Week 2: Trainings are Afoot
George S -
During slow times, the guards rest, the patrons swim, and the instructors prepare. This week my time has been spent by attending a lifeguard inservice and preparing materials for a lifeguard instructor class.
On Sunday, I went to a lifeguard inservice. A lifeguard inservice is a specified 3 hour training session. This month’s inservice was dedicated to critical thinking skills. Guards were given scenarios where they would have to use quick thinking skills to determine how to respond rather than following the basic protocol. For instance, an incident occurred in a different part of the facility, so now the guards need to determine how they should respond. Do they both need to leave, should they bring a crash bag, does the pool need to be shut down, or should they evacuate the whole facility.
In addition to training scenarios, lifeguards must stay fit, so they are also required to swim during inservices and during their free time. During the inservice, the guards swam two 900 yard relays in teams of 3, so each guard swam a total of 600 yards. Also, each month the guards are required to swim a total of 2,400 yards.
Through the lifeguard inservice was very fun and informative, I then began setting up materials for a four day Lifeguard Instructor Class that I will also attend. Lifeguard Instructors are lifeguards who have been guarding for at least 1 year and have shown to be a very well trained and hard working lifeguard. They take this class to go on and teach others how to be a lifeguard. Rather than having a certification, Lifeguard Instructors earn a license that allows them to teach classes in any YMCA in the United States. This means that if another YMCA needs an instructor to come and teach a class then they can get a Lifeguard Instructor from any YMCA as long as they pay for their transportation as these instructors are not paid for their time at other YMCAs that are not the one they are employed at. This is because the YMCA is a nonprofit that is dedicated to helping the community.
To set up the class, I arrived a day early with the instructor to set up the necessary materials: adult manikins, infant manikins, training crash bags, training oxygen tanks, training AEDs, and all the paperwork that the guards will receive when they pass the class. This paperwork is for them to reference when they need to teach a class elsewhere.
Though it didn’t take too long to set up, the class itself will be very long, and I will go over it next time. Thank you and have a blessed day everyone.
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