When I was little, my family went to the local Knights of Columbus swim park. It had a lake for swimming and wasn’t too far from home. We’d go up there after dinner many nights a week during the summer.
At some point, my sister and I took swim lessons. I took all of the classes. I was 11 when I took the last class before lifeguarding. Lifeguarding wasn’t available until you were 15 years old. Ever since I was not old enough for the class, I’ve wanted to have a lifeguard certification. I thought about it in college where the class would have counted for my physical education requirement, but it just never happened.
Let’s fast forward to last week. While at the JCC, I saw the flyer that a lifeguarding class would be offered starting at the beginning of March. Since I know the pool manager fairly well, I expressed some interest and trepidation about taking the class. He was very encouraging. I’ve reviewed the list of pre-requisites and have a couple of weeks to practice and get up to speed. It’s been years since I have done any serious swimming.
Today, I began my quest. I swam 300 years before my water aerobics class. That equates to 12 lengths or 6 laps. I did stop and take a couple of breaks, but I am confident that I can do it continuously when necessary for the test.
The next task is to be able to tread water for 2 minutes. After taking Adam’s class last week, I am sure this one is no problem. We played basketball in the deep end without touching the bottom. It was a lot longer than 2 minutes. So, I suspect that won’t be a problem.
There is also a timed event where you swim from one end of the pool to the other, dive and get a brick and swim on your back to the starting end. I’m going to practice this, but I suspect I’ll pass.
The last requisite is to be 15 years old by the end of the class. I have that one covered by more than 25 years!
I’ll have much more to say as I continue the process. For now, I’m happy to have a goal that is swimming related.