When lifeguards first enter the profession, they come with strong swimming skills, but not necessarily the right ones.
They’ve mastered the four main strokes: breast, freestyle, backstroke and butterfly.
That’s a good foundation to build upon.
You should train your team to be proficient in several other swimming techniques, including the flutter kick, inverted breast stroke and the eggbeater. These strokes — what I like to call kickbacks — are more efficient during a rescue, helping to preserve the lifeguard’s energy while he or she tows the victim to safety.
To kickoff this Weekly Warm-Up series, I want to show you how to conduct a drill that relies heavily on the flutter kick.
