WAE III

A continuation of the Water Adventure Experience. My students (in the picture) had successfully completed their elementary and intermediate levels. Equipped with the confidence, they have decided to embark on a higher level of swimming which is the Survival Swimming Course. This course is commonly known as the NASSA Awards. It consists of Bronze, Silver, Gold and GoldStar awards.


This is where they will hone their swimming skills further in the different NASSA elements. The different elements are listed below:

"Speed swimming".
"Drown Proofing".
"Treading water with one hand".
"Undress and make float with attire".
"Surface dives and submerged swimming".
"Distance swimming using different swimming strokes".
"Climb out of swimming pool with no aid required".

Although the elements are quite similar to the Intermediate levels, students are trained to perform them for a longer period of time thereby increasing their survival skills. With this, ends the WAE and a new journey embarks through Lifesaving.

WAE II

After the completion of Elementary Levels I & II, students will no longer be afraid of the water. They have acquired the basic water confidence. Now, it is time for them to conquer their fear of deeper water bodies. By now, students will have been taught to swim using Frontcrawl (freestyle) and Breaststroke (frog style).

They will move on to Intermediate Level I & II. Basically they will be learning to swim longer distances which constitutes to the breadth (25m) and length (50m) of the pool. They will also be taught how to Tread Water, Dive deeper into the water and perform a technique called Drown Proofing.

I will now break down the skills that will be taught.

"Treading Water". It can also literally mean "standing" in the water. It is performed with a combination of breaststroke kick and hand pulling in a vertical direction to acheive the effect of treading water.

"Surface Dive Skills". In Elementary Levels, students will be able to dive down to a depth of 1.2m. However, for Intermediate Levels, students will be expected to be able to go to a depth of 1.8m with confidence. This is to train them to swim beneath any floating obstacles on the water.

"Drown Proofing". This skill is a combination of floating face down and breaststroke breathing. The main purpose of learning this skill is that people may develop cramp in their leg muscles while swimming. While waiting for help to arrive, they can survive longer during the waiting period with minimum effort.

Intermediate Level II students will be swimming the length of the swimming pool (50m). In addition, I will be teaching them a new stroke, Backstroke. This is to prepare them for the NASSA Awards. Skills learned during Intermediate Level I will also be honed such that the students will be able to perform them for a longer period of time.

Beginning of the Water Adventure Experience. (WAE)

Learning how to swim comes in several levels. It starts with Elementary Level I & II. In short, students in Elementary Level will accquire skills that imbuilds in them "Water Confidence Skills", "Floating and Recovery (Standing up in the water after floating) skills", "Kicking Skills", "Surface Dive Skills" and "Squat Dive into waters".

Allow me to elaborate more in the different skills the students will learn.

"Water Confidence Skills". Students will have to place their face into the water and hold their breaths for a short amount of time. They will also be asked to submerge their heads and open their eyes under water.

"Floating and Recovery Skills". They will learn how to float facing down and facing up in the water before recovering. Recovering means standing up from a floating position.

"Kicking Skills". Basic kicking skills will be taught. Mainly flutter kick and breaststroke kick with and without aid of kicking board.

"Surface Dive Skills". Objects may accidentally drop to the bottom of a water body and the need to retrieve it arises. The fastest way to do so is by performing a surface dive. For elementary levels, students will be taught how to go to a depth of 1.2m (max).

"Entry to water Skills". To encourage more water confidence, squat dive entries into the water will be taught. They will be squat diving with kicking board for practice purposes and henceafter, without the aid of kicking board.

My 1st Lifesaving Class in 2004

The above is the pioneer batch of lifesavers whom I have trained when I was first appointed as Lifesaving Instructor. The kids in the group were very estatic. The adults were more focused as this course could pave the way to a career in teaching swimming, lifesaving or aqua-aerobics.

Lifesaving Course includes Practical and Theory aspects. Theory is a must as the lifesavers need to have the knowledge on how-to-do and what-to-do if they really encounter situations after the course. Lifesaving is not entirely based on brawn but also on brains too. I believe that a thinking lifesaver beats a brute strength lifeaver any time.