Technique Repertoire
The more ways one knows to do an action, the more effects may be created, and the less one’s arm aches afterwards. Varying the motions has a good effect for top and bottom. Practise the following until you can do them from various directions and speeds, they all feel and work differently. Knowing the techniques is only one part, knowing which to use and when is beyond my ability to suggest in a post.

Swinging Styles
I know of four basic ways to end a stroke:

1. The tails land ‘flat’, with all of the power hitting at once (the tails either bounce off or drop almost vertically after this).

2. The tails swing ‘through’, with the some part of the tips hitting and moving past the target area. From there, you may stop them (see ‘Accuracy-’ below), or use some elliptical pattern to bring them round again, such as vertical or horizontal figure-8, circle, and the like.

2a. The tail tips strike, go past, then immediately return via a swift spinning motion. If fast enough, this can seem continuous and the light, sharp touch has some sensational advantages.

3. The tails are snapped or ‘whipped’ for a smaller point of stimulation that is more discrete and feels ‘sharper’.

4. The tails land all at once on the body in a strongly forward motion resembling a punch or push more than a swing. Difficult to describe, and not as common, a hard thud stroke.
Each of these and all their variations may be primarily accomplished by wrist motion alone, or with arm and wrist moving together, this depends on your strength and the effect you seek. A properly balanced flogger requires less effort, and may be used for a longer time with less fatigue.

Skill
I would like to add my voice to (I believe) Mauser’s previous post on this, bad technique is simply inexcusable; although we are all fallible. misplacing a stroke is not something to be taken lightly. There is indeed an art to the physical act of flogging. This may be learned as any other physical art, by observation, thought, and practise.

Practise in the air will teach you the balance of a flogger, but there is no substitute for actual impact. I believe it was STella who suggested a velvet pillow, and another person suggested suspending it in a way that allowed for movement. This works nicely, a safe and useful simulation. If you rarely find velvet pillows strewn about, a towel wrapped round a pillow will serve the same purpose, you will see the path of the flogger tails quite nicely in the nap of the fabric. When you are able to land all the tails in one area on the pillow, practise moving that aiming point about until you know exactly where it will land each time. Now practise varying the speed, pace and strength of the blows without sacrificing that accuracy. When you have that in balance, try these variations on your own leg, get the feel of that specific instrument, *then* consider using it on the willing form of another.

Accuracy
A flogger (as opposed to a crop or whip) ‘flops around more’, it naturally covers a wider area and is more difficult to control. If one avoids any spin on the handle, the first stroke may be accurate with the tails close together. Unfortunately the next ones tend to be less so unless some care is taken with the tails between strokes. The tails may be caught in the free hand between strokes, allowed to wrap gently on the top’s torso or leg to gather them together, or hang straight down between strokes. Any of these options will make the next stroke more accurate as the tails will at least start together. It is possible to stop them in mid-air as well, but more difficult to cause them to swing together. With practise, a well-made flogger that is 2 inches in diameter with the tails gathered together may be precisely placed within a 3 to 4 inch target path.

As a suggestion for beginners, start with the bottom reclining face down and the top kneeling or standing a-straddle, thus allowing gravity to assist in the guidance of the tails.

Swinging at a body part that protrudes ensures accuracy. The buttocks of a standing bottom whose entire front is pressed against a rigid support are a classic example of this, a straight side-to-side swing with the tips of a flogger can strike only the intended area, leaving the lower back and upper thighs untouched. Costuming may help as well, certain corsets may provide some protection for the kidneys, and may act as a sort of armor against mishap.

Wrapping
If the middle section of tails strikes first on a rounded ‘edge’ of the body, and the tips ‘wrap’ following the curve, the tips actually accelerate far more than the original swing (physics, try it on something inanimate and see). This is ‘wraparound’, and is usually a bad thing, causing inadvertent hard blows to areas one did not intend to touch at all, or ruining the controlled stroke one did intend. Keeping the flogger handle the same distance away from the skin as you did in practise will help here, as will being very careful to plan where the tips will fall at each stroke, avoiding curved edges to wrap around.

Being ‘tip conscious’ is the best way to avoid wraparound, but placing a pillow to protect the side of a reclining bottom works as a temporary solution for those who have this problem (works neatly with ‘whippy’ canes and crops as well).

Passionately Crafted Floggers, Cats and Flat Braids available at Heartwood Whips

Disclaimer of a legal sort: Striking the human body must be considered dangerous. As I am neither a medical nor a legal professional, the following is offered as my opinion only, not a recommendation for any activity. Nothing can possibly replace personal experience and learning directly from those who have been there before. There are now workshops and demonstrations available in larger cities, avail yourself of one. I have no control over the use of this information, use it at your own risk. And as ever, proceed with caring.

Copyright by Grim. Per the author, any archivist is welcome to copy and distribute this story appropriately without
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