zumba, etc

I went in an hour early again. I was able to get on one of the ellipticals with a built in TV, so I watched "What Not to Wear" while I worked out. It made it go much faster. I did that for 45 minutes and then went to zumba.

I like the instructor on Tuesdays...not as much as the one on Wednesdays/Monday AM (which, btw, I did not go to...I know, I know, but I stayed up too late the night before and I would have only had about 5 hours of sleep if I went), but enough. It was not to the point where I walked out halfway through. In fact, she extended the class 15 extra minutes because none of us (the 3 people who showed up for class) wanted to leave. My foot was starting to bother me, but I pushed through it. It was fun. At one point, they were about to do a routine that the two people knew and the instructor was about to go over some of the key moves of the routine. I told her, "really, you don't have to. I'll pick it up as we do it." She looked at me strangely and said, "Ooook." Well, I did. Zumba is not that intense that I can't pick it up within a couple eight counts.

Ok, onto the rant part of the post. I will put it behind the cut for those who do not wish to hear it. It's kind of long.


I saw a sign that had several promises the gym was making in terms of their lifeguards. Some of the promises:
*We will continuously scan the water to be able to recognize a swimmer in distress within 10 seconds and be able to respond within another 10 seconds.
*We will either be seated in an elevated chair or walking along the side of the pool to be able to see all parts of the pool.
*We will always have a rescue tube, mask and gloves for emergency situations.
*We will have regular trainings on our skills to keep them current and practiced.
*We are dedicated to safety, and for this reason please understand why we can not talk with you.

(I'm paraphrasing a bit, because I don't remember the exact wording. The paraphrasing, however, does not change the meaning of what was said.)

When I read the sign, I was very impressed. These are many of the values and standards, almost verbatim, that my lifeguard training had. Then I watched the lifeguard. And I got angry. The lifeguard was NOT continuously scanning the water. In fact, when I first started watching, she was helping the aqua aerobic instructor move lane lines out of the pool. Granted, she did have her rescue tube, mask and gloves (I will give her the benefit of the doubt that the mask and gloves were in her pack) while she was moving the lane lines, but she was not scanning. She was NOT seated in the chair NOR walking along the side of the pool. She was leaned up against the platform of the chair, and she WAS talking with one of the ladies from the class. Again, NOT scanning, fixating on the lady she was talking to. I don't know if they actually do hold the regular trainings or not, but my guess would be no. See as most of the other "promises" were not being kept, I wouldn't expect them to keep that one as well.

When I was working for the parks dept., our lifeguard training company required 4 hours of inservice per month. The parks dept. made us do 8.

The lifeguard company would come once per summer to do an audit. The audit would consist of a secret videotaping of a guard in the chair (or walking along the edge of the pool...which we actually DID) to make sure they were ACTUALLY continuously scanning the water. They also timed our scans. You had to look under your feet every 10 seconds. That started and ended your scan of your area. Then, after the videotaping, they would come into the facility and do a scenario. Sometimes it would be an "active" scenario (You always prayed for those. It was your basic stereotypical drowning person.) and sometimes it would be an "unconscious" or "spinal" scenario, which required backboards, extra lifeguards and possibly special precautions. They videotaped that as well. The parks dept. had people on staff who would go around and do this internally. You got one every month or possibly more often depending on how well (or not) you did on the previous one.

We also did Vigilance Awareness Tests where we put baby dolls on the bottom of the pool to make sure that the lifeguards were scanning correctly and could see/find it within the 10 seconds required.

So, you can see why I get more than a little peeved when I see lifeguards who are not doing so or promises that are not being kept.