Tonight I picked my daughter up from lifeguard training and I got to see her in action. She was working on a skill she had had trouble with. I saw her pulling a man to a stretcher in the water. He was lying on his back, and my daughter came behind him and hauled him to the stretcher, that another girl was holding. It took a few tries. I watched carefully to see if she kept the patient still. That’s very important. It looked like she has that under control. There were other issues of timing and what not that she could stand to work on.

I knew she was finally finished when she strapped the patient to the board. My daughter feels stronger now. She looks confident and reassuring in the water.

She told me that tonight’s class had real life scenarios. Things like people flirting with the lifeguard to distract them, or someone trying to pick a fight with their rescuer. My daughter handled these situations well, and she was always spotting the drowning person in the scenarios.

The class also got to practice serious CPR–defibrillator and all.

I think we’ll make a lifeguard of the girl yet.

Here’s Charles “Tuna” Chapman in action. Enjoy!

My daughter had work today. She had two types of swimmers in her first class–beginning and non-swimming. The beginning swimmer was confident enough with his cube. The non-swimmers clung to her, scared they would drown.

These two little black children clung to my daughter, scared to death. She assured them they would be alright. They noticed her treading water in the deep end. “How do you do that? How do you keep your head above water?” they asked. She was taken aback. My daughter couldn’t remember when she didn’t know how to tread water. That’s just what you do in deep water.

I remember thinking that treading water was magical. My father thought so too, until he tried it, not knowing how. He almost drowned and took me with him. I’m glad my daughter is in lifeguard class, and I’m glad those children didn’t try to tread before they were ready.

I wonder when they will be ready to tread. I wonder if my daughter will be their teacher then.

Speaking of teachers, my husband and I are thinking of signing our 5 year old son up for private swim lessons. We want our daughter to teach them. We’ll let you know how that turns out.

A couple days ago, I wrote about Naji Ali . Ali mentioned Charles “Tuna” Chapman as an inspiration. I thought I’d eventually circle back around and write about Chapman later. Then I got a link to the International Swimming Hall of Fame website.

Turns out, Charles “Tuna” Chapman is a black history figure. Again, I can’t wait til we’re no longer talking about the first black to do this that or the other. Will we get to that point in swimming?

Despite that annoying issue, Chapman’s story is interesting. It took guts to write to Mark Spitz’s coach and tell him he was going to be the Black Mark Spitz. I like how he didn’t give up, even when he didn’t reach that goal. He swam the English Channel! Not a sloppy second. Especially considering how ‘we just don’t swim in open water.’

He also swam butterfly(!) from Alcatraz to Aquatic Park. Do you have any idea how much energy the butterfly takes? 10 years later, he circled Alcatraz swimming the same stroke.

Also very cool: Chapman swam the Manhattan Island Marathon swim one year after the LA Dodgers Vice President used his baseball credentials to pronounce blacks too non buoyant enough to swim.

I love that he didn’t wait for that guy’s permission.

My daughter had lifeguard class again last night. During Heimlich training, her teacher pretended to go unconscious in her arms. She couldn’t support his weight. She and another smaller girl in her class are really struggling with the physical aspects of this class. This maneuver made her hip pop loudly, and it hurt. Thankfully she wasn’t injured. My daughter’s teacher told her that if you can’t catch or hold someone up, you can at least break the fall. I think she’s got that covered.

She did very well on the written exam, and the lap swimming is the easiest part of the training for her. My daughter says they don’t even swim laps any more.

This reminds her so much of driver’s training. She will feel so triumphant when she gets through it, hopefully never to use any of these techniques in an emergency. She mastered parallel parking for her road test. She doesn’t plan on using it any time soon.

Just the same, I think I better get her to the weight room, ASAP.