You Are Required to Know the Demonstrate Survival Floating for at Least Five Minutes

Swimming merit badge, that Hawkeye-required summer camp staple, has been upgraded and revised only in time for the 2014 summer camp season.

The new requirements focus more on teaching Scouts correct stroke mechanics while standing to emphasize bones h2o skills. Previous requirements similar snorkeling, competitive pond and CPR (which Scouts larn more fully in other merit badges anyway) have been removed.

With the new requirements, the goal is to teach Scouts to swim with greater ease and efficiency, as well as keep them prophylactic in and effectually the water.

Scouts may use either the onetime or new requirements in 2014 — it's their choice. On Jan. 1, 2015, they'll become official, and merely Scouts who have already started working with the old requirements may use the quondam ones.

Every bit you know, Swimming's an important merit bluecoat because to earn the Hawkeye Picket Award, a Scout must earn either Swimming, Cycling or Hiking MB.

A revised Swimming merit bluecoat pamphlet, with new color illustrations, will be bachelor soon for purchase at local Scout Shops and through ScoutStuff.org.

Most summer camps volition desire to utilize the latest requirements for Swimming merit bluecoat this summer. So the BSA decided to release those new requirements early. I've pasted them beneath.

That said, Scouts may cull to work using the erstwhile requirements, which were published earlier this year in the 2014 Boy Scout Requirements Book. Here'south how the transition will work:

• Jan. 1, 2014 to Dec. 31, 2014:Scouts may begin or continue working on Swimming merit using either the old or new Swimming merit badge requirements. It's the Watch'south choice.
• Jan. 1, 2015 and beyond:Scouts who have started piece of work using the onetime requirements may continue to utilise the former requirements. They don't need to start over again with the new ones. Even so, Scouts who oasis't started at all must utilise the new requirements.

Speaking of …

New Swimming merit bluecoat requirements

Requirements

one. Do the following:

a. Explain to your counselor how Scouting'due south Rubber Swim Defense plan anticipates, helps prevent and mitigate, and provides responses to likely hazards you may encounter during swimming activities.

b. Discuss the prevention and treatment of health concerns that could occur while swimming, including hypothermia, aridity, sunburn, heat burnout, heatstroke, muscle cramps, hyperventilation, spinal injury, stings and bites, and cuts and scrapes.

2. Before doing the following requirements, successfully complete the BSA swimmer test: Jump feet kickoff into water over the head in depth. Level off and swim 75 yards in a strong manner using 1 or more of the following strokes: sidestroke, breaststroke, trudgen, or crawl; and so swim 25 yards using an easy, resting backstroke. The 100 yards must be completed in 1 swim without stops and must include at least 1 sharp plough. After completing the swim, residuum by floating.

three. Swim continuously for 150 yards using the post-obit strokes in good class and in a strong manner: front crawl or trudgen for 25 yards, back crawl for 25 yards, sidestroke for 25 yards, breaststroke for 25 yards, and elementary backstroke for 50 yards.

iv. Practice the following:

a. Demonstrate water rescue methods by reaching with your arm or leg, past reaching with a suitable object, and by throwing lines and objects. Explain why swimming rescues should not be attempted when a reaching or throwing rescue is possible, and explain why and how a rescue swimmer should avoid contact with the victim.

b. With a helper and a do victim, bear witness a line rescue both equally tender and as rescuer. The practise victim should exist approximately thirty feet from shore in deep water.

five. Practice the following:

a.   Float faceup in a resting position for at least one infinitesimal.

b.   Demonstrate survival floating for at to the lowest degree 5 minutes.

c.   While wearing a properly fitted U.S. Coast Guard–approved life jacket, demonstrate the Aid and huddle positions. Explain their purposes.

d.   Explicate why pond or survival floating will hasten the onset of hypothermia in cold water.

6. In water over your head, but not to exceed 10 feet, exercise each of the following:

a.   Apply the anxiety showtime method of surface diving and bring an object upwards from the bottom.

b.   Do a headfirst surface swoop (pike or tuck), and bring the object up over again.

c.   Do a headfirst surface dive to a depth of at to the lowest degree v feet and swim underwater for three strokes. Come to the surface, accept a breath, and echo the sequence twice.

7. Following the guidelines set in the BSA Safe Swim Defense, in water at least 7 feet deep*, show a standing headfirst dive from a dock or puddle deck. Show a long shallow dive, also from the dock or puddle deck.

*If your land, city, or local community requires a water depth greater than 7 feet, it is important to bide past that mandate.

8. Explain the health benefits of regular aerobic exercise, and discuss why swimming is favored as both fitness and therapeutic practice.

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Source: https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2014/05/19/swimming-merit-badge-revised-in-time-for-summer-camp/

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