Base Basics

So as I just said, this is rope. but we do try and take shortcuts Yes. Excellent. So nice. here.

where ever possible. First shortcut we do is take our ends, and go all the way to the other end. And we call this the bight. Whenever, I'm talking about the beginning usually talking about this guy right here. twice then right here.

This is also a bight. the rope takes a U-turn is a bight. This is the running ends. is the running ends it goes under the cuff So I'm going to show you two ties. So I'm going to hold a bunny ear.

Here, First tie is call a bowline on a larkshead So bow-line-on-a-larks-head. or reverse tension. I'm going to go around the column. I'm going to go ahead and tie it again. go around the column, running I want to use my leg as the column.

You can use basically whatever you want we're going to use our legs. I'm going to take the bight. and then I'll step you through it. ll step you though it. ends goes through the bight.

This is a larks head. This larks head is a single column tie. if I pull on this, it's going to cinch up. if I pull on this, Pull on this. In a tourniquet type situation tourniqet type situation.

begins in 20 to 30 seconds I could lock this up with a half hitch. Now, it won't cinch up when I pull this, this part right here unsustainable. So I undo this lock right here, double this, then lock it. that's a lot more sustainable on this up. Nice flat, No twisties, no crisscrosses.

This acts more like a strap than rope. So now if I load this, this out and step you through it. Can you get to the larks head? head, you're going to reverse direction if you stack up or stack down. Stack either way, and we're going to go through that second we're going to go for the bula bula.

bight the double bight. Good. Yes. Awesome. I do realize the way that I do this kind of looks like a magic trick.

but essentially what is happening here have the ends go all the way under go through this bunny ear and make a half inch. Now, the way that I do this, take these two fingers, and I point them towards me my thumb sitting here and take the running ends Pass it to those two fingers. Pull to about here. I have two bunny ears. Take ducky fingers.

Go through the one on my thumb, pull that all the way through and then pull that nice and tight. Perfect. Great job, guys. That's awesome. Super Quick So go ahead and untie, retie So go ahead and untie retie Okay, so everybody looks like they got that one So this first one was Western style Japanese style, the bula bula is kind a typically the way that I'll I'll take my bight under the cuff and I'll measure an amount.

This amount is the amount that I need To know how much you need to measure, just going to need to practice, honestly. So then we're going to have a bight side, and a middle piece. Get this nice and stuck next, I'm going to cross over everything and then go underneath everything. So it's just taking a turn around isn't necessarily the way that we tie it, but doing it this way. good square knot right here.

you have good square knot. and undo the square knot, I already took the running ends, made an L-shaped, and I made them go haven't go the same directions, the same direction as your bike. So if you're running, ins are on Stay on the same side. Once you're there, you take the bight, including the running ends, and you go Then once you pull nice and tight, bight and running-ends to the wraps. And that's how you get your square knot.

All righty. And that's Can also tell you have a good square knot when you have these three little bumps, So untie this. Let's take your bight. Go round your column Just take notice that I switch hands for your bight size you want it about 4 to 6 inches, and then we're going to cross over and go under Everything over and then under. Excellent.

take your running ends. Remember, do not cross over the cuff Bight goes over everything, Yes. And then inside that little space. Yes, pull tight. Just make note parallel against parallel to the wraps.

not to be confused with a granny knot - which looks like this are perpendicular to the wraps. this is not a square knot. reason that we want to go for square knot is because right here, how the blue is kind of straight That means I can pull on this side I pull on the other side will tighten up. On the other that we have a good square knot. Now a little safety mechanism.

If we go around a hard point There we go. come back and grab this bight. come back and grab this bight, Once we lock it up, we make sure that nothing collapses. Nothing collapses. I'm going to undo this lock situate it like it would if it was properly anchored, properly locked.

it's a little safety to make sure nothing falls apart and nothing collapses. that into your brain. into your brain. And just for the camera, So I encourage you, continue practicing these as we go through At the end, we're going to ask you and we'll go over up-lines.

of my head and go to the tips of my toes. and got frontalis, temporalis Please request it. Alright, now. from their and just kind of constantly Just kind of go over all the hotspots, to safe ish spots and all that. Humerus and all.

So we're start off with the hair I'm sure that everyone that are suspended by their hair and they do those nice flowy dances and myself decided we wanted to do a hair at the time we had some circus friends and we asked them what does it take to be Well, they said you have to pull your hair Under load and weight Yeah. Hyo (Winter), She RED out. Have. day for three months minimum. more work than we were wanting to put in.

So we decided not to do it. Luckily, we didn I have heard some horror stories, though. One young lady pulled out a little bit pulled out a little bit of her hair Second one, different young lady Again, still not the worst one. The worst one. She popped the entire top of her scalp She didn't scalp herself.

But if you imagine when you get a bump It's kind of your wing muscles, but along the entire top of her head. She was in pain for six weeks, no bueno. She was in pain for six months. Don't want to do that. So unless you're going to take the time everything that goes with that avoid hair only suspensions And we talk about the axial muscles.

And it's a nice, elegant, fancy. that goes all the way around the skull what helps your facial expressions your mouth, all that sort of thing. that sort of thing, just keep that in mind But if you were to take, say, a knot and if you were to take a nap, If you were to do a sternal rub, push it into anywhere you could cause a headache. we try to make sure that we keep knots are not on the head at any point. You can wrap the head, you can a rope kind of just all over the place, But we do try to avoid knots on bone...

on those muscles... From there, let's talk about the hips. Let's talk about the eyes just real quick. Let's talk about the neck. let's talk about the collarbone.

Lots and lots of people like sensory Lots and lots of people like to do gags, and therefore put over eyes. It is fine to put rope over eyes. Just keep in mind from the orbital socket just a little bit, Just a little bit. some pressure put on to the eyes. there's a little bit of pressure.

What happens there is over time, your eyes whatever pressure is being put on them. and put putting pressure on the eyeball. When the pressure comes off that your vision will be blurry. that your vision will come back. If you're in a good little subspace out, blindfold comes off That could be a little freaky.

20 seconds to 2 minutes two minutes max. Vision should be restored. if you're going to be doing this or tell your bottom that this could be it. Only. All right.

Additionally, Additional KEEP KNOTS OFF OF EYES! TMJ. So everybody has TMJ. TMJ just means the joint. However, if somebody says I have TMJ, that they have some sort of issue when they open or close their mouth.

Sometimes people will have a misalignment more on one side than the other. that could be wrong with the TMJ. I just know that if somebody says probably some sort of issue with the joint We want to keep knots off of the joints. We want to keep rope off of that spot. of the perennial nerve.

we're talking about this joint right here, because sometimes in some people or when they close their mouth, that can happen inside the joint. And if you have a knot pushing into that, pushing flesh into that space, Is really lateral. And if they close, clamp down on their we want to make absolutely sure that we're We want to make sure that we're tying that we're not pushing into that joint so that we avoid that altogether. That brings us to the knee. and right here I'm going to iterate a bit of a germaphobe and mouth are dirty.

However, if you want to do so, the recommendation is to bite on the rope between the teeth. and you can bite through your own cheek you can probably rip up and destroy... you're biting on the rope so that you avoid any sort of teeth we go down to a couple of pressure points. Got one right here and one right here. dangerous, but they will cause some pain.

And one thing we like to say here in is if you're going to be causing pain, to be causing pain on the breast plate. you should be intending You should be intending to cause that hurt put it on someone's face like this, it's the point that don't do neck rope. if you hang somebody by their neck, they're probably going to die. So we do have a two hour neck rope class. That's way above the scope of this class.

So if there is something that interests and we'll schedule one of those classes. For now, no neck rope. 5 to 9 lbs of pressure to break. We do not want to break that sucker. We do not want to see something So we keep knots off of bones.

quite often we do, we want to make sure the collarbone, the knots or rope joins. A lot of times there are joins and those joins are in the fleshy bits in the squishy bits up here and back here Let's talk about brachial plexus. It is a grouping of three nerves that comes out of the neck right about here, the collarbone, ends up in the armpit. It ends up in everything From there, it splits into three pieces, ulnar medial and radial (nerves). the radial kind of travels along kind of travels along the back of the arm.

You've got the deltoid and the triceps, the little valley, right in between there. Mine is pretty easy to spot or find and I know my spots right about here. But if you kind of palpate around you should be able to feel it when you push on it. Even though I know a bruise is not there. Some people report that it feels weird.

that it feels like fire or lightning, but either way, if you push on that spot you down to your fingers, let off! t want to push that hard. But we do want to find that spot you're probably going to find that spot. you're probably going to find that spot. that dangerous spot is.

rope off of that spot as well, This spot is the number one spot at risk a tie called a gravity boot and the shoulders make that box shape, because of a condition called wrist drop. and the hand cannot do this, that will ruin your life, basically. And we start by avoiding that spot. We want to go above and below From there, we have another danger zone. we have another danger zone.

It's not a novel experience. No. because this is different for everybody. Everybody is different. So the back half of the upper arm danger ulnar and the medial kind of travel the inside the elbow pit I'm sure we all know what this feels like But if you've ever hit your funny bone, That tingle that goes all the way to these So we try and keep rope off that spot.

We try and keep rope off the joint itself, we try and keep knots off the bone. which means we try and keep rope off We want to avoid that situation We want to avoid traversing this area We want to avoid rope kishinawa We want to avoid pushing it to avoid pushing into those nerves, all that runs on this side of the arm. And then that brings us to mouth rope. And then that brings us to the lower arm. And then to now, that you would lift up to block a blow this side generally safe for most people.

And this danger zone, again, depends on If you've got big bulky muscles, your danger zone might be a little bigger. might be a little bit smaller. what you've got going on under there. we're talk about the radial nerve, how it innovates into this spot the anatomical snuff box. Now, why they call it that exactly?

martial artists will grab push into that spot to incapacitate. That's how painful it can be. The actual best spot to tie wrist before this bone, right here. This is the smallest spot of the wrist. and if you get surprising, clamp down very difficult to get the rope off.

if we're going to do a tie, if we were going to do a swan dive it'll be on this part of the hand From there, we're no longer We're talking about sensory from here now is not in our risk profile so we avoid micro bondage. Just a small little example of some finger bondage. Now, if I were to keep my hand in this configuration, say, probably walk away with some numb toes. fingers again, not in my risk profile. So I'm going to take that off.

is something that you are interested in, let us know. We know some people who do teach that. about a couple of pressure points. for some people and not for others, and it usually depends on the person's Long time ago, my chiropractor said, Hey, fixing your posture. I said, okay, what do I got to do?

So he said, Stretch out, pectoralis to the point where they can kind of and these pressure points went away. So these are no longer pressure points If you like these pressure points, But so many of us sit in front of a desk playing with our computers, hunched forward, shoulders rolled forward, The tight pecs is what creates So from there, let's talk about TMJ. So from there, let's go straight Nipples are super fun to play with. You can pinch them and flick them Tie nipple nooses. Pull them with nipple.

nooses. please don't push straight back please don't push straight back with whether that's fingers There are mammary glands back there. Mammary glands can be back there and we don't want to fuck who was playing with those pressure points and ruptured a mammary gland. having to deal with infections and going to the hospital Not a good situation. Avoid that situation.

by avoiding knots on the breast tissue. talk about the sternum, breast plate, most of the ribs attached to it. Most of the ribs attach to them. The only real issue with the sternum The only real issue with this situation very little padding on the breast plate. So if you build up a bunch of knotage or put them in a face down suspension, Now, one of the things that I really like EMTs will take their knuckles and rub real hard to determine say she was going on a trip, Depending on how hard I do it, I can make And there's nothing like getting when you feel that little.

will make you smile for. like typing an email at work And then the nagging thought goes to yeah. Yeah. in my memory, fills me with serotonin. Then I'm the one sitting the cute message breast plate, good, sturdy, We can lift someone's entire body That's how strong the whole system is.

Single ribs, however, not so strong. rope or knots off of the ribs. that this knot would sit right here between these two ribs, and rope moving across and over a rib. a KNOT moving over an across the rib. That could be unsustainable.

for a knot in the squishy zone here or under here with the traps. knots on the ribs themselves or the floating ribs here in the back. Don't come all the way forward again, 5 harnesses don't become waist harnesses don't become chest harnesses. We don't want rope traversing waist rope again. rope from becoming chest rope and chest but also waist rope becoming hip rope.

Now, waist rope itself. Lots of people love it. Lots of people hate it. It's about 50/50. Some people who hate it, maybe they hate it because they have gut don't have any issues at all.

They just don't like it. Right? That's cool. But you. Fit into that.

Category. You got to figure that out for yourself. I used to hate waist rope. I didn't really have a good reason and now I really like waist rope. Really Get into the erectors back there.

Good. Squeeze so it can be good. can be good. some of that muscle tension back there But you're going to have to determine for So her hipbone starts right here, curves around right here, and then we get to a flat spot is where we want to put the rope. anything on this part of the hip, right in this area and then dives down close to the surface in this area.

Shinbone close to the surface. So if you try to set a flat line here to it, it's going to try to slide one way against the muscle and grinding it. in that zone stays right where it is. or tucking above and utilizing the muscle. Much better options.

end up with a knot somewhere in this area. As soon as you find that spot, avoid it. Most kishinawa or most hip harnesses, to position that knot in a good this spot is a little bit more medial for my other bottom Hyo (Winter), it's we couldn't even find her spot for three years. It wasn't until a photoshoot that we found Yeah, So very lateral for her. Very medial for me.

So it's one of those things you're going And again, if you're going to Once you do, you just avoid that spot. So from there, good, sturdy, From there, go ahead and stand, We can hide a lot of our sins I mean twisties and crisscrosses and rope joins, all of that sort of thing And they usually don't feel it. Tissue, everything, even here, A lot more umph! Yeah. to the next safe-ish zone from here to about here all the way around.

rope on the knee all around the knee. much avoidance of the knee. You've got the ligament in the tendon and then you have to tendons back here that hold that attach the hamstrings Now these two tendons right here, the hamstrings, they will protect the back of the knee and this is the point pass of rope will bypass those tendons and push into the back of the knee, which which is good, but small surface meaning stretchy means no resistance. Now, if you were to get a bug up your ass suspension, I don't recommend it. take an entire bundle of rope, put that at the back of the knee It gets much closer to that monkey bar By the backs of your knee suspension.

there are so many different ways to hang people by their legs. There's really no reason to mess Yeah, I've done a behind the knee It's sucked for both of us So I would just avoid the back of the knee Let's talk about this section, One caveat shinbone. the shinbone can potentially cause pain. a single pass pushing like this or if it's a knot pushing into are lots of people that love shin torture, so I'm not saying don't do it, I'm Make sure that you are intending Talk about the ankle bone. When we do an ankle tie.

nice and loose so that right here, the knot ends up versus on the ankle bone itself. If we were to tie it nice and tight really close to the ankle, when we pull it right where my thumb and my fingers that when we tie an ankle tie, it's a little bit loose so that the knot ends Go and tie your right. So she's going to tie a tie right here that there is a spot right about here. of the anatomical snuff box, so the equivalent of this and innervates first two toes, like, well, that's weird. That nerve innervates into these toes.

Now, I have an anecdote for this, because when we when I was coming up, and it wasn't until we, went to a convention called Bondage It's a four day convention. And every day at the end of the day, The first two days we went my other bottom, she really likes this tie I would put this on both feet, invert her, in that inversion for about an hour. because I would get bored and I would be and you've had your fun time to come down. Let's go do something else right? she was up for an hour.

She was up for about 45 minutes she was up for about half an hour I got bored, said, All right, let's go. She came down no issues. which never happened before. nobody told us about anything in the foot, I just brought her down, probably got some snacks Right that fourth day. However, that last day she went up, She was like, down, I need down now.

Let's get something is wrong. Right? and she's complaining about lightning about any spots that we needed to keep an eye out for. So I was like, okay, well just kind figure out if you can figure out anything. So she's pushin and pushin and pushin Lightning goes in those first two toes.

about this spot right here in my notes. I have actually written down So anybody wants to look that up. Anybody really wants to. So we do try to avoid that spot. So we do try and keep knots of that spot.

we do allow for numbness in the toes. but that's our risk profile. You've got to determine for yourself And you got to determine for yourself and you is going to be fairly determined by and by the amount of scar tissue And that brings us to the next point. The nerves on the bottom side of the foot called the toe torture tie. this tie on you or had this tied on you, toes, 100% chance you would walk away.

throughout our experience, she has been So the exception to the rule either to, or her body is getting used to it. I don't think I'm tying any looser, so. I am getting stronger. She's getting stronger with this tie. It actually pushes into every single nerve going to tie this tie and wear around 3 to 7 days typically comes back.

And all joking aside, one of the things that had the biggest influence toe numbness was change in the shoes Very into the ballet flat trend when I. and I thought they were really cute. I could kick them up under my desk, Whenever we were doing toe torture, I always had prolonged the day after when I was at work and. Wearing those shoes and my chiropractor You realize that you're probably impinging just walking around with those on right? And that was the day that I realized that everything that we do day to day Is actually damaging.

Our nerves were wearing on our bodies. We're using. Our bodies. So if you want to play with and push little bits of your body, you can cause nerve damage in that zone. You're going to start feeling it.

And I stopped spending so many on my shoes and then I was able to play a lot more and then I was able to have enough. and recovery time. for something that sat better on my foot Time for my toes. because I wasn't impinging it in my day to day life. a spot, and that spot is right here.

Important. Yeah. Important one. We call this the puke button. the xiphoid process, is xiphoid process, it's prone to break.

that extends beyond the sternum. this little triangle can be longer. For me, it actually is quite long. For some people it's quite short. But a millimeter below that the button And if you put rope on that spot for any significant amount of time, my rope is to say, I got a puke.

I'll get you out as fast as I possibly can because I don't want puke on me, on you We'll just avoid that entire. So rope on the spot right here. We avoid.

that brings us to bones. So Bones to tell you when they're about to break. You can look on YouTube right now. and search for arm wrestling, those big burly guys doing those arm wrestling tournaments like that. These guys are just going at it.

They think they're about to win and then They had no clue that their bone There is no sensor in the bone there's too much pressure here, right? So for rope and the things that we do, We want We want to avoid that shear force What does that mean? she's pulling that way? I'm pulling this way on the same bone. If you want to immobilize a body part, the recommendation is to tie on different There's a that tell you, this is too much pressure.

So if this one is going this way, that's going to put pressure on the joint and she's going to be able to communicate

So now we have an anatomy section. So joints A couple of minutes. that most of the joints can go, that can kind of go all over the place. that I can get my arm behind my back, but I cannot do so without going through without going through neutral first. Similarly, she can put her leg behind her.

She can put her leg out to the side, Now there are some people who can do so, there are some But the big secret that they have are 100% of the time, even in partnered Own body's power. it's like small support and spotting and doing light rotation, any of the leg with their own turnout. Their own. Turn out. It is them working with.

Rope completely changes that because. Not only. Does it prevent any of those. Micro movements that people utilize through their normal paths, but sometimes basically takes the joint to its limit. It takes the flexibility to its limit.

in a position that is extended to anything even close to a limit, it's It locks the body into. Positions. And then you need to bring them back before you can shift and change positions. and transitions and things until like an because learning the way the body moves in is then very different from then learning how to carry it through and create and I can. Yeah, and it takes time for anyone has to be very spot on.

But also you got to go kind of slow to go from here to here super quick. from here. to get from there to there right? and go from here to here super fast, pushing beyond her actual limit anything out of her mouth. when we're moving the body parts, we want to go slow and deliberate to the cues, pay attention to the body Then how much resistance am I getting in If I push this arm like this and I come to If I go too quick, before she can even say anything.

And then she's reacting, not communicating We want all of our body movement so that way you can inform as a limit is being approached. So when somebody is doing their first leg the limit, let's go real slow from here. Let's go And then when you find that spot, And that way the gives enables them to actually be able to stop at the point It is so much better to ease than to overdo it and then back. Off Moment that you over tighten something, the body's natural response is going to be And the moment engages in that way, into a comfortable spot, trying to the same way that you could, you're going You might have already pulled something that you're learning about. How you're approaching.

nice and slow and easy through all of it.

next on the list is neck. Just iterate, iterate. Once again, don't do neck grope. This includes any shoulder bits that can kind of come over the shoulder We want to make sure that those shoulder Okay, okay. With wrists bent.

Err... and let everything reset and potentially when something seems a little. It to. we're not pushing into the blood supply. speaking of blood supply, she is going to pull up a picture in this position for about 3 minutes and completely numb at the same time.

Now the discoloration not an issue. And it's not the numbness itself. It is the fact that it hides nerve issues. So circulatory numbness, not an issue, But if you have a nerve issue that's where the problems come into play. So we have hand checks for this reason.

If you can go like this. All three nerves are probably okay. If you can give a thumbs up. Radial nerve is probably okay. Your ulnar (nerve) is probably okay.

If you can do little bunny foo foo. If you can do... Gentle sparkle fingers. You can do finger guns, radial your medial nerve is probably okay. Weird bunnies.

We have too many theater kids in Because if you do jazz hands, when they are already under restriction to cause circulatory numbness to. and become very uncomfortable. Because the more you're pumping it sends into the hands faster. So, so gentle sparkle fingers is the way. when I see bottoms/models they tend to do stuff like this, that you get the thumb in there as well.

and the fingers coming to touch of thumb. You want to make sure you get the thumb And all of these checks are checking that the motor function of the fingers That's why it's hand positioning. The gentle finger taps, though, for me that check is because nerves, nerves, are super, super specific. was one of my most vulnerable nerves as I was learning about TKs, is 50/50 medial nerve and ulnar. The ulnar is the one on the outside medial So I would run my thumb up the difference between my hand filling with blood and going numb versus So with the nervous system, it is perfect half of the finger.

So I knew that my ulnar was impinged. If I pet this side of my finger and I felt this side of my finger The nerves are incredibly that gets impinged and becomes numb When I was first beginning TKs in, my bicep in the correct placements The rope was sitting in the good places, but it would inflame the knots in my arms, and then it would impinge on my circulatory system and all of my nerves, and circulatory. System things all at the same time. my shoulder, massaging out my biceps, tissue scraping and everything else. And now I have drastically fewer issues.

really, really slow because I had to learn to be able to give him good information to be able to preserve the cells, for us to be able to play with the level of nuance And then that brings us So if you think back to the old Viagra for more than 4 hours, go see a doctor. Well, it's a very similar situation. Stagnating blood. in the circulatory system, too. That's that area.

And it just doesn't have enough time and bring that color to the surface. and all of the oxygenated blood has just already been consumed. but it's not going back through it to return that rich red color It's normal pink. Now, if you see somebody in a scene But most likely they are moving, they're doing all these different things and the oxygen to reach the cells. And it's not going through that die off.

It's just not enough circulation back into those (red blood) cells. And one more section on hand checks, and then we'll do a deep dive All right, so hand checks in the beginning before a I will take my fingers like this, put them in their hands strength, their grip strength. Then when they're in suspension or if for whatever reason I get a bug up put in her hand like this. If she doesn't respond, I'll say squeeze, she's got a good situation going there. and a couple of the fingers The strength isn't there.

They're not engaged or they're just I'll say squeeze with all your fingers. because she's not. Right. just don't... some sort of impingement there, get the rope off so that that comes back.

We don't want to end up with a situation or wrist drop or any. come down on tie and then get back into it or just end everything, then to push it or some functionality impingement.

Rope burn. So I'm sure we all know, if I pulled that (rope) through my hand but the speed of that rope burn is not necessarily the speed of the rope. Why shouldn of the rope. the rope Force can come in different forms. but pressure is another.

One of the anecdotes I like to tell about this one is the time I was. that I call the teardrop transition, which they say don't do to an ankle which they also say don't do. Basically, if somebody says don't do it, that wants to test it out and make sure that, yeah, they're right or wrong or what While working out this transition, between the ankle bones of the person and I told them, well, hey, too fast, you're going to have some rope let's just go down real slow. super slow, took like 5 minutes. from all the way up to all the way down.

It was boring, but we did it. However, when we untied, even though we went super, she still ended up with two huge It was the pressure. Was the pressure. Seven years later, I saw her ankle bones. They still had those scars.

So permanent damage right? It's not necessarily the amount of speed, It's not And pressure can be one of those forces. you want to make sure that you're not squishing a rope between and pulling. we can avoid that that rope burn.

And that brings us to Marks. is something that we need to think about. but then have a wedding the next day, you might need to avoid certain spots You might have a full suspension And she's going to pull up a picture. This is my favorite suspension to show is literally just giant loops. that you can do a full suspension in.

Essentially with a. with a hammock setup of loops, Hammock setup, I'm chilling in this tie. I am just literally hanging out. It was hardly any pressure. It was hardly anything.

I was going around maybe a little bit. But overall I wasn't moving that much. this was incredibly early in my career, so the thing that we like to say about rope Is a rule that we call the three month Anything that you ask your body basically selecting resources. To send to those parts of your body if you start doing anything, your body funnels resources to support So for the first three months, and the ligature marks So these were day of scroll down to show the rest. But with hardly any pressure, hardly wrapped around a part of my body.

That wasn't used to. and having forces like that on it. I got run over by one bicycle. by the whole bicycle marathon. I get tire tracks bad.

it is, though, we always tell people, cool, take lots of pictures of them early because they're just going to stop I think, to fully kind of adapt to it. there was a very steep decline in the amount of rope marks Time that they lasted. with just a single line and a larks head, and he could drag me across the room And the odds of me getting even a single it takes a lot of effort when we find somewhere new on my body that actually still maintains a rope mark and my vascular system has literally to taking those types of forces now. So we deal with ligature marks. That's the ones that you just saw.

We deal with petechiae. Petechiae is like little red spots. Sometimes that can be on the face sometimes it's on the shoulder. If you're in a TK inversion. they just look like freckles.

The weird thing about the freckles is. so it'll be like the tie of the TK and everything above this very pale line shading of freckles, of redness. And if nobody's looking too close, But sometimes it looks like a sunburn. Sometimes it looks like a sunburn. But that one's pretty minor.

a little more interesting and they take depending on how sensitive your skin is. You know, we deal with bruising, There's this one time I was going to a kinky person's and we were going from the parking lot and it was a good little distance I noticed somebody had futomomo marks. I notice them and I got excited. I was like, we'll be friend. Friend!.

I pointed and I shouted Lady freaked out. and I'm just like, my God, I am so sorry. I am! I'm so sorry. New friend.

I did not intend to out you like. make sure you use the super covert and quite way of trying to see if this You're my new friend. And you do not shout across any family So avoid that. it may have actually been after that day of the photos that we're going to show. But I got a phone call from my mom.

She's like. And there's going to be a bunch of kids. Would you. Mind being the lifeguard for my. Event?

And I looked in the mirror Yeah, absolutely. Thankfully, it rained and it completely every bathing suit tank top combination how I am going to pull this off. if you have some sort of event and you have just been doing rope for a little while, pay attention and attempt to plan your time accordingly. this part of you have to wear a bikini. You run out of options a lot faster.

But again, But again, nipple nooses. Next (mark) is the one basically that the skin pushes some plasma. some clear fluid. It clear fluid through the skin. It is actually plasma.

Being pressured out of your cells Pockets. And it's just a little little blister These marks are rather the kind of seeps back into your body, that kind of looks like a bruise almost. There was one time where I got suspended all across this part of my arm. Once the fluid seeped back into my skin Those marks lasted for about nine months, and it looked like a little tribal tattoo Like this lasts about nine months. This one, because it's.

can be one of the ones that lasts the. Longest. And the final determining factor may last is going to be the. several ropes are intentionally irritants. that are intentionally irritating can sometimes have.

Much longer lasting time. go, I'll have you guys steal. Some coconut rope later. if you're doing really tight bondage, those marks last about three times longer and they tend to be much more hot pink. I have a dream of doing a really, really.

Bad ass tie. Across my legs for Halloween season like Sally for like three days and. It's hot pink. So you... be careful.

so you can use them to your advantage. But be careful about weddings

So that brings us to the next point, Lots of doctors, we've talked to talked to so many medical professionals that rope suspension is an extreme sport. So we have to treat it All of the things that you would do you probably would want to do flexibility, training for bottoms. that means you can do 2 hours in a scene without a waist rope. That's crazy. Far out there goal.

But if you train your core, you're going Tops, I highly, highly recommend squats. There has never been a single demo without this part of my legs being sore. still those scenes, those performances, so a lot of squatting, right? being able lift your bottom with one arm. Things like hydration, making sure you have a little bit of something We teach our classes typically at 7 p.m.

and the sheer number. Of times Look at me and say, haven't eaten Little woozy right now. So keeping trail mix or something in. you put a little something, something. Protein bars.

In granola. Bars beforehand. And then one medical person told me after heavy physical activity is when your body begins seeking things Post-Workout is our favorite thing the amount that we use our physicality. If I didn't use supplementation and food I would be depleted and run down and wouldn't have the energy all of that good stuff into your body, help your muscles recover. The Post-Workout magnesium is amazing.

is something that people don't talk. About enough because it has the. Chemical constituent. Your body needs to let your muscles relax. And the fact that that is not talked about oh I'm sore.

oh I'm tight. Because most of us are magnesium And so if you give your body a plethora tension was built into the system, to relax, you're going to be in Ice baths, hot. just whatever your body needs. and see what kind of plays right for you. But sure, you get food sometime after are going to set you up for so much more.

Let's iterate the point that you don't want a full meal just a little something in your stomach, to chew on. Right? And then that also brings up the point no drinking and no drugs, especially here We ask absolutely no drinking, no drugs, You need to be able to feel into your body to give feedback. so that you don't luck yourself up. where you can say whether something is acting up, your nervous system acting up is this tension, is this ligament as you really grow through a rope very specific things and feeling.

that causes in the body. So it is so, so, so. your early years of everything else, because that's where mistakes can happen. Now, what you do at your house, here, we're saying no drinking, no drugs. I have a list of medical issues.

to look out for when I was hanging around. as we've gone through the Base Basics. A lot of medical professionals So I'm going to go over around So I'm going to go down this list and I'm not going to go over everything I'm just going to go through this list and kind of touch on a few details. But not for everything. dislocated joints or broken bones.

If you have previously dislocated a joint, or that bone to pop out of place. So definitely got to talk about that. Oh! One thing I forgot to mention, none of this I consider a showstopper. that you talk about this stuff, that will prevent you from doing rope or from being able to experience Fibromyalgia is on this list.

it is a where a limb or the whole body can or will feel like it's in extreme pain. if they're if they have a flare up, is getting them to their medication. with fibromyalgia, I would plan out my tie release and their medication is nearby. So we can get them out of the rope and get them to their medication because we deal with natural fiber rope and sometimes the natural fiber rope if you can be hospitalized that you want to talk about. If you have a rescue inhaler, and can get to it, knows how it functions.

If you are prone to asthma, you might want to switch some of that here in a little bit. But again, just something to talk about. Anything that looks like a skin dis-ease will require a biopsy of something in order to determine if it is contagious So as laypeople, it's very difficult what that looks like and what it means. you definitely want to talk about. There are some skin conditions.

It doesn't matter if the rope is on it. It's not contagious psoriasis and then go and tie somebody else with it. But there are other things like ringworm. You don't want to be tying on ringworm somebody else because you will transmit There are two blood diseases, a clotting We deal with marks a lot. We deal with bruising a lot.

Sometimes if you have a tiny little bruise it can grow into a giant bruise So it's definitely something Diabetes people who aren't taking care of their diabetes properly which means numbness, feet and ankles. you've got to be able to communicate hard to communicate that something wrong. where I was working with a hypno slave. This hypno slave had a hypno master They did their own thing kind of online, but she was working with me During one of the performances, it would be a really, really great way to turn off her ability to feel pain. we got through the entire performance.

I go to do a thing just kind of to show s the last thing in the air I turn around to undo that ankle tie, Now for me, blood is a hard limit. I don't want any blood on my rope. I don't want blood on me. I don't want blood on any of my stuff I don't want to clean it up. I don't want to deal with it.

And blood is. Incredibly uncommon in rope. If you are not using. Extra toys and other things. The amount of force it takes to genuinely.

skin is reportable in so many levels. That's for so many ways. Way leading up to the point before. Skin will break. So if you feel a pinch, or any of those things that you can feel.

Is very easy to. Report on, get small adjustments. And completely avoid the situation, it was so absolutely surprising. osteoporosis is on this list. osteoporosis means bone weakness.

ten Low blood pressure is on this list. a bottom passed out in rope really freaked some people out. If you prone to low blood pressure, that it is a small potential that somebody may faint in rope and within their normal realms. Versus if somebody. Never passes out or faints ever should we be having to This is part.

Of it now with low blood pressure, unless them being conscious position is going to make it dangerous. The situation that came up, where there was no inherent danger there. It just freaked a lot of people out. A lot of people so often forget that And so many people came over and started what was going on. blood pressure and the possibility of passing out, it will kind of calm maybe we have a little bit of a plan Right.

Speaking of plan, if your top is prone to having seizures, something you talk about, because if you're in a suspension and your top has a seizure and is just seizing on the ground, Alexa? Execute backup plan. Yeah, so that's one option. Let's use our technology to our advantage. You can set up safecalls.

And, then one point came to my head as I was taking my mom They have all these advertisements Really Good option there for that can take you away from the scene. And especially if your person needs you're in, as many of the EMTs that we work with and come in and play, have somebody coming to aid than to. Even be really embarrassed that everybody actually finds more common So talk about that sort of thing. Your thing, that sort of thing. Next on the list to talk about medical body modification, stitches, you've got the diabetic pumps, you've got birth control, dermal, All sorts of things.

that I am working with these days. Three times I used to only ask twice, but now I ask three times for them Scan and let me know if anything has changed from the last time back through all the things that I know we've just like level set about what. Exists with their body. And you can still sometimes be surprised. to work with completely forgot.

That she had. Gotten a stitch removed from her face Up tying together in class. She was very excited. About the plan for the day. I was like, new that I should know about?

Ran through the thing. She's like, No, I'm super excited. This is great. Everything's Fine. Yeah.

We get into the rope. It was a partial suspension, and her face is kind of down. And as she is wiggling around on the floor with the biggest smile on her face because the blood from the wound all the way across her face and scared. The absolute ticks off me that I had watching our little scene Thankfully, I was surrounded by service and the rope while they ran and grabbed the first aid kit. while she was still in the rope because the blood would have gotten So we cleaned her up, butterfly sutured and we were actually able to continue it.

I forgot about that entirely. My bad. But people forget about new piercings Nipple piercings, bellybutton under skin. and see if your person has any of these, because if Rob catches on those, that's really, really good sunburns. Anything else and just really stressing.

People because so often, even if it was forget it, especially when they're going But it's good to reach really hardcore some interesting situations.

Okay, so if you're going to take notes We also need to talk about the chemicals You want to learn about cortisol? Dopamine, adrenaline, serotonin, endorphins and their effect on the body. that you will be playing with.

Don't use rope as therapy. very well in conjunction with therapy, but it is not a replacement. and a lot of things that we can poke at and push and play with. But we do not want. And transform.

But we do not want to replace. We do not. The mental aspects and the other healing And things get brought up. It's good to already have kind of a system having those conversations to put those feelings into words. Yeah.

to the mental side of things. And we're going to talk about triggers. So trigger warning triggers, the PTSD Some people know that they have triggers. that they have triggers. about definitely talk about those.

But there are some times where you might and it gets triggered in the situation, whatever it is that you're doing. I knew that I was minorly claustrophobic and I am not necessarily afraid of. Heights, but I am afraid of falling. somebody that's really into suspension? But I didn't really know how that stress In rope when it actually got triggered I started getting overwhelmed.

And he tried to do something very sweet. and set his hands on my cheeks, was trying to like, soothe me, Exact opposite effect. Having things that close to my face It made me feel worse. It made me begin to feel stressed, And so I went from being very happy, Anxious, feeling a little tense. Too.

Thankfully, I was able to get out. Common English words first. And I was just like, away from my face because I am feeling if you continue to stay this close to me. And he did not fight me on it. He did not take offense to it.

and took three steps away and continued helping the process of what was needed for the suspension to move me out of So he just immediately got back to work. We moved me through it. the rest of the adrenaline and when we came down we just got to have that was weird. Yup. And that's a great way to end up Nobody took.

Anything. Personally. I didn't take it out on him a conversation, a realization, and keep it Now, one of the points I like to iterate Now, one of the things that we found out you'll probably keep your partner. So if you're over here on this pergola and you've negotiated and you said we're not even going to deal with whips, We're just going to go over here and do our ropey thing We'll be good. But then somebody else comes.

Sets up over here at the cross Curtain, and they pull out a whip and crack that thing. Panic sets in over here, right? and your bottom's freaking out and you're sitting there, God damn bottom can't even fucking do what I want to do you will probably lose your rope, partner. But if you're over there and you're don't if you're over there as a bottom You're safe there. Over there.

Don't worry about them. We're here. I've got you. You will likely keep your rope partner and it will likely build up trust. and you're in pain and you know that causing that pain, but you're in pain and they're taking their sweet time and fuck you for hurting me And you're such a bastard.

That's not going to help anything, right? That's not. The top knows when you need to come down. That's an emergency situation. They're there with you.

They're on your team. just as much as you want down. But if you're sitting there if you're pulling away from them and making it more difficult probably going to lose your rope partner. hard in the throes of the emotion. to remember that this is a team sport.

it is the ultimate guiding principle. on both sides of the rope is really. Always knowing that all the way in and all the way out, and lift up and elevate each other. Every step of the way. when we talk about emergency situations, the thought of cutting rope the fact that cutting up lines is probably one of the most dangerous things Having a sharp thing wielding weight that weight, it's tough.

The pulley system has enabled us all across the board to be able to have that we're not trying to deadlift anybody. that you take those shears you have now lost half of your hands. and you're about to remove everything that was helping you beat gravity. Actually a better or safer situation to be generated for leverage in a smart, and safer for getting out of that. Situation versus just hacking away at it that you're going to be dealing with.

There's one time that I've cut rope Now, part of that has to do with the ring It should show here in a little bit. it was actually a ground tie. There was no up lines. Take ten. Milligrams.

what had happened was we went to a four day convention again. This time it was what? Rope, craft RopeCraft, We learned a bunch of stuff... some actual rope that we could show off. We had a class almost immediately after, after the convention.

And we promised each other because we had no chemical stores Every body part had been used to the max. Everything had been burned out. So we looked at each other and. We would behave for one day at least, and we wanted to show off the new toy. Yeah, from fun, new ties.

And it was going to be so great. And we were like, maybe if we just do Yeah. So a tight, tight thing on her leg. she will be pushing the issue towards me. take it.

Yeah. Do something. Fix it. she was pulling away from me starting to set on her face. I hadn't realized yet.

fun thing that we were doing with panic. So I just very casually reached behind me, to freak out about the cut rope, because I would much rather her which when she decides to think about it she's more important than a piece of rope, But I didn't want to associate the the good ouchie with that panic. There are not too many moments in rope where you have an instant out. we encourage people to develop two minute is beginning to fail, when pain processing is getting a little bit more difficult, We want to have a window to be able to path we use to get into the situation Using to get out of the situation. However, with.

and tight binds and Guatemalans and things in those families of. Things, there is an instant out. where the shears come in handy because and he had. Unbound every single layer of it coming off and I felt all of that tension my limit of processing and my. Body had no happy chemicals.

To try to shield my brain from the. Experience that would have imprinted into one of our favorite new toys And we didn't want to do that. But he went straight to the middle chunks of it and cut it, 9 to 10 on my pain scale to. Instant zero. And once my brain fully wrapped around I was very, very, very grateful that I did not have to spend ten months Afraid in that moment.

But. And it was very effective. And then this brings us to the next thing but this time not the fall down. Go boom kind of drop. This one is the I had a really good night Now I feel like poop the next day And so we deal with head spaces.

like all sorts of different names for it. is the night of play, you have all these you've got dopamine, you've got serotonin, all these different chemicals. And this is what gives us that sensation top space sub subspace. Focus. you feel like you're on drugs.

So you got all this going on all these chemicals and then the next day And then the next day you have a store has very little to none to make you feel So for me I like to say, serotonin helps connected with the world. If you have low serotonin in your body, you feel lethargic or just blehh. Some people say they feel depressed or... t I stop crying? Usually when I feel droppy, I feel like, What the hell is wrong with me?

How am I? Why did I. Think that was fun? Again, all these sensations in somebody else. I'm fucked in the head, right?

I need to stop the very next day. Hell, yeah. Let's go do some more of that shit. Right. So for me, it's just why other people, their own things they have to deal with.

people kind of help themselves through it. But the biggest. But the biggest thing and what we always Thing about all of it is no matter there's lots of processing and good things To is I am out of chemicals. Here. So what can we do to help our body produce to that feeling and sense of normality?

have lots of different ways. Some people turn to chocolate, some people grab stuffy, some people all they need is to talk to the person Reassurance. Yeah. So lots of different things. Photos Why does my back hurt like that?

Oh, my foot touch to the back of my head. That's why my back hurts like that. And now I can post it online and stare at my lovely art. Amazing aftercare! can help.

There's one supplement that we recommend, the one that we can recommend. Melatonin. Melatonin is the precursor to serotonin. Your body only creates serotonin The biggest robbery. of how our brains are set up.

Yeah. milligrams of melatonin the night of play and you get your full cycle of rest, that will give your body the building while you're sleeping. to feel more connected and less bleh. 1.5 milligrams is so small. But it's just enough to kick natural ability to locate REM sleep.

stronger than melatonin. that they are just constantly taking more It seems to not do anything. if you take a whole bunch of melatonin, it actually circumvents your. Body's ability to fall asleep at all. where they're just kind of laying in bed, they're actually sleep, but the body's.

Restless. Yeah, night terrors. that Can come from taking too much. So 1.5 is usually eating. Half of even some of the smallest.

I can go to CVS right now, that's three mg little pills. I would say break those in half. Take the half of it. That's the 1.5. That's all you really need.

And melatonin, because it is. natural is generally safe for most people. Generally safe for most people. generally safe for most people So overarching, we say for most people. And even if you take too much, you take too much report quite quickly and it regulates itself.

we are going to recommend if you are ADHD or anything else, please, please, please before you try the next supplement on the overall rhythm and cycling of the way that your body creates and we do not want anybody messing up those rhythms too, too badly. to make sure able to replenish. So we take five htp have to take it right before you sleep and it's not going to make you drowsy. We typically take it around dinner time and it just kind of sits in your body It takes the pressure off. I always feel like somebody has just.

and it's like I need to be. Asleep within. The next half hour. even thinking about the fact that I have. Taken melatonin keeps me from falling and it's much less to overall worry about.

as she is ADHD, prone to anxiety, etc. etc. falls into a. Bunch of those things. So for her she has a very drastic swing and cannot take it as regularly.

make sure she has a plethora of serotonin To spend. A whole bunch of it. But she doesn't take it regularly, regularly, I'm able to maintain a really, I always have it present in my body So I really kind of also tap it If you want to try it out. Yeah,

Now we're going to talk about reputation, and willing to communicate honestly. We're going to talk about joints There are risks in this stuff. There are You want to be able to trust your partner and your mental well-being as well. There are lots and lots of instances or misunderstandings and they talk about their experience, the reputation of the other person. It takes them very, very, very little someone in today's world, right?

You say one little bad thing and every event from there forward. from there. From there. So we want to be really careful about why we're tying with them. that we can actually talk to the person and being vindictive or whatever.

There's two things here that I want to just read directly So a warning for tops. that flit around from top to top without vetting their partners first. I do recommend getting that practice, different body types and things like that. You learn a lot, but you want to make sure and intoxicating and addicting. that there's going to be a connection Right.

You want to make sure that you vet your partners. You want to make sure that they can provide the experience that you want to receive. Right? Don't tie strangers. Don't tie with strangers.

And do not scene with anyone you don't want a connection with. It is very easy and super common for rope partners to catch fields. If you submit to certain head spaces, it is freeing and intoxicating So, you want to make sure that when you scene with somebody, you actually want a connection with them. Because there is a risk that there is going to be a connection built and strengthened. Right?

going to touch on consent negotiation and. Then we'll turn it over to the show But first, consent out there. Consent can be as controversial And here it's super simple, This is a touch. This is touch, hugs or touches. My favorite one to do that.

One is are you huggable today? their mind as well as to check in with it. even if they're intended to be nice? Yeah. Explicit consent is best.

you say the thing that you want to do and you stick to that thing, right? And you stick to the plan, right? Consent is not the absence of a no with the absence of pressure or coercion. on the same page with all of the stuff you talk about, this stuff you say, You get that enthusiastic. Yes.

Stick to the plan. If you only consent to things you're not actually consenting at all. All right. All right, Right? This stuff is risky.

You take risks when you do this stuff. and consent to the risk as well. When we talk about consent, got to talk about photos and videos because we really like our photos, We like to be able to see the artwork We like to see the body shapes and we like to post our really awesome So photos and videos are okay you don't point your camera at anybody that doesn't want to be in your photo, want to be in your photo, they might need but not necessarily your photo. Right. So you want to be able that don't want to be in your photo.

hand or their foot or something like that. It's very easy to crop these things out. You can blur them out, but be aware people with marks on their body, This extends to people's stuff. So if you are taking pictures When you post a photo, get the express explicit consent of everyone in the photo Otherwise you might accidentally out to capture us in a photo posted online. that you posted it so we can go and see it For anybody else, you have to ask, right?

Every individual person has their own You got to ask each individual person. I want to loop really quickly back to that one quote about consent only consenting things to go right, then where a model agrees to go into a tie, and then it is put 100% blame on the rigger for the situation if you enter into the situation, that something goes wrong and the person who we are quoting is in the medical field they are a big name in rope. they teach for rope, they do a lot and they do zero arms in ties because they're a medical professional than being able to feel a patient's pulse And because of that, they have a massive that involves zero arms in rope because Yeah, but instead of putting the onus she's just designed her plan, set that is inside of their risk profile. a whole bunch of risks today and it's important to understand when you're having those negotiations. Now, it is totally cool to sit there I don't consent to risk drop, but that just means you're not going to be No arm binders, no strapados, no TKs, probably not even prayer-ties...

Even the prayer-ties go across the wrist. one thing that I've learned is that it and you can make it whatever you want, and there's no stipulations whatsoever No wrists, no arms and stuff. And Speaking of look like we still get that is okay and just announce that you're with distinctive voices can be quiet. on your video, so they will need to take the responsibility for themselves don't pan around because then you might accidentally capture somebody and videos that come of our class, and for the most part, or doing one on ones because we believe in because we work with a lot of people criterias and to be respectful to them. We don't do group photos.

Yeah.

my list is to talk about negotiation. Why is it necessary? Because everybody needs to be Now, throughout my career, I have realized and there are the kinky people. Now we fit somewhere in the middle, but we do like our photos. if somebody from the extreme artsy side and somebody from the extreme kinky side but mean two completely different things.

What does sexy mean for the artsy person? This could be a nice, beautiful back-bend that shows off my figure. And a really amazing photographer. Really amazing. this could mean groping and groping and groping.

Right? So what does sexy mean? What does challenge me mean? What does scare me mean? anecdote about the failed negotiation that I actually ended up investigating I saw an article written on FET Life just totally out of the community.

And I was like, What the hell is going on? something had to have happened. this guy is not that way, right? Negotiation was done over text. Yeah.

and I saw exactly how it played out. Unfortunately, she had listed out her hard limits and before she got through the complete or what he thought was a complete list. and then she says, and whips scare me. He says, I would like to scare you. She says, I would like to be scared.

were not only on the table, because she wanted to be scared, right? So they written. Record. this cross right here he set up. She's facing away.

He's picking out all the toys. Get some. Pfluger does warm up, breaks out the whip, hits her with the whip. She Reds out instantly. He does not hear it.

He hits her again. that she is Redding out (safe call). get violated once, but got violated twice and he didn't hear it Finally he stops and he's like, shit, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do the thing. But she immediately leaves and goes And writes about how terrible he is Yep, I like to say that of who you are in those first scenes.

You want to showcase the teamwork, and what they can expect from you. As normal the only way you can become a mind fucker, as the expression goes. Is to set. A precedent before you begin it's good to kind of set And if you want to push get really granular with it, get really. Specific with it.

leave surprises and mind fucks for later because you want to. Develop something before. and using it to do the really big. Stuff. and we've got to define all of the terms so we can be on same page.

So why do you want to do this? why do you want to bottom? Why do you want to tie the rope? Do you want to talk about this stuff? The a really good thing to talk about.

Like, why do you want to be in the rope? Highly beneficial. highly beneficial in a negotiation. We want to make sure that both parties what they want to get out of the tie Of out of the tie because we can do so many different things so many different ways and create We're on the same page with that. my opinion that the top should explain exactly what they are planning to do One of the best things that could happen is you're going through the scene, and you get a new idea for something Stick with the plan, though.

You want to make sure that you fulfill that you've already negotiated. Any new ideas? but save those for future scenes. That's your idea for next time. Yeah.

in the middle of a scene, that's great because you're almost guaranteed the one that you've already negotiated. as especially in the beginning, say exactly what it is you're going to do Even throughout the scene. kind of thing and I wanted to change going to move your leg down now. Then I would move her leg down. in this orientation and move this leg way.

Then we would do exactly that, right? I'm going to take your right leg Eventually, over time, she got used to my And she knows, like if I'm going for this purpose so that we can do this Right. And it got to the point. Taken is I know what I'm. About to feel and now I can practically where you're almost telepathic, then start then start introducing spontaneous stuff.

till you have what I call Blanket-Consent and you really can't go wrong there. and, Blanket Consent is earned. Yeah. Before you get to that stage though, You want to stick to the plan so that everybody has a good experience. some things that you should probably talk One of those is aftercare.

Who's going to do the aftercare? There was a point in time where I was taking nine people a night, to do any aftercare for anybody. But I wanted to make sure they were set up So a lot of them have a friend or a partner handled the aftercare. What happens if something goes wrong? You want to talk about all of that stuff you want to talk about building want to talk about all of that stuff.

Who is paying the medical bills? If you smash your face on the ground Do you have insurance? Is a conversation that doesn't. Always get brought up during negotiations, that isn't like your live investing full list of medical stuff. starting out as a bottom, as a way to come out of the rope.

You want to have that plan in place. that means you literally have 5 minutes and out of the rope, right? and my timer is running out, I am running out of steam, before I am completely spent. So you want to talk about all of that Stick to your negotiation. Any new that those are great One of the points I like to iterate of the number of bottoms that I have convinced of during a scene Now, for me, totally a mind fuck right.

as to take a wartenburg wheel and some warm water and a blindfold Like I was literally cutting her was she grateful at the end of the scene Bone at the End of the. when she could look in the mirror man. Was ecstatic. Right? Because she literally thought And thought it was at.

amazing idea, but an amazing sensation. Total mindfuck. that I hadn't actually done it, right. to do all sorts of crazy while those head spaces are going. what you negotiated because you can really fuck with if you fuck with somebody's head right?

So talk about all that stuff.

that brings me to my last point before we and that is to say people break What the fuck does that mean? So we have a hard point right here. So we have a Right here, Right here. And let's say we wanted to do a scene that we have a good amount of room because we like to move around the whole nine, right? A lot of times a lot of times I'll take some rope and kind of make a little border, we're actually going to make a sign with that sort of thing.

But inevitably, we will sit under the space, and she'll be ready for the scene. starts way earlier than it looks like. It actually starts because we do a lot to A friend might come in and see that she's sitting there just kind of make it and then start talking to her. the scene, it already started, right? They didn't know it's not their fault, maybe a female riggers setting up here and want to give her advice.

Please don't do that. But this sort of thing happens Did you know. You can tie that lock a different way? Sir, I have a model in the air. Please step away.

Yeah. The point that I want to iterate that the scene is started. they don't know what rope is about. that the tying is part of the scene and think that we're doing the tying In the scene is while they're tied up Scene is already started. or something to them or whatever before any of that happens.

but other people might not, Right? is be nice it the first time. Hey, you're interrupting a scene. Hey, this is rude. Maybe you wouldn't do that for somebody I would love to talk to you afterwards.

We're in the middle of this. Please leave us alone. Just let them know, Hey, this isn't cool.

about. being dropped or dropping your bottom. Now, this is one of those things And this is one of those things that we absolutely cannot eliminate this Gravity. give no shits about what you are doing. what?

It's just going to do its thing Right? So just like when you go on the road you risk getting in an accident. Same thing here. you risk the head hitting the ground. it is an inevitability you will experience a drop of some sort.

It was eight years into my rope career I actually drop her on her face now. Luckily, she was this far off the ground. I had the rope in both hands. I was going to put the rope through the hard point, through the I grabbed it with the other. She just barely touched her And it might sound kind of weird to say, but it was pretty early in my career Most valuable trust.

Building things that happened to me was and everything else, you can talk to death What your game plan would be But the moment adrenaline hits heads and all of those chemicals It is like it's the true test. And I got to see my two partners In a genuine incident. and within moments the entire suspension, because of some safety equipment completely brought to the ground. I was being. while my other partner ran and grab some ibuprofen, anti-inflammatories They were both so quick, so calm, and.

really, really made me feel comfortable. In the fact that if. the people who were on my team were going to continue being on my team for me. For me, So I got to really see it in action. but build my confidence up.

Once I was. made sure I hadn't given myself a new lip piercing with my tooth. And once I was all good, I was happy. And then I spent the next two days that he had dropped me on my face. of this person, it destroyed me.

On it. I was like, after she was good, I had to deal with my own mental crap that teaching this stuff if I'm just going to drop somebody on their face? Right? So it did take a little bit for me to get We ended up doing a very but very. Most technically correct and absolutely water down perfect suspension ever.

And there's always has to be a first one before you can get comfortable again. it is something that we can't eliminate, but we can mitigate this risk A lot of it has to do with making sure knows the ties and is competent at tying all of these things to mitigate the risk. all of these things. Sure. One of the ways to mitigate or to be able to answer questions.

How is the hard point in the ceiling? I can tell you all about how it's done, because I was the one who helped Right up here. We've done the calculations. each one of these beams can take. We know how to span across These pergolas, you can see the 6x2s and everything's place and you see eye screws, the screws that you screw in that have a little eye on Those are for plants.

And I've heard the argument this way, it's safer, blah, blah, blah. It's still not a hard point. Anything that's screwed in love to test those ones by bouncing. the friction forces of the wood to stay. and people's favorite way to.

Test it is to jerk it down. That means. That every single time. all they are doing. Is shortening the.

until somebody has the fall incident. On that point to Wouldn't you hate it that that balance is the actual issue right? something that looks like this. Looks like this. of what I have in my ceiling at my house.

The only problem with this one is they're this long because it's got to go through a couple four by fours and the wood and blah blah, blah. But to whatever is holding It looks something like this. It's welded. Here we've got two washers, two nuts, so that it makes it nice and tight. Nothing moves if you guys to pass around.

But if somebody is trying to convince you to remember this giant bolts in your hand and tell them that you disagree with them Personal risk profile. But that's RACK. For sure. Now, you could probably use to hang a leg or something like that, full body weight on it they're going to not hit their head right