Fitness Forcast I was reading an article I found on the International Life Saving Federation’s website that states “Experts in the field of lifeguard training and rescue believe that lifeguards need to be able to demonstrate a reasonable level of fitness. It is presumed that lifeguards would have sound swimming and water rescue skills” This probably seems like such an obvious statement to many of us. I have been in the industry for many years, and it has only been in the last 5 years that I have started talking fitness to anyone who will listen. When you mix in a pandemic with these growing concern about lifeguard fitness levels and I start to question if we have a perfect storm brewing??? Through the pandemic we have been teaching lifeguard and WSI courses, at my facility and because of this I have witnessed firsthand the effects not swimming regularly have had on our often-young staff and candidates.
With facilities being shut down and pool schedules being consumed with patrons fighting to get in, it seems lifeguard training and fitness are at the bottom of the priority list. However, this may be the time when fitness is more important than ever. Unfortunately, many of our staff they may not be able to access the pool like they used, and they have also had most of their extra curricular sports halted or decreased this past year. I even have staff who are too young to meet the minimum requirements to go into our local fitness centre. How are these staff going to stay fit enough to lifeguard our facilities and patrons? Are they fit enough to perform a water rescue on someone twice their size or do CPR for over 10mins? Do our instructors still have the ability to demonstrate stroke proficiency? We need to ask ourselves, what is considered a reasonable fitness level when it comes to lifeguards? POOLWORKS MAGAZINE |
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