Rope Bondage Class

Well here is a bit of an update. Last Monday I taught a class on rope bondage for a local BDSM group called SIGMA. It started at the first Code (which you can read about just a few posts down), when one of the groups organizers saw my work on military Matt and Hollister. He got my email address from David and shot me a message asking if I was interested. Why not, right?

So for the next few weeks I would occasionally consider what exactly I wanted to teach them. It was pretty obvious for me that I wanted to take a "back to basics" approach. Pete said there had been classes on rope bondage before, but I really can not emphasize enough how important basics are to rope bondage. By mastering a few really basic ties (two column, single column) and knots (square, larks head), you can really start to use your imagination when it comes to position. But really, even more than mastering the basics (as I would tell the class), is having the right mindset for rope bondage. All it takes to be good at rope bondage is a desire to be good at rope bondage. If you have an intentionality in every tie you do, the rest will happen on its own. It's only when people try to rush things or figure them out as they go that the bondage becomes sloppy and ineffective. So, with this approach, I decided to ground the class on the hogtie. It was only about 75 mins long, so I didn't want to try anything too ambitions. Sure enough, the class really needed to take things slowly, so it was best I kept my goals modest.

I showed up and everyone was already there (save a few stragglers), and I was still nervous. I had been anxious for a few days over teaching the class. Mostly just in terms of effectively structuring the class, giving them useful information, the right amount of information, etc... As I set up, they went over SIGMA announcements and then Pete introduced me. While we were dispersing rope, I talked a bit about myself and my experiences/thoughts on rope bondage. I also emphasized that I am NOT AN EXPERT, and still have a lot to learn. Which actually made me a perfect teacher in many ways. I was an example of someone who could do pretty decent bondage without knowing a lot of elaborate technique. If I could do it, so could they. Then I took the class step by step over the positions and techniques involved in a basic hogtie. With fifteen mins left in class, their challenge was to effectively hogtie their partners (they had paired up) without them escaping. If the partner escaped it would teach you where you needed to improve.

I think everyone had a really good time, and I got to see my old friend Brian from the NYBC which was really nice.

Afterwards, Pete sent me this message:

Hi guy.

I hope last night's class did not take too much out of your studying time. I stayed around awhile talking to some of the attendees and without exception all were very pleased with what they got to do and YOU as a presenter.
For my part, I would like to thank you for your presentation and making all the guys feel good about what they were doing/ how well they were doing it.

Thanks again for making the class a success.

Pete

I'm feeling pretty good about the whole thing :-).