"I want to be trained"

[Dngnkeeper]

It computes just fine for me. A dominant mentoring another dominant is traditionally the way it's done anyway. Besides, if you need to know how to tie a knot, are you going to ask the person that ties the knot, or the person that has the knot tied on them?.

Very true. But if you want to learn the effect the knot has then you need to ask the one in it. One of the things I was reminded of recently is that even is I have experienced the thing I am doing, my perceptions are only one of the many perceptions that can exist. I recently had the opportunity to introduce several submissives from a lesbian household, that is primarily into service, to the flogger. One of the newer girls had wanted to experience flogging but felt uneasy with a full on flogging scene. We ended up with more of a demo where I would use different floggers and techniques with each and she would tell me how each felt and her reaction. I learned a lot that day. And so did her Mistress, who now owns a couple of floggers. So while the submissive didn't add to the training of "how to flog", she added to my knowledge of what the reactions to flogging are. While this information is something I get when talking after a scene, it is not usually expressed in this detail.

I'd suggest and even encourage inexperienced dominants to mentor under more experienced dominant. Especially in real life situations where the pain is real, the damage is real, and the people are real..

Totally agree. If nothing else in the name of safety.

It also has nothing to do with ego. It's just the passing of knowledge from one person to the next in an objective sense. Back in the dark ages before the internet and before widely published "how to" books about BDSM, mentoring was almost exclusively the way people learned in the lifestyle. Well, back then, I don't even think it was a lifestyle yet.

Dark Ages!!! Oh you mean the days before SSC was a phrase and, what today is known as, RAK was the norm. Yes that was how it was done. It also included a lot of networking, checking of references, long interviews, the need for complete secrecy, and much direct observation and mentoring for both sides. Along with the cardinal rule for self preservation, never go to a scene alone. And yes there were some lifestyle and 24/7 folks even back then.