Where I grew up in Iowa, lifeguard training was quite involved - had to pass Water Safety Instructor training. Had to rescue someone out of deep water, (usually someone much larger than yourself) and that someone would “struggle” like a drowning person would, drowning people panic, and will climb on you, push you under water to to get on top of you. Had to take someone who was struggling down to the bottom of the pool (deep water) to get them to let go of you when they are panicing and at risk of drowning you. There are many water “carry” techniques to learn that you have to exhibit as well as performing many swimming strokes, treading water for quite some time, survival float, take a pair of jeans off in the water, tie the ends of the legs, then slap them hard on the water to make them into a float, all while treading in deep water. WSI training by the Red Cross was required 1st step towards Lifeguard Certification.