simulation is nothing compared to the real thing
today's lifeguard duty was a real eye opener for me. and in case you were thinking otherwise, no, there were no lefties or righties making any appearance. one of the halls were having their foc pool event today and one of the event consists of a confidence jump off the 3m & 5m diving platform.
in the course of my lifeguard training, we had simulated how a non-swimmer would react but boy were we far from it. before the event began, we gave the freshmen/women a briefing about the safety and the procedures for the confidence jump event. a demo was conducted by Nor (one of the seniors of the Lifeguard Corps) to show them the proper way to execute the compact jump. only a handful of gals were wearing bikinis and they were advised to put on a t-shirt for the jump to prevent any accidental "spillage". the non-swimmers were reassured that we would help them immediately after they have entered the water and not to grab on to us but on to the buoy which we will slide on to them. the freshies were split to their various OGs and they carried on with their events at other locales within the pool complex. the OG that were waiting to go for the jump were split into swimmers, weak swimmers (those not able to swim even one length of the 50m pool) and non-swimmers. the swimmers started off the jump followed by the weak swimmers and then the non-swimmers. the swimmers and did not gave Nor & I and problems. there were a few weak swimmers who panicked some but we were on hand to get them each time.
the non-swimmers allowed me to learn a valuable lesson on non-swimmers identification. even without my goggles, when i observed them underwater, they were struggling very badly. though scared, they were very cooperative when we passed them the torpedo buoy to hold on to after we have retrieved them from below the water surface. seeing the way they struggled, it made me feel that what we did in training was no more than "tickling" the water. overall, i felt the gals did better jumps than the guys. they followed instructions better, though we had a gal hitting the water at almost 45 degree angle as she became scared and started flailing her arms on her way down, after she jumped off from the 5m platform. ouch.
during their finale event at the pool, we had to keep a lookout for the non-swimmers and made sure that their life jackets were secured. however, it must be noted that most of the life jackets which was borrowed from SRC were either very ill-fitting or in need of repair. one of the gals who went into the water was suddenly struggling when she realised she could not touch the floor. i quickly tossed her a float so that she could get herself safely back to shore. (another lesson objective put to use) when she got back to the side, i heard her lamenting to her friends why nobody told her that the water was so deep. haiz. peer pressure can be such dumb killers at times.
i learnt alot from today's event and was also able to put into to use some of the techniques i learnt from my lifeguard course. it could be considered my most challenging event thus far. i got to applaud the freshies for being so courteous. really makes our effort worthwhile. "thank you lifeguard" hwah, music to my ears. hee hee.
in the course of my lifeguard training, we had simulated how a non-swimmer would react but boy were we far from it. before the event began, we gave the freshmen/women a briefing about the safety and the procedures for the confidence jump event. a demo was conducted by Nor (one of the seniors of the Lifeguard Corps) to show them the proper way to execute the compact jump. only a handful of gals were wearing bikinis and they were advised to put on a t-shirt for the jump to prevent any accidental "spillage". the non-swimmers were reassured that we would help them immediately after they have entered the water and not to grab on to us but on to the buoy which we will slide on to them. the freshies were split to their various OGs and they carried on with their events at other locales within the pool complex. the OG that were waiting to go for the jump were split into swimmers, weak swimmers (those not able to swim even one length of the 50m pool) and non-swimmers. the swimmers started off the jump followed by the weak swimmers and then the non-swimmers. the swimmers and did not gave Nor & I and problems. there were a few weak swimmers who panicked some but we were on hand to get them each time.
the non-swimmers allowed me to learn a valuable lesson on non-swimmers identification. even without my goggles, when i observed them underwater, they were struggling very badly. though scared, they were very cooperative when we passed them the torpedo buoy to hold on to after we have retrieved them from below the water surface. seeing the way they struggled, it made me feel that what we did in training was no more than "tickling" the water. overall, i felt the gals did better jumps than the guys. they followed instructions better, though we had a gal hitting the water at almost 45 degree angle as she became scared and started flailing her arms on her way down, after she jumped off from the 5m platform. ouch.
during their finale event at the pool, we had to keep a lookout for the non-swimmers and made sure that their life jackets were secured. however, it must be noted that most of the life jackets which was borrowed from SRC were either very ill-fitting or in need of repair. one of the gals who went into the water was suddenly struggling when she realised she could not touch the floor. i quickly tossed her a float so that she could get herself safely back to shore. (another lesson objective put to use) when she got back to the side, i heard her lamenting to her friends why nobody told her that the water was so deep. haiz. peer pressure can be such dumb killers at times.
i learnt alot from today's event and was also able to put into to use some of the techniques i learnt from my lifeguard course. it could be considered my most challenging event thus far. i got to applaud the freshies for being so courteous. really makes our effort worthwhile. "thank you lifeguard" hwah, music to my ears. hee hee.
posted by Prosage at 11:23 pm
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