When I was younger I swam in a swimming club and always respected the great job that the lifeguard at the pool provided.
I never thought that it was a stationary job sitting on the highchair all the time as I was used to seeing them working through the building.
At the time I wanted to become a lifeguard but was too young, but I managed to learn some lifeguard rescue techniques.
Throughout my life I’ve always swum. I recall countless times I’ve seen lifeguards but I thought I’d never seen them perform a rescue… Or so I thought.
Intervention.
Being able to predict and anticipate potential accidents is one of the key roles of a lifeguard.
You may not have to often perform an in-water rescue, but you may have to stop a potentially life changing event.
Some are obvious (eg. stop running, don’t eat on poolside)
But other interventions are spoken to highlight potentially dangerous activities (eg. don’t dive off the inflatable, don’t duck swimmers, don’t dive in shallow water).
A lot of times we ask even trained divers not to dive as ‘monkey see, monkey do’. Often children copy each other. So they see a trained child dive into shallow water, they then assume everyone can do so…..
Although I don’t work on poolside at the moment, a role I miss. I have thoroughly enjoyed my own lifeguarding experience. Becoming a lifeguard is a great entry route into the leisure industry.
If you would like to learn more about the joys of lifeguarding then I will be writing more articles in the future.
If you would like to become a lifeguard, or have any questions about what lifeguarding entails then please get in touch.
My next lifeguard course is running from 18th to 22nd December; bookings are now being taken.
I look forward to hearing from you.