THE NEW LIKE SAVING GRIP.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIV, Issue 9, 2 March 1910, Page 10

THE NEW LIKE SAVING GRIP.

(By

Walter Betts.)

Every day newspapers add to the tale of those who have lost their lives in the water. Too often one reads of heroic efforts to save drowning people that have

only succeeded in sacrificing the life of the rescuer also. Every swimmer should be acquainted with the grips recommended by the Royal Life-saving Society. Mr Walter Betts writes to the Sydney “Sunday Times,” describing what he terms “the fifth grip,” which he has found quite unknown among many swim-ming-bath attendants and practised swimmers he has met, though he has himself saved life by its means. “The rescuer,” he writes, “places himself on his side as for side-swimming, and grasps from behind with right hand under left arm-pit of the drowning (or vice versa), so that rescuer’s arm and elbow cross or fest upon the back or loin of the drowning. The pressure of elbow on the back (which forms a fulcrum) depresses lower part of the subject’s body, and at same time raises the head backwards without the tendency to submerge the rescuer'as in direct lifting. “Its advantages over other grips are that no shifting of grasp is required; no

turning on back of either rescuer or drowning; and instead of having to take hold in two places, only one is necessary, and that may be on either side, or with either hand. “The grip under the arm-pit with the elbow on the back has the double effect of keeping the head up and the lower limbs down, and out of the way. “The rescuer has one arm and both legs unimpeded for swimming side-stroke. They are extended away from the drowning, and not likely to become entangled. Moreover, propulsion or pushing is exercised, which is easier than dragging or lifting, especially for a weak swimmer. “The drowning man reaches shallow water, or assistance from shore, in advance of the rescuer, which, if only a yard or a second, may be of vital importance, and, in addition, he has both hands free to- grasp a rope or anything pushed or •thrQwn. towards him, while he cannot grasp the rescuer. The latter can looet his grip at any moment —if exhausted.*