[Lifesaving] Captaincy and getting wet - split incidents and assisted exits

After the BULSCA Nationals at the weekend, I had a discussion on Facebook with one of the competitors about captaincy, specifically about how I'd been evaluating the overall marks for the wet SERC. To remind you, the incident was split somewhat, with a casualty that couldn't be moved on both sides of the 50m pool, the casualties in the water concentrated at one end, and the two short sides out of bounds. This presented the captains with a couple of tricky decisions. Do they stay on the side where they entered and direct from there, or do they swim across to where the suspected spinal injury was? If they stay where they came in, do they get the unconscious in the water over to them, or to the side with the spinal? Where do they send the rest of the casualties, as there were several that could easily be rescued from the entry side.

It might seem that the answer is obvious - the captain crosses to the far side, and gets as many casualties as possible over there next to the spinal. However that's not necessarily the case, for reasons that I shall explain. (WARNING: WALL OF TEXT AHEAD!)

But first, a little bit of historical context. This is my ninth year of BULSCA competitions, and unsurprisingly I've seen this kind of setup before. In fact I've been stung by it before as a captain, where I should have crossed the pool but didn't, and was left hanging in no man's land while everything happened at the other end. We used to teach that Captains shouldn't get in the pool unless forced to, and there's still a certain tendency for them to think 'I can't get in', although thankfully both things are going away. I'm not sure that teaching/reinforcing those ideas is a good thing. It pigeonholes Captains into behaving in a certain way, whereas they should be flexible and react to the situation as it unfolds. How they behave and direct things should be dictated by what happens, and sometimes they just have to get in the water. If they start by directing people to the other side, then realise that's the wrong decision, it's too late to go back on that, so crossing might be the best way to maintain control. A well written SERC, as this one was, should allow for both possibilities, and not give an obviously better choice (in my opinion).

I therefore tried not to make a blanket judgement about team Captains crossing the SERC, as many chose to do. What I assessed was how well the situation was under control at the time when they made that decision to enter the water. In most cases they only did so when it was obvious that it was the best choice for their handling of the SERC and how that was unfolding, but there were one or two who crossed whilst there were still changing circumstances. That hindered their ability to direct their team in response to those changes, so I penalised slightly accordingly. 

The way in which the Captain deals with crossing the pool can make a big difference as well. Heads up swimming is a good idea, as you can keep your eyes on the situation and possibly direct from the water if absolutely necessary (although that's less than ideal). Nominating a temporary stand-in while you cross is also not a bad idea.

What I definitely penalised was Captains getting involved in lengthy rescues themselves, particularly dealing with the casualty who went unconscious part way through the incident. Captains getting held up with that kind of thing is a no-no in my book, as at that point they can't do anything else, can't keep control of the SERC, and lose track of what's going on. Almost as bad is Captains who do their initial direction, but then just become another team member. At some level a Captain has to get involved in some rescues, but doing repeated rescues getting in and out of the water isn't conducive to good captaincy in my book, for similar reasons.

The other thing that I noticed among some of the Captains that didn't cross the pool was that they had an aversion to getting in at all. There were several times when I saw a bunch of casualties at the side of the pool, and a Captain standing over them looking perplexed that they wouldn't/couldn't get out. Give them a stirrup lift from the side for crying out loud, or in the worst case get in and give a knee lift. It's quick and easy, you can be in and out in ten seconds, and it can net you lots of marks in some cases.

As I said, fortunately more and more Captains seem to be comfortable with the idea that they might have to get wet sometimes if the situation demands it. That can only be a good thing for the standard of wet SERCs that we see at BULSCA competitions.