This is somewhat embarrassing, isn’t it?

Hey Sparkles! Happy Friday! For today’s blog post, I am going to be writing about my experience in my lifeguard training class.

American Red Cross has started offering a new type of lifeguard class – a blended learning class. The first thing I had to do upon registration was complete the online portion of the class, which focused on showcasing the entries, approaches, and rescues we would be learning in class. The videos also talked about the importance of being a professional lifeguard.

When I got to class, I had to pass the tryout, which consisted of 300 yards continuous swimming, 2 minutes of treading water with your hands tucked under your armpits, and a 1 minute 40 seconds drill where you have to rescue a ten-pound brick off the bottom of the pool. After passing the tryout, I was able to start learning the poolside part of the class – CPR.

CPR stands for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. There is a handy guide for what to do and when on the inside of my breathing mask. If they are unconscious, there are three different situations you will encounter. The first of these is breathing and has a pulse. If this is the case, you need to put the victim into recovery position, so that if they vomit it doesn’t choke them. If they are not breathing but have a pulse, you need to start to do rescue breathing. If they are not breathing and don’t have a pulse, you need to start chest compressions. We also learned about choking victims and what to do with them.

In the water, we learned 3 entries: slide-in entry, stride jump, and compact jump; 4 approaches: active front, active rear, passive front, and passive rear; all the rescue strokes, and 3 removal methods: beach drag, backboard non-spinal, and backboard spinal.

The hardest entry is the stride jump, and the hardest removal method is the spinal back boarding procedure. As crazy as it seems, I was glad that the tryout prepared us for the amount of treading we would have to do during rescues.

Well, that’s all I have for today, Sparkles. Thanks for reading about my experiences with lifeguard training, and sparkles away!