This book is NOT a Red Cross lifesaving manual. It is NOT designed to teach beginning lifeguards the rescue techniques for distressed swimmers, active drowning victims, nor passive drowning victims. It is not designed to teach you 'thirty adult compressions and two breaths for an adult' during CPR. Those books are put out by the American Red Cross, and are two separate courses; Basic Lifesaving (or a manual called LIFEGUARDING TODAY) and CPR. You get two separate certificates when you pass those courses. The BL is good for three years, and CPR is annual. This book is for those who have already taken the courses, successfully passed them, and then wonder why their own employing aquatics facility just tells them to take the lifeguard stand, and then figure out what to do the best way that they can... This book is THAT information; how to take it from there. This book is the third course; the one they never give. This book is divided into two parts. Part one is the actual required-attendance inservice lectures for professional lifeguards from an actual pool at a YMCA, written by the author. Part two is the never-before-seen nor described inside look at a seasoned lifeguard's viewpoint; what is necessary to save lives in the most convenient way possible. How a veteran guard with over 10 years experience and over 100 saves sees the water, and the people in it. The author is experienced at both indoor and outdoor pools, working either alone, or in a phalanx of four to eight guards at a time, on a massive municipal Olympic-size pool deck, with a 12 foot diving well (pictured on the book cover).Lifeguarding is part lifesaving, and part water security (crowd control). You will learn how to avoid the responsibilities of being a 'babysitter', something no guard has time to do... In this book you will learn how to take effective control of your zone, how to handle trouble-makers, effectively break up fights, police your deck and your water, and gain a respect from your patrons that will assist you immeasurably in the performance of your duties. You will learn how to effectively project the Old school Image of a lifeguard, to good effect. (Once you have the parents and the adults on your side, that's half the security end of your job, right there!). You will learn the secret life of lifeguards, the way they learn to communicate with each other in an almost telepathic way, through their eyes, and slight, almost imperceptible gestures and the way they seem to psychically be aware of things going to occur, before they happen. You will learn the psychology of a troublemaker, and the way to best handle a seasoned troublemaker, and convince him that he is tangling with the wrong guard by simple, slight observations you will make that will show him how you control the pool, and not him. We will discuss the physical defense of a lifeguard who is attacked, and what strategies can very effectively and very passively end the assault without further incident. This book will answer a number of questions that the dry and spartan lifeguarding manuals do not even venture to attempt to explain. This is from a real perspective, and an actual career in the field, from the actual stand of a professional career lifeguard.