petermorwood:trilliath: Funny thing, most writers don’t seem to actually know what a Fireman&r
petermorwood:trilliath: Funny thing, most writers don’t seem to actually know what a Fireman’s Carry is, despite its frequent appearance in fic. Most often when they call something a Fireman’s Carry, they’re actually describing an Over-The-Shoulder Carry - i.e. with the face of the person getting carried down by the person carrying them’s butt. The Fireman’s carry is the thing the Army and lifeguard training taught me. If you search for images of it, you’ll get lots of photos of heroic and/or athletic people carrying other people (sometimes much larger than themselves) safely and effectively - even running races that way. The other one is not particularly safe or efficient and is basically only effective for carrying a person as far as the bed you intend to toss them upon. Case in point: searching for images of that will…. get you a lot of things that safe search would’ve filtered out if it were better at context cues. Now I’m not going to presume I know better than writers which one better fits their characters and the tone of their fic… but I really wish they’d match the right term to the right action if they’re going to use it at all. Fireman’s carry or Fireman’s lift - both are correct.My Dad was a fireman during WW2 and he showed me how it worked when I was a teenager and he was no spring chicken. He carried me from the living-room to the kitchen and back, and at no time did I feel I was at risk of being dropped. OK, he needed a bit of a sit-down afterwards - he was nearly 60 and I was a rugby-build 16 - yet he still did a correct and secure fireman’s carry about 30 years after he’d last needed to do it for real.It’s all to do with the “lock” achieved by carrier’s arm and hand securing carryee’s leg and arm - thus leaving the carrier’s other hand free to operate doors etc. - also that the carryee is horizontal across both of the carrier’s shoulders for better balance, not folded like a half-shut penknife with all their weight on that side.Writer Note: The problem is what you call it in a fantasy situation without firemen, and in any situation where you need to explain the difference between a proper “fireman’s lift” and the “pirate’s over-shoulder carry”. -- source link