BULLWHIP SAFETY
A Responsible Top's Primer for Femdom Plays

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Bullwhips

by Robert Dante

CHOOSING A WHIP

Pick the right bullwhip for your femdom play. Don't buy an 18-plait, 14-foot kangaroo whip if you want something to play with in an apartment. Don't expect people to happily jump in front of your 10-foot bullwhip so you can learn how to play with someone.

You do not need an expensive bullwhip; you do need a well-made one. Many beautifully braided bullwhips are mere costume pieces better left hanging on the wall, just because they do not function the way bullwhips are supposed to. The braiding should be tight enough to communicate the energy of the throw undissipated all the way from the handle to the cracker . While kangaroo is twice as strong and lighter than leather, it is twice as expensive. Which way you go is your choice. The price of a bullwhip is no indication of its quality.

Like all leather, keep your bullwhips dry. Condition it with tallow, a lanolin-beeswax based mixture.

Pick the right bullwhip for your purpose. A shorter bullwhip will force you into a stricter form, because it is faster than a longer bullwhip. Because it's shorter, it's also lighter, so you can practice longer with it before you tire yourself out. Working a long bullwhip is like doing bench presses with one arm. It's easier to go from a shorter bullwhip to a longer one as your ability increases. A four-foot bullwhip can be used in a variety of situations, while a bullwhip up to 14 feet long will be accurate enough to play contact games with someone . Beyond that length, don't try anything more elaborate than simple wraps around extended limbs.

PRACTICING

Once you've got your bullwhip, practice, practice, practice. Make sure the floor is clear of objects that might fly off like bullets if you strike them. Outside, rocks or pebbles can be launched like missiles if your bullwhip hits them. Since a bullwhip is a three-dimensional experience, make sure you have clearance in front, behind and above you.

Expect to smack yourself. Wear glasses, a hat, long sleeves. If you put your eye out, you won't grow a new one, so protect what you have. Keep the bullwhip moving away from you; never crack it with a downward snap so the bullwhip flies toward your face. develop a repertoire of strokes: there are basically three: the overhead shot straight forward, the circus crack (an S-shape) and the helicopter spin over your head with a sudden reverse. Everything else is a variation on these strokes.

Concentrate on your form. It doesn't take strength or power or speed to crack a whip: if your form is correct, the whip will crack. It wants to crack -- it was made that way. Let it do its job.

Remember that using a bullwhip is a whole-body activity, not just a wrist-snap. Use a passive wrist, not an active wrist. Use your whole arm. Later, you can add a little wrist action to give an extra grace-note, but the foundation of the stroke will originate with your whole arm. Get that elbow away from your side, unless you like the idea of carpal tunnel surgery in your future.

Learn to weave your own crackers; it's less expensive than buying them.

Play games to sharpen your skills: cut newspapers, crack between boxes on chairs without touching the boxes, wrap brooksticks and chair legs.

PLAYING

Never crack directly onto the skin at the point where the sound detonates, unless you want to risk cutting. When a Top wraps an arm, the bullwhip cracks above and behind the skin: once the bullwhip has cracked, the energy is expended and the momentum of the throw makes the bullwhip wrap like a snake around the arm. Good Tops can make the crack and wrap occur almost simultaneously. It's scary, but it's non-injurious.

You can play so the cracker hits the skin, if you use this same principle and make the crack occur before you hit flesh. The cracker brushes the skin on its way back -- if you make the crack occur fairly close the the strike, the bottom believes it was simultaneous. Yes, you can use a whip to lay in a stroke for real, understanding that it will raise a welt or a blood blister. Use a thicker string for the cracker -- a sharper one like silk is more likely to actually cut.

Even with bullwhip play, follow the precepts for other whip play: always warm the bottom up first, and stay away from kidneys and thin tissue areas, like joints. DON'T PLAY AROUND THE FACE. Understand that a bullwhip has a range of expressions available, not just a single speed and force. Make it a dance.

A shorter whip will be more precise for edge play like this. Keep the area clean; even if skin is not broken, you are still driving dirt into the skin. Keep the whip off the floor. Clean your whips between sessions.

The same safety rules for yourself apply to your bottom. Keep the whip moving away from his face. NO NECK WRAPS (leave this for the movies). Stay away from the eyes. Play as though this is the time you will screw up royally -- that way you'll play with the thought in the back of your mind that you will try to minimize the damage that will happen.

There it is. This is not the final word, or perhaps the best one, on the topic of single-tail whips. But what is here is true. At least you've now been told.



 

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