«Safe Greece»: Sport Club Keratsiniou learns water safety and lifesaving sport
Keratsini 23.06.2021. The young water polo players of Sports Club Keratsiniou were introduced by Athens University students, water safety and lifesaving sport, as part of the project “Safe Greece”.
LifesavingSport is a rapidly developing sport which we also had the good fortune in the physical education and sports science of Athens, as an elective course, to teach under the lead of StathisAvramidis. But apart from the sporty nature of this sport, it also offers entertainment and many feelings of joy and fun that any kind of person can experience. So, mainly from the student side, we were invited to teach some of the sports lifesaving competitions to children of a water polo club.
The races we taught the children were: 4 × 25 manikin relay, 4 × 50 medley relay and 50m Manikin Carry. However, in order for all the children to be able to do the competitions as many times as possible and because the pool was 25 meters long, we divided the pool in half (12.5m) and so all the competitions were performed at this distance. After the children first warmed up 100m free, the teaching process followed, showing all the competitions first out of water and then in it. The first race (Transport Manikin 50m-Manikin Carry) was the simplest in terms of its composition and the children quickly understood and applied the basic techniques we showed them. This was followed by the 4 × 50 Medley Relay. In this race due to its complexity, several mistakes were observed in the children and it had to be repeated many times until they became familiar with the process. Finally, the third race was the 4×50m Manikin Relay which was conducted smoothly, without many mistakes and, like the previous races, many times.
But beyond the simplicity that a simple teaching of a sport in a swimming pool reflects for someone, it hides many more and more important things than that.One problem that arose at the outset had to do with the number of children (18) compared to the equipment we had available (3 dummies and 4 rescue tubes). We divided three routes with each corridor consisting of 4 children. However, 6 children were out due to the limited number of dummies and so in the beginning we used them as wild cards with the other children so that all the children could participate. Later, out of the 6 children, the two were divided into two different groups and the other 4 formed a fourth group, but without having a collar, but a solution was found as each child would enter separately, each time as a manikin. So this problem was successfully addressed.
In conclusion, at the beginning we thought that the children would be bored and disappointed due to the difficulty of the games, as a result of which they would give up and want to finish the game. Nevertheless, the wrong impressions we had were refuted and instead the children showed great enthusiasm for the games, asked more and more to play, I did not want to stop and a very important one, they knew and learned the importance of sports lifesaving for human life and that through this sport Greece could staff its beaches with such a hardworking and worthy workforce. Our reward in the end their smile and the pleasure they experienced and felt through this unprecedented experience.
The teaching was made as partial fulfillment of our undergraduate studies in the module “lifesaving sport” of Athens University. We used equipment that are freely provided as part of the project “Safe Greece” that is implemented by the Greek Lifesaving Sports Association in support by the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation.