Having been in quite a few mildly scary crowd situations at concerts, "elbows akimbo" seems like the worst possible idea. The main force will be coming from the

Having been in quite a few mildly scary crowd situations at concerts, "elbows akimbo" seems like the worst possible idea. The main force will be coming from the front and back, but your elbows will be out to the side, so people in front and back will still be able to crush you just as badly, while your arms will get trapped between the people standing beside you, giving you even less mobility than you'd otherwise have. It also seems like a good way to get your arms dislocated in a surge. In my experience, elbows crossed in front of your chest will give you a little bit of extra breathing room, but even that doesn't do much.