How To Become A Certified Swim Instructor
Submitted by: TigerEye
If you swim like a fish and love being in the water, have you thought about becoming a swim instructor ? If you have, and want to get certified as a swim instructor, read this short article.
You will need to be high school educated and at least sixteen to do this job. Your state may require that you be older. If you are not yet familiar with the styles of swimming you need to learn them and be able to execute them. They are :
- Elementary backstroke
- Breaststroke
- Butterfly stroke
- back crawl
- Side stroke
- Front crawl
- Treading water ( for one minute )
- Floating
If you beocome good enough at swimming for yourself, you will be allowed to teach others. Both children and adults will be your students, so prepare to give your lessons ahead of time to mature and immature minds.
You will be attending classes to learn how to become an instructor. The Red Cross is one place to do this. The YMCA is another place. Before you will learn to be a swimming instructor you will need to be in good physical shape. If you swim regularly you will be able to accomplish this.
If you choose the YMCA for your certification, you will need to know or learn about many of the following things :
- CPR
- First aid
- Bloodborne pathogens
- Teaching development
- Observe proper stroke development
- Lift a child of average size
- Child abuse prevention
- Maintaining records
- Following YMCA policy, including emergency procedures
Your personality will play a big part in your job after and during your certification. You will need to be an encouraging person. Many people are scared of the water, because they can not swim. If you can not encourage them to get over their fears, you can not begin to give them swimming lessons. You will need to develop positive, trusting relationships with people. You will need a good ability to communicate for all of the preceding requirements.
You will likely be required to complete a background screening. This is based on birth history, name, social security number and address history. Why your name should be a part of whether or not you are allowed to be a swim instructor is a good question for the certifying authorities.
There is an online safety test if you will be certifying through the Red Cross. A DVD called; "Foundations of Coaching" is being issued to replace the written book. This DVD costs twenty five dollars. This will lead to you taking the exam with the same name. The exam has 180 questions and you are allowed to miss twenty and still pass the exam. If you fail, you are allowed to take the test as many times as needed to pass. The test is different each time it is taken.
Learning how to become a certified swim instructor is a rewarding experience and one that can set you up to become a lifeguard and perhaps an EMT later on. You will be able to help many people and more than likely save lives.
Certified Swim Instructor
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Word Count: 569 Date: Fri, 12 Feb 2010 Time: 12:50 PM
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