activities. All three of them, plus my niece, and Senya (more on her in a bit) help me teach swim lessons and guard parties.

I have some medical issues that have interfered with the schedules and they’ve really helped by stepping up and teaching for me when needed. Since KNF utilizes its own Learn To Swim Program, they are the only ones who can actually teach. I haven’t trained anyone else yet. I do have expansion plans that include many other locations and instructors, but COVID has pushed the implementation of those plans back.

I can’t tell my story without mentioning Senya, our lifeguard dog. She is a 9.5 year old GoldeckSheaspaniel (Golden Retriever, Black Lab, German Sheapard, English Springer spaniel) and has been lifeguarding for 8.5 years now. People always ask me how I trained her to do this and I always tell them that I didn’t. I taught her to swim after she fell into our pool twice and once at my parents and then became terrified of bodies of water/pools. We have a family cabin on a lake, we are in MN where we are dodging lakes, we vacation at Lake Kabetogama, and there are about 15 inground pools within about 1/2 of our home. She needed to be safe. It took me the whole summer when she was about 6 months old. We went from rewarding her with treats to sit with me on the steps, then moving down one step/week until she was comfortable to teaching her to blow bubbles and how to float, to how to move her legs to swim. She finally conquered the shallow end but would turn around before going to the deep end…even though she couldn’t touch the bottom while swimming in the shallow end. It took a few weeks for her to conquer her fear of the deep end, but once she did, she loved swimming! She would swim into the shallow end and as soon as she got there, she would walk on two back legs to the stairs, just like kids do. She was always watching and listening to me and the kids and that’s how she learned how to lifeguard. The next summer is when she chose to become the lifeguard and there was/is no stopping her. She is out there as long as I am and she loves it! She also loves swimming and racing the kids too. She will always have something in her mouth while guarding. Her favorite “guarding tool” is her rubber pig or a tennis ball. Lately, it’s been a chicken that sounds like a goose. Senya also uses ropes, but then she challenges whoever is in the pool to many games of tug-o-war during their lesson. So, that gets a little disruptive. It’s weird that the rope isn’t around too much …hmmm🤔😝. She greets people when they come in and lets me know if someone is here without a kiddo. She even motivates the kids to get moving by shaking her head back and forth and using a funny growl/barky noise. We all know she’s saying “Ready Set Go!” It doesn’t matter how long the class is or what level, Senya is always watching them intently and is always ready for action and/or racing anyone who is willing  she does cheat to win though.

Families come to KNF because they know we have a quality program, their kids will be engaged the whole time and learn correct swimming, they like me, and of course, they love Senya!