I've had the same... er... issue during some classes, but frankly, since they're most likely to try to rocket to the surface, grabbing the strap at the shoulder should help hold them down better, eh?
If it were an actual emergency, I would grab whatever presents a grip, with no worrying about anything but the life and welfare of myself and the other diver. Of that, I am absolutely certain. In unrealistic practice, however, I really can't help but worry about it.
Of course, a friend and I were doing our rescue checkout together. It was her turn to give her best malevolently rescuer-attacking panic impersonation (we decided to make it as difficult on each other as we possibly could, assuming that a person thinking clearly and feigning panic while directly attacking whenever possible would be at least as bad as someone in plain old mind-blanking panic -- plus, it was *FUN*, even if a bit painful). Anyway, coming at someone behaving completely irrationally (albeit by directly choosing to go against rationality at every turn), any thoughts I may have had about being considerate were obliterated somewhere between the first kick to the stomach and the following elbow to the face.
Frankly, our little "extreme rescue" battles were *MUCH* more useful as a learning tool than the classes. The classes say to come up from below and behind when approaching a diver in panic on the surface; being attacked makes you quickly develop a comprehensive understanding of where the "weak spots" are that will let you get a death grip on the adversary in order to save their menacing little life.
(Oh, and when you've had the wind knocked clean out of you, along with your reg, you get really good at recovering the reg quickly and jamming it back in your mouth by the wonderfully blessed purge valve.
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As for the ridiculously awkward to me rescue breathing tows, I figured that a centimeter from my buddy was close enough. If I had been able to do the class with J., I would have had to have held the belief that realism is of paramount importance in rescue training, but as we were not both in the class, close seemed close enough. Of course, if I mentioned why it was almost painfully awkward, I doubt anyone would believe me, anyway. (How's *that* for ruthlessly leaving a thread hanging?
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