19. LGOM 019 – Lifeguard Fitness Testing

Introduction

All professional Lifeguards are required to keep a high level of fitness to perform daily Lifeguard duties. Lifeguards are required to maintain this minimal level of fitness and are required to successfully pass at least two designated fitness test per calendar year, with one professional development day.

Pool Swim

A part of the Lifeguard fitness testing is for lifeguards to complete a pool swim. The pool swim distances and times are broken down in to location and age-based totals. The minimum pool length is 25m. These are listed below –

Lifeguard Ocean pool swim

• 800m pool swim completed in under 14 minutes
  

Time additions and allowances

• Beach risk ABSAMP 3 or less (approved regions and locations)
• For a Lifeguard that is older than 45, and has over 10 years’ experience and working an ocean location
  

The first 400m under 7 minutes 30 seconds, and swim another 600m freestyle continuous with no stopping (with no time limit) (1000m in total swimming).

Lifeguard Lagoon pool swim

• 400m swim completed under 8 minutes
  

Pool swim failure
A Not Yet Competent or a Failure of the fitness test please refer to the SLSQ Enterprise Agreement 2.6.2 NYC/ Failure of the fitness test

Mission

The Lifeguard mission is all round fitness test that will test Lifeguards fitness and surf skills on a rescue board and swimming.

Composition of Mission
The beach mission consists of approximately 600m swim, 800m run, 600m board and 800m run within a time of 28 minutes.
The “M” shaped ocean course consists of –

• Two swim legs (2x approximately 150m out and 150m back to shore),
• One run leg (approximately 800m consisting of 400m up the beach and back)
• Two board legs (2x approximately 150m out and 150m back to shore) and
• Finishing with a run leg (approximately 800m consisting of 400m up the beach and back).
  

The course is to be completed under 28 mins. A risk assessment must be completed prior to the mission starting
The course and time maybe be altered by Lifeguard Supervisors/ Assessors. This would be after consultation with lifeguards as described in this document. Should the non-mitigated risk be too high, the Lifeguard Supervisor/ Assessor has a number of options available to them –

• The Lifeguard Supervisor/Assessor can postpone the mission to another date in the future. (The original date shall not count as a test)
• The Lifeguard Supervisor/Assessor can choose to move the location of the scheduled mission.
• The Lifeguard Supervisor/Assessor can alter the course to meet the below points in Modified missions/ altered courses.

Course set up, timing and water safety responsibility
At each mission, the Lifeguard Supervisor/ designated assessor will be responsible for allocating the following positions before the commencement of the missions –

• Water safety coordinator (can be one of the designated assessors).
• A Supervisor/ designated assessor.
• A second assessor (can be another supervisor, qualified Lifeguard or independent assessor)* please note a secondary assessor may not be always possible in some occasions.
• A Lifeguard Representative for consultation on Lifeguard Risk Assessment and Mission Timing Matrix Form.
  

Time additions and allowances

• LG Aged >40 and >10 years’ experience + 1 min
• LG Aged >50 and >10 experience or Beach Risk ABSAMP less than 3 +2 mins
  

Fitness testing schedule (Wide Bay, Sunshine Coast and South East Queensland Region)

• First Fitness Tests window – July to November
• Second Fitness Test – February to April
• Professional development day – July to May
  

Fitness testing schedule (North Barrier and North Queensland)

• First Fitness Tests window – June to September
• Second Fitness Test – August to November
• Professional development day – July to May*
  

*Please note for North Queensland/ North Barrier region –
Due to stinger season and the difficulty scheduling in fitness testing across the whole year, the Lifeguard Supervisors in the northern regions has the discretion for fitness testing scheduling. This also includes what the professional development day contains (can be a modified mission/ pool swim, ART training, scenarios or bringing in an external agency for professional development).

Modified missions / altered courses
Altered course changes due to conditions can be changed to a 1 board paddle and one swim as long as the distance is met. Another modification would be making 3-4 swims and board paddles as long as distance is met (eg. North Qld stinger nets). This is to compensate for high surf, strong currents (side sweeps).

The course may be a suitable course, however the time may need to be extended. This extension is to be suggested by the Lifeguard Supervisor/ Assessor and by the Lifeguard representative. If an agreement on time extension or course alteration can’t be made with the 1st assessor, 2nd assessor and Lifeguard Representative, another senior Lifeguard representative would be nominated to fill out the form. This is to ensure consistency to ensure a decision is reached. If a decision on extension still cannot be made, the issue can be referred to the State Lifeguard Coordinator or Head of Lifeguards.

Considerations for making an extension

• Environmental and weather conditions
• What time of the day, tide times and tide heights, amount of sand on the beach and beach gradient running.
• Where – what beach, conditions – swell height, wave type, hazards, wind strength, chop
• Baitfish
  

Assessors are to get Verbal confirmation that the majority of lifeguards understand the course, time limit and conditions.
As a part of the above procedure, assessors are to go through how and why the course would be changes and what are the justifications for doing so. Photos of conditions would be required, take down notes and have 2 Lifeguard Supervisor/ Assessors and a Lifeguard representative sign the above Lifeguard Risk Assessment and Mission Timing Matrix Form, and that is has been completed correctly.
The timing can be reviewed after a mission has been completed at the discretion of the Lifeguard Supervisor/ Assessors

Re-Test Required “Re-Test Required” would require a Lifeguard to redo the Lifeguard mission at another time. This would be when the lifeguard completes the mission displaying good skill levels, but doesn’t make the required time due to an unfortunate circumstance. An example of this is if there is consistent surf, and the Lifeguard completes the mission course but has missed the time by a small amount of time. The Lifeguard could have been caught inside a large set of waves for an extended period of time, or lost their board. The retest would be at a time the Lifeguard supervisor is able to run a mission again, usually within two weeks. The Lifeguard would still be able to continue to work through to the retest can be completed. A re-test required does not mean a Not Yet Competent or Failure as per the EA.

Not Yet Competent/ Failure
A ‘Not Yet Competent’ or ‘NYC’ will occur when a Lifeguard does not complete the course satisfactorily ie. Extensive walking in the run leg, stopped swimming for a large amount of time, continuous breaststroke, lying down on board not paddling, not competent in surf conditions, then does not make the allocated time without any reasonable mitigating circumstances. SLSQ will work with existing SLSQ Lifeguards to help the individual to plan and complete training sessions for them to be competent in completing the mission. A Not Yet Competent or a Failure of the fitness test please refer to the SLSQ Enterprise Agreement 2.6.2 NYC/ Failure of the fitness test

SLSQ provides an Employee Assistance Program through A provider called Access EAP. It is free of charge and available for confidential counselling for work related or personal concerns.

SLSQ provides free pool swim entry for Lifeguards to train for the pool swim.