American Red Cross Lifeguard Courses:

Offering Blended learning courses with online and in-person learning.  This course gives participants the skills and knowledge needed to be lifeguards for pools. The comprehensive course offers up-to-date information on how to guard, anticipate and prevent problems, and how to take action to help those in dangerous situations. ; accident prevention, scanning techniques, Full course is $200 for members and $300 for non-members.

PARTICIPANTS MUST BE ABLE TO ATTEND ALL CLASS SESSIONS.  Deep water portions to be held at separate facility.

Prerequisites:

• Must be 15 years of age by the completion of the course
• Able to perform: Swim-Tread-Swim: swim (freestyle or breaststroke) 150 yards, tread water for 2 minutes, then finish by swimming 50 yards (freestyle or breaststroke).  No time requirement – goggles are permitted.
• Able to perform: Brick swim.  Swim 20 yards to retrieve a 10 pound brick in water deeper than 6 feet, tow the brick back to the starting point and exit the water.  Swimmers have 1 minute and 40 seconds to complete this skill.  Goggles are not permitted.

Upon successful completion a participant will earn 2 year certifications in: Lifeguarding, CPR for the Professional Rescuer, AED, First Aid.

MARCH Class dates and times:

Friday March 27th  – – –  4pm – 9pm

Saturday March 28th  – – – 9am – 6pm

Sunday March 29th – – – 9am – 6pm

American Red Cross Blended Learning Deep Water Lifeguard Course:

Instructors: Devin Blackburn & Kelly Colley

Location: Thomas E. Hannah YMCA

Dates & Times: February 19-22 Thurs & Fri 5p-9 and Sat & Sun 10a-6p

April 6-10 10a-4p

Blended Learning Requirement:  There are online courses that are required for course completion, these take about 6 hours and are to be completed before the first in-person class.  Internet and your own device is required.

Students must be 15 years old by the completion of the course.

Prerequisite Swimming skills that will be tested at beginning of course.  All students must be able to complete these 2 skills to enter the lifeguard course:

1. Swim-Tread-Swim: jump in water and fully submerge, recover to swim 50 yards (on front only), 2 min tread, continue to swim 50 more yards. Googles may be worn for this skill.
2. Timed Brick Event: swim 20 yards, retrieve 10lbs brick, walk or swim back to starting point, exit water without using ladder or steps.  Must be completed in 50 seconds or less.  No goggles may be worn for this skill.

Upon completion a successful student will earn certifications in the following: Shallow Water Lifeguard, CPR Professional Rescuer, First Aid, AED.

If you are interested in working at the Greater Spartanburg YMCA and want to be considered for a work trade agreement please contact Kelly Colley.  With the right candidate lifeguard courses can be completed for free, in return for 100 hours of lifeguarding hours. email:  [email protected]

This course awards the YMCA Swim Lesson Instructor Certification. After successful completion of this course, instructors will be able to identify components of the YMCA Swim Lessons continuum, demonstrate the behaviors of an effective YMCA Swim Lessons Instructor, maintain an inclusive environment of learning while keeping order in a positive and safe environment, employ swim teaching techniques that break down the critical features of a swimmer’s skill progression at any age and stage and demonstrate the swim instructor’s role in the safety process and during an emergency.

Candidates must be able to tread water for two minutes and demonstrate Stage 5 proficiency in at least four of the following six strokes by swimming 25 yards of each: Front Crawl, Breaststroke, Sidestroke, Butterfly, Elementary Backstroke, and Backstroke.