So last week I taught my first one on one bondage lesson, and holy hell, that was fun! Almost not like work at all 🙂
There’s something really satisfying about teaching a topic that I’m really passionate about. Especially when it’s a topic that once upon a time, not that long ago, I was really nervous and in the dark with.
To be honest, I was a bit nervous about this lesson. Pretty sure I both over prepared, over delivered and undercharged. It was the first time teaching, after all. I wanted to do it well. So I filled the whole thing with as much content as possible, and arranged for two models (only one of whom showed up, the other was sick) and in general really just really went for it.
That said, it actually went incredibly well. The guy I taught picked it all up really quickly. The strategy of teaching basic principles and building on that seemed to work really well, and the whole thing just seemed to really flow. I think the focus on why to do certain things, as opposed to just how to do certain things, really helped him make sense of the lesson.
(Kind of the opposite of when I first learned, when it was all about the how instead of the why, which is why I took that into account as I taught.)
What I really liked about the lesson, over and above how quickly the student learned, was that it was just a lot of fun. It wasn’t massively serious, except during the safety talk, and aside from that we all just had a really good time, just chatting and practicing and explaining. A couple hours later and I realised I’d been talking, a lot, and I’d barely even noticed. I’m not that keen on talking generally, but it was a fun subject. Even our model messaged me the next day to say she’d had a really good time and she’d love to do it again. When my student paid his bill, he messaged to say he’d be keen for another lesson. Guess I have another lesson plan to draw up!
Interesting thing about drawing up lessons and lesson plans; it actually helps to organize the information in my own head and make it more concrete. So it’s really helpful for me personally to teach this stuff as well. It gives me more confidence with my rope than I had previously, because all that learning is now organized, concrete.
Never imagined I’d wind up teaching and having so much fun with it, but there you go. Guess rope takes us different places than we expect.
The other great thing was realising how far I’ve come. I can actually teach this stuff now. I can help people avoid the pitfalls I encountered, and in teaching, learn more myself. That’s a pretty great thought. Pretty far removed from where I was when I started, that’s for damn sure.
And holy damn, that’s satisfying.
