Lifeguard Competitions

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General Information

Lifeguard competitions have been occuring within Canada and around the world for decades. Although the format may differ from region to region, the concept is essentially the same: individuals taking their lifeguard training and skills to the next level by competing in various events. Some competitions are individual-based, however most are done in teams (which reflects the very nature of our job).

This website does have a slight bias to what we refer to as "technical" competitions which tend to be a little more common here in British Columbia. Technical competitions involve events that focus on the knowledge, skills, and judgement of lifeguards. Lifesaving competitions (the International norm) focus on physical fitness and speed events, very similar to those found at a swim meet.

Technical Competition

Lifeguard teams are made up of 4 members, usually with a stipulation stating there must be at least one member of the opposite sex per team. A typical competition is made up of 4 to 5 events: Pool Simulations, First Aid, Priority Action Assessment, Fitness and (occasionally) Individual First Aid. The descriptions of each can be found below.

See the bottom of this page for a brief description of how we score lifeguard competitions.

POOL SIMULATIONS:

Each team will guard the pool for an pre-determined amount of time (unknown to competitors) during which they must recognize and manage public relations incidents, water distress situations and aquatic/first aid emergencies. This event mirrors the pool simulations that are a standard part of the NLS program.

To ensure teams do not see, ahead of time, the sim they will compete in, a lock-up system is used. All teams are placed in a room known as "lock-up" where they will remain until it is their turn to compete.  . Once a team has completed their simulation, they are welcome to watch the remaining teams from a pre-determined area..

Teams are generally provided 60 seconds to set up their pool deck prior to the start of the simulation. This time is for set up only (ie. placement of equipment, guards, etc.). No incidents occur during this first minute.

Facility specific information such as the location of emergency phones, water feature control shut offs, how to clear a pool if necessary, etc. is clarified for competitors during the Q&A session preceding each event.

FIRST AID EVENT

Teams enter a staged accident scene and must assess and manage simulated patients and bystanders. Teams will not be told where the scene will be staged; it may be located indoors or outdoors.   Anything is (and has been) fair game in this event.  In the last few years in BC we've seen car accidents, animal attacks, chamical explosions, power outages, skate park disasters, gang fights, skydiving accidents and more.  The photo index of the website links hundreds of images of old first aid events at competitions.

Teams either enter the accident scene one at a time at staggered times (ie. 1st guard at 0min, 2nd guard at 1 min, and 3rd/4th guard at 2 min) or in a rush entry where all members of the team enter the scene simultaneously. In a staggered entry, guards will usually draw for entry position. To increase the reality factor, the first guard entering the scene is not permitted to bring any equipment other than personal protective equipment such as gloves, a pocket mask, and eye protection (such things that a guard responding to an "outside incident" might bring with him or her).  The remaining guards may bring as much or little equipment as they wish.

Again, a lock-up system is used as described for pool sims.

Although the setup, props, makeup, etc. may sometimes appear intimidating for competitions, the skills taught and equipment used in the NLS and AEC programs are always sufficient to achieve full marks.

PRIORITY ACTION ASSESSMENT (PAA)

This is the event people either love or hate.  Although experienced teams have certain strategies and systems they prefer, there is definately a luck factor in this event as well.  The event is based on a drill combining quick scanning, basic treatments, and triage principles.

Teams enter the pool area backwards and on the start signal have 90 seconds to assess and treat patients in varying degrees of distress in and around the water. The emphasis of treatment is on maintaining basic life support while treating as many patients as possible in the allotted time. To receive full marks, teams should assess and treat those most seriously injured first.

 Patients are divided into three categories:

Scoring for the event is divided into two parts, Priority Points and Treatment Points:

Priority Points: These points are based on how quickly a team assesses and begins effective patient management. To receive full marks, teams must begin assessment/ treatment of Priority One patients within 30 seconds, Priority Two patients within 60 seconds, and Priority Three patients within 90 seconds. Teams do not need to treat patients in any order, however if teams delay in treating higher priority patients they will score lower than teams who identify and treat these patients earlier.  As a tip, many lower priority patients can be effectively managed without the lifeguard making physical contact with them (ie. calling out to a person to stop running while you are dealing another patient)

Treatment Points: These points are awarded for the appropriate assessment, care and handling of a patient. Points are also awarded for personal safety including the correct and appropriate use of barrier devices. Teams can achieve full marks with no supplies other than their own personal protective equipment.    Treatment should be effective, yet basic.  For a bleeding arm, it is sufficient to sit the person down, ensure ABC's are adequate, apply pressure, tell the victim to hold his/her arm up and leave.  This can be done within a matter of seconds.

The total number of patients in the simulation usually ranges between 10 and 14 for a 4-guard competition.

For the critics of this event, PAA is a drill and is not intended to present a realistic situation . Teams are not required to make an emergency phone call, complete incident reports, clear the pool, or any other similar actions.  It is simply an event based on a lifeguarding drill.

Per usual, a lock-up system is used for this event.

INDIVIDUAL FIRST AID

Not all competitions offer an individual first aid, however it is becoming a little more common ever since the BC & Yukon Competition Committee made it a regular event of the annual Barnsley Championship.

Competitors draw a random patient and have 3 minutes to perform as much of a priorty action approach on them as possible. The mark sheets are exactly the same as the first aid event as are the expectations. Individual scores of each team member are combined to create a team score.

FITNESS

This details of this event varies from competition to competition but always involves a 4-person relay of some sort. Some competitions use traditional legs of a relay (such as swimming with a brick, carrying a patient, head-up swimming, etc.) while others get more creative (swimming in a wavepool, retrieving underwater objects, underwater ladders, etc.).

The typical weighting of events is:

Pool Sims - 40%
First Aid - 30%
PAA - 15%
Fitness - 10%
Ind. First Aid - 5%
Total Comp = 100%

SCORING

[excerpt taken from "How to Run a LIfeguard Competition" manual]

The latest version of mark sheets used within the BC & Yukon Branch as well as the Canadian Lifeguard Championships uses a Rubric system. The "categories" of what the lifeguard is expected to do for a victim remain the same (check for danger, open airway, oxygen used, etc.). Instead of a arbitrary numerical score values assigned, each category is marked on a “0-1-2-3” scale. After some years of playing with this, the general acceptance of values is as follows: 0-Item not performed; 1- Item performed but at an unacceptable level or below NLS standard; 2-item performed to may the NLS standard; 3-item performed exceedingly well with attention to details/demonstrate skills above the NLS standard. Judges determine to what level a competitor performed each skill and circles a number. Each category has a multiplication factor which gives appropriate weight to each category. For example, in an obstructed airway patient the multiplication factor for the Critical Intervention of Clearing the airway may be 15 (total points = 45). However the multiplication factor for doing a pulse rate assessment for the same patient may only carry a multiplication factor of 1 (total points = 3). The multiplication factor value should take into consideration the importance of this item to the victim’s well-being and the time it takes to perform.

For a full explanation, download the How to Run a LIfeguard Competition manual in the competition resources section of this website.