Understanding Rope For Bottoms Who Don’t Tie

In this series of rope bondage classes, Fuoco, together with her model Enna, discusses why it’s highly beneficial for bottoms to have a good grasp of how rope works and how being tied should and shouldn’t feel.

Understanding how rope works is an incredibly useful bottoming skill that's rarely taught for the purpose of better bottoming. Understanding the basics of how rope works can help empower bottoms to independently assess the skill level of riggers they'd like to tie with and make collaborative decisions about what sort of rope to do together. Additionally, it can make for more constructive feedback and even collaborative problem-solving when things aren't working, allowing the person being tied to better understand where an issue may be arising rather than seeing themselves or their body as the problem.

In the first class in the course, Fuoco explores tension in ropes, demonstrating how a harness with good tension should look and feel versus one with poor tension.

The second class focuses on frictions with Fuoco providing important information about the specific purpose of frictions within a tie as well as demonstrating examples of how to visually assess whether or not a friction is doing its job.

The third video of this series looks at balance in terms of both symmetry and the ability of a tie to distribute load evenly. In this class, Fuoco offers valuable advice for both how to see and feel if a tie is imbalanced.

Finally, in the fourth class, Fuoco discusses how visually assessing up-lines can be an essential tool to help assess a potential rigger’s suspension readiness or their confidence in suspensions, with tips for easy-to-check features of suspension lines.

The goal of this series is to help bottoms, especially those who don't tie or are new to rope, determine what sort of rope they feel comfortable engaging in with a new-to-them partner. As such, this course is suitable for beginners and may also be helpful for riggers who are just starting out too. We encourage you to always keep your skillset in mind and always adopt a ‘low and slow’ approach if you are new to shibari.