Lifeguard Training is crucial if you want to save lives. After all, it is a serious affair. You have to be equipped with all the tools you need to successfully do your job. Getting the proper license and training should help you do just that.
Contrary to popular belief, being a lifeguard is no mere summer job. Moreover, it is not only a profession, it is a calling. However, before you get to answer that particular calling, you have to ensure that you come fully prepared. Remember, every day you will be confronted with situations where lives hang in the balance. You need to have your wits with you. Otherwise, you will not be able to perform what is needed from you.
Needless to say, there is a training course a prospective lifeguard has to pass before he can take on such a massive responsibility. It takes on a multi-faceted approach to ensuring pool safety. For instance, trainees are made to memorize the hand signals used by licensed lifeguards. This is so that you can quickly coordinate with your team.
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Of course, it should be mentioned here that this course gives due attention to strengthening the swimming capabilities of the trainee. This is crucial since you will be working in the water most of the time. Particularly, trainees should be able to meet the minimum requirement of quickly swimming 200-400 yards of water. You will also need to tread the water for two minutes. Aside from that, trainees are taught to do a feet-first surface dive in order to grab a brick weighing 10 pounds from depths of 8 to 12 feet.
All of these exercises and requirements are put in place to ensure that the trainee will be able to do the necessary rescue maneuvers when the time actually comes. At the same time, trainees are taught emergency procedures like CPR and First Aid. This is to prepare them should they encounter worst case scenarios wherein the victim is injured or has stopped breathing.
This course is designed not only to give you the invaluable skills necessary to perform the tasks, but it also helps make you a well-rounded individual. It should help you establish a clear line of communication not only between you and the other lifeguards but with the pool patrons as well. At the end of the day, this training is necessary to help you promote a pool environment that is safe and enjoyable for all.
Lifeguard Jobs
Lifeguard Jobs
Of course, training is only the first step. You can never really know the full extent and demands of lifeguard jobs until you see it for yourself.
There is a huge difference between knowing what to do and actually doing it. Nothing can hone your skills as a lifeguard better than being on the job. Experience is the best teacher after all. That is why we send our newly trained lifeguards to their new jobs at the local pools.
Of course, before we ship you out to your new job, it is important that you have some idea of your responsibilities.
In a nutshell, your primary concern as a lifeguard would be to keep every swimmer at the resort safe. This responsibility applies to everybody regardless of age and swimming abilities. So, you are in charge of keeping an eye on everyone at the pool, young or old, experienced and newbie swimmers alike.
LifeGuard Jobs
Now, the matter of pool safety can be addressed in any number of ways. After all, there are many elements to pool safety and it is your responsibility as a lifeguard to watch out for these things. One of your most basic tasks would be upholding the rules of the pool. For instance, if you see any dangerous objects lying around near the pool area, like electronics, get rid of them quickly to avoid any mishaps. On top of that, it is also your job to admonish visitors horsing around in the pool area as these may lead to untoward incidents. Encourage visitors to have fun safely instead.
You should also actively survey the pool area. You should watch out for noticeable weaker swimmers as they may unknowingly get themselves into trouble. Countless cases have happened wherein the swimmer didn’t realize the depth of the pool and found themselves in need of rescuing. An observant lifeguard should have been able to prevent such a thing from happening by warning the swimmer.
In Case Of Emergency
You should also actively survey the pool area. You should watch out for noticeable weaker swimmers as they may unknowingly get themselves into trouble. Countless cases have happened wherein the swimmer didn’t realize the depth of the pool and found themselves in need of rescuing. An observant lifeguard should have been able to prevent such a thing from happening by warning the swimmer.
If you are working at the beach, take note that there are additional threats you will have to watch out for. For instance, there are undertows in some beaches. You have to mark this area down and tell visitors to stay away from it. Otherwise, they might find themselves being dragged into the sea. As if that wasn’t enough, there are also visitors who would often go beyond the designated swimming area, thinking they could handle it. Simply put, you cannot let your swimmers go too far out.
In cases of emergency, your training should serve you well.
About Working as a Lifeguard
Working as a lifeguard is certainly no joke. It demands hard work and dedication. However, it also gives you an opportunity to get to know yourself a little better. Every day, as you take your place at the poolside, you are faced with choices and responsibilities that will have a huge impact on everyone.
Admittedly, most of the time it can be rather boring work. Be thankful for these boring moments. However, these are also the times where you have to be the most alert. Keep in mind that anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
If you took your training seriously, you will be able to take on all these challenges in a calm and collected manner. As you start working, you will realize just how important every bit of it is. All the scenarios you run, all the simulations you took, all of them will come in handy when the time comes.
Nobody knows themselves better than a lifeguard. If you spend enough time working at the pool, you get a concrete idea of how you manage stressful situations. After all, it is in your job description to resolve these things. Remember, you went through training to save lives.
Why Become a Lifeguard?
Before signing up for a training course, prospective lifeguards first have to ask themselves an important question – why? While there are various reasons why you should become a lifeguard, it ultimately becomes a question of what you want for yourself.
One of the most common answers to this question is the stable employment it can provide. You may not know it but having a trained and licensed lifeguard on the poolside at all times is a strict requirement. This is probably one of the most basic rules of pool management. That is why resorts are always looking for new people to put on their pool staff. This presents many prospective lifeguards with ample career opportunities. Trainees will surely have no shortage of job opportunities once they get their license.
However, the main appeal of the lifeguard profession for many goes way beyond the career prospects. Many go into this line of work cherishing the opportunity to be of real help to someone in need. They are certainly not wrong about that. After all, lifeguards are trained to perform life-saving maneuvers.
It should be said here that these two things are not mutually exclusive. You should become a lifeguard for the opportunity to help yourself as well as others.
