Lifeguarding lessons: First Aid plus

"Sara, I could have saved you and Matt a lot of money," I quipped, "We had a section on how to do childbirth in our Life Guard Manual. Of course, you would have had to come down to the pool."

I actually don't think Mom or Dad and especially Grandma would have been too happy with that idea, and I am more than glad that there was well-equipped hospital with trained doctors and nurses for the delivery of my new grandson. This does however give you an idea of the comprehensiveness of the First Aide training that we received as Life Guards. I joke that I can do anything short of a heart transplant, but the reality is that hopefully band-aids will be the extent of what I really need to do. Still, you never know what emergencies you face at a pool and beyond the obvious dangers related to water and kids getting in over their head, literally and figuratively, accidents and illness can happen. We studied issues such as burns, shock, heart attacks, diabetic reactions, abrasions, illnesses and more. So, while if you are pregnant you probably don't want the Life Guard to deliver your baby, they hopefully are ready meet most medical emergencies faced at a pool. For childbirth however, we will leave that to the hospital.

Lifeguarding lessons: Chasing the greased pig!

"It's like chasing a greased pig," I exclaimed to my wife Ann describing some of the water rescues that we were practicing in our Life Guarding class. In some of the rescues our instructor would trash in the water, keep turning, dunk us when we grabbed on and generally made our lives miserable. Of course, that is what a panicked drowning victim might do, so it is a rescue that we absolutely had to know. I think I went down twice in this rescue and took in enough water that I didn't have to drink anything the next day but I held on and got it done. Some of the skills that I have gained aren't even in the book. For example, now I realize that even if I take in a mouthful of water and get tossed about I don't panic. I may cough and sputter, but I can still function and so can my classmates.

As tough as this rescue was, there was one even tougher; the bottom of the pool rescue for a victim with a head or neck injury. This one takes wind, strength and finesse; the latter being something I don't have too much of. The victim Simone, one of the young Life Guards at the Y was on the bottom of the pool. Our job was to dive feet first which is always hard for me because I keep wanting to move my arms in the wrong direction and go up instead of down. Once at the bottom you grab the victim's arms and pull them forward clamping their head as in a vice. Then you need to be strong enough to pull you both to the surface and this needs to be at an angle or you both get a major mouthful of water. This Simone and I unfortunately and I found out the hard way. This is an old-fashioned rescue in a way because you don't use a floating device so your swimming stroke has to be really strong.. I don't know how many dives I made to get the hang of this, but my brain is now waterlogged.

My rescues aren't textbook and I sometimes use muscle where finesse and technique are called for, but I can confidently say if someone in the water is in trouble, I am going to get them out. Watching my classmates, they can say the same. I of course hope that I never actually have to save a person's life this way because I don't want any swimmer to be in danger of drowning but I wouldn't be on the side helplessly looking or attempting a fruitless rescue that could endanger both of us. And that is worth taking a whole lot of mouthfuls of water for.

Lifeguarding lessons: Who's the dummy?

The primary duty of a Life Guard is actually to avoid what they have been most trained to do. Now I know that this immediately may not make sense, but if a Life Guard is watching the patrons carefully, and keeping alert for dangerous situations. Then, hopefully they can interact before someone needs rescue or gets hurt. As an educator, I noted that the most effective teachers typically saw problems as they were developing and stopped them before they became major issues. Being an excellent Life Guard is basically the same idea. So when the Life Guard whistles for someone to stop running, it just isn't because they are a grouch. They want everyone to be safe and one of my favorite quotes, is "safety trumps everything."

Still, accidents do happen as do illnesses, and at least half of our Life Guard training was in preparation for these. To help in this we had dummies and we worked on a variety of scenarios. Life Guards don't want to have to pull unconscious people out of the water and that is why they are so vigilant in their observation of the pools and lakes, but it this is needed that are a whole bunch of things that they need to know. First, is the airway clear? If there is something blocking the victim's airway this has to be cleared or no resuscitation (rescue breathing) can take place. Then you have to check for a pulse. If there is no pulse CPR (one of the zillion) initials we learned has to be given. Then there is the AED, which is the really cool machine that not only gives the heart a shock but then tells you exactly what needs to be done next. If I were to list all the steps that have to be taken here it would take all day, but these steps have to be done in seconds and they have to be done in the right order because a person's life depends on it. We practiced these techniques repeatedly in the gym with plastic dummies and more than a few times I felt like the dummy when I put a step in the wrong order, but with practice I got it as did my classmates. While this was a fun class, there was no joking around here as we all realized what could be at stake.

Next: Catching the greased pig! The deep water rescue with safety board.

Lifeguarding lessons: Per-requisites

"If you come in the pool and see me in the Life Guard chair, run for your life!" I joke with my friends about my attempt at taking Life Guarding classes at age 64. The reality is however, that it is probably the Life Guard who needs to be the most anxious. It wasn't very long into the class that the seriousness of the responsibility of being a Life Guard made an impact. Our instructor Christy and staff member Kay, who is taking the class as well, have both rescued a drowning victim and both still have trouble talking about it even thought their rescues were blessedly successful. That person up in the tower has more to do than just look cool in their sunglasses and Life Guard shirt. It is their responsibility to keep the patrons of the pool safe from danger, and if a medical or swimming emergency occurs, to spring into action knowing what to do regardless of the situation. As one of my close friends who did this in his youth noted, "It is hours of boredom, sometimes punctuated by moments of sheer terror!"

To prepare for the class requires more than the average amount of fitness and comfort in the water. At the very first class as a per-requisite, we had to swim 1/4 mile, tread water for an eternity, or at least it seemed that long, and do the toughie; swim the length of the pool, dive to the bottom and pick up a 10 pound brick with both hands. Then you surface (hopefully) and swim back not taking either hand off the brick. Luckily I practiced this one before the first class because the first time I tried it I realized that I wasn't going to come back up unless I did something! Not wanting to drown, I kicked up to the surface coughing like the old man I was. Practice makes perfect however and I can now save the brick. People may be a little more difficult however so stay tuned.

Lifeguarding lessons: Learning to swim

Since I learned to swim at age 60, I guess I can learn to be a lifeguard at age 64. While I have swam for most of my life, and dearly love the activity, the harsh truth was that I only knew two strokes; the dog paddle/ breast stroke that was only so so and a strong sidestroke that I learned from my father's Navy Blue Jacket Manual. I had tried freestyle swimming, which used to be called the Australian Crawl, and my crawl was more like crawling on the bottom of the pool since I sank like a rock after a couple of strokes. I could see other people doing this stroke quite well and figured they knew something that I didn't.

I spent the last several years working part-time in Kewanee IL. I would often stay overnight there, typically on Wednesday, and I would fill my evenings at the YMCA lifting weights and shooting baskets. One afternoon I noted that they had swimming lessons so I signed up. I will have you know that I was the very best student in class since I was the only student in the class. The young college girl Brittany who taught it was good with me being the only student so I couldn't ask for more individualized instruction. I soon figured out what I had been missing and that was breathing. The secret is to take a breath when you raise your head and then breath out while you are under water. "So that's the trick!" I noted.

Knowing and doing are two different things however and it took me several weeks before I could actually go from one end of the pool to the other. Brittany also taught me how to do the breast stroke correctly using the same principle; breath in of the water and then breath out under water. Learning to swim is actually pretty cool because you can improve not only by upping your fitness but by improving your technique as well. From one length of the pool, I advanced to swimming down and back.

Now of course I am much better and can swim close to a mile in one setting if I set my mind to it. Usually I get bored long before this however so a third of a mile is my favorite distance. I remain very appreciative of a college student, younger than my daughter, who taught an "old dog" how to swim and I continue to refine my technique as both members and coaches at our YMCA provide me with tips.

Next: The prerequisites; I may drown before this class ever starts.

Lifeguarding lessons: Your'e going to do what!

I guess if I learned to swim at age 60 then I can learn to be a life guard at age 64. Actually I learned how to swim at age 22, but I only knew one stroke. One of my friends from high school called and said he had found an abandoned rock quarry. When you are 22 things like drowning don't really enter your thinking so I pulled out my father's WWII Navy Blue Jacket Manual, looked at the diagram of the side stroke and said, "I can do that."

The quarry was as beautiful as advertised. It was huge with high walls that we would later climb and dive off. The water was crystal clear, although a tad cold since it was spring fed. I jumped in and tried my new sidestroke, noted that it worked well and proceeded to swim all the way around the outside of the quarry. As I said, when you are 22 the concept of drowning doesn't really enter your mind. That quarry was summer fun for several years and I learned to relax so well that I would go to the middle and just tread water without a care in the world. One thing that I didn't learn however was actually how to swim much better. I could dog paddle, do my side stroke but I couldn't do a freestyle stroke more than a few yards before sinking like a rock. It would be almost 40 years later that a YMCA instructor who was younger than my daughter would teach me how to swim the right way.

Next: Learning to swim the right way