A lifeguard is an expert swimmer who is trained to watch over other swimmers, mostly at beaches, and employed to teach the techniques and requirements of safe swimming.
To uphold professional life guarding skills, lifeguard training is a professional training imparted to likely candidates to minimize the possibility of drowning deaths and promote more enjoyment at beaches and pools by minimizing risks of accidents and mishaps.
Why Lifeguard Training Is Important?
Commodore Wilbert E. Longfellow laid the foundation of the concept of lifeguard training in 1914. The main purpose of lifeguard training is to reduce the number of drowning deaths. Lifeguard training is all about having the skills needed to save a potential drowning victim.
What Are The Requirements For Lifeguard Training?
The basic requirement of lifeguard training is that the lifeguards must be certified with a professional degree in both water saving and water safety in a course offered by the American Red Cross or a course equivalent to it. Also, the lifeguard corps must be physically as well as mentally fit to fulfill the needs of the lifesaving job.
Age Requirements For Lifeguard Training
Unlike other professional occupations, lifeguard training does not require candidates to be exactly 18 years of age. The minimum age requirement to be a lifeguard, after being certified as a professional trainer, is 15. The course of lifeguard training covers the very basic knowledge to prepare a person for lifeguard job.
Physical Requirements For Lifeguard Training
Lifeguard training demands tremendous physical strength. A life can be saved only by those who are physically as well as mentally tough. Physically challenged individuals cannot undertake lifeguard training for obvious reasons. And, therefore, they are not fit for this demanding job. Lifeguard trainers need to possess a sound mind and robust body. They must not suffer from breathing diseases, eyesight problems and other common ailments. In short, a lifeguard trainer has to be a commando minus the commando uniform!
A Lifeguard Trainer Must Possess Swimming Ability
A potential drowning person can only be saved by a professional swimmer. So, swimming is one of the basic requirements for lifeguard training. Also, a hydrophobic person has no place in this kind of training. It must be said that a lifeguard should be a combination of immense physical strength and expert swimming skills. The reason for this combination is that sometimes a lifeguard trainer may have to save a drowning person from deep waters. In thise situations this combination is absolutely necessary. In short, lifeguard trainers have to cope with every untoward situation, which they face in their job.
Lifeguard Trainer Must Possess Lifesaving Ability
Apart from swimming ability, lifeguard training involves the ability to save victims by using certain lifesaving and first aid procedures. Some of the procedures may include the use of Cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and Automated External Defibrillator (AED). The certified lifeguard-training course imparts how to assess the condition of a victim initially, so as to administer a proper and optimal lifesaving procedure as quickly as possible. It should be borne in mind that the main focus of training is to ensure that the trainers have the required knowledge to rescue a drowning victim in the best way possible.
Types Of Lifeguard Training Offered
The American Red Cross, which is highly reputed in offering lifeguard-training courses, offers the following four courses:
• Lifeguarding
• Waterpark Lifeguarding
• Shallow Water Attendant
• Waterfront Lifeguarding
