I definitely want to do the in person class now but the online course has been great!

Love Dan as a teacher! This class has been so much more than some tutorials on how to tie. Dan really goes over in details about how to creat connection and communication. The homework materials are outstanding! I felt so much more connected to my partner than I ever have before and I’ve been tying with them for a few years. I developed more of a voice in this course. There was several times I needed that little extra guidance and Dan always came through. This class is a must. Beyond any expectations I had and well worth the price.

I never considered myself to be an artist, but when I touch my partners skin and weave rope around her body using the techniques used from these classes, it can only be described as, well…art. Beautiful, sensual, intimate art. She lends me her power so that I can take control over her body & mind. Then, when we have both reached our desired intent, I can return them to her once again, unharmed and only the temporary rope marks left on her body that she wears like a badge of honor that shows her the artful expressions that my hands portray. I love my new skill, and so does she.

Having online classes was great!

One of my only complaints about the in-person classes was that depending where you were in the room it was hard to always see what was being shown. This was of course not a problem with the online classes and the added bonus of being able to pause, rewind, and watch videos over really expedited the learning process and helped immensely. Having homework and access at all times to the content also kept us accountable to practicing regularly and the off week between classes was a guaranteed time to do it if the rest of the week and weekend was busy.

The obvious draw back is the lack of meeting in person – it’s really nice to have teacher or TA attention while trying to learn new ties who can correct any issues right away. And of course better human connection. However the set up of the online course is spectacular and does a pretty good job of easing those draw backs. Dan gives great feedback on submissions and would cover any common mistakes noticed across submissions in the following week’s class with examples,discuss corrections, etc. We still had group interaction via the zoom classes though and early assignments had us partner with others in the group so we still got to interact and get to know other students. The platform is also very user friendly – it was easy to move through, track your progress, and see what you still need to complete.

Sue and I were in the infancy of our rope/BDSM journey when the COVID19 pandemic began.

We were members of All Tied Up San Diego and had completed the introduction and safety classes where we learned the dangers of rope and how to mitigate those dangers through education and practice. We thought our journey had been put on hold. We were cautiously optimistic when ATUSD began offering online classes for vetting partners, negotiation of boundaries, and consent. These three pillars of BDSM were absolutely necessary to understand and embrace as participation in Rope/BDSM without them exposed everyone involved to significant permanent risk that would end the journey and could have lasting impact beyond Rope. We felt we had hit a dead-end.

Thanks to Dan and ATUSD we were able to safely continue our journey. ATUSD created a path forward through online classes. We attended the 101 and 201 classes. Dan evolved his knowledge and delivery method from in-person hands-on instruction to a hybrid approach using live Zoom lectures and feedback sessions with video instruction and offline practice. He developed a platform that allowed critique and feedback and kept himself available for coaching through the digital platforms like Slack The results were amazing.

We completed the two courses and our journey. We enjoyed the experience and learned what we needed to know.

Looking back it’s easy to see how we learned the skills and techniques while building confidence in our ability and respect for what we didn’t know.

The small group activities helped introduce us to some of the wonderful and surprising people in BDSM. Sharing progress and our mistakes with the class members expanded our understanding and confidence allowing us to enjoy our progress.

The highlight of the two courses was creating a scene using everything we learned to enact a fantasy situation. It was fantastic and relationship altering to complete the assignment by planning, documenting, and performing the scene. It boosted our confidence and opened the door to a whole new way to stay sexually connected after more than 50 years of marriage.

Yes, we’re “old” but you wouldn’t know it by watching our scene.

So far it’s been a wonderful journey with no end in sight. We look forward to continuing our education and journey through the classes offered by Dan and ATUSD. If you attend a class you may run into us. We’ll be the old couple with smiles on our faces playing with rope.

I took my 1st in-person Rope 101 class w Dan in 8/19. Since then I have taken 3 more on line courses. Although the in-person instruction was a great way to meet like minded people and connect w others it did not offer the luxury of having a recorded class to re-watch and thoroughly learn the material presented for each class.

Dan also makes himself available every day to answer questions and review our recorded ties we submit. I have found this to be especially helpful to my beginning rope top who knew zero about tying other than his shoes. As a result of being able to review the class material, he is now on his way to learning how to tie some basic ties and we have had alot more fun during our play time. I would recommend taking an on line rope class w Dan if you want to learn how to tie safely or if you are a bottom and want to learn what to look for in a potential rope top..It’s all covered in the 101 class! 😊👍

The course was well put together, you could tell alot of time went into planning the curriculum. Getting interaction with the instructor and other students via zoom created a comforting sense of community as you go through the lessons. as a bottom i learned so much more than i expected to during the course. Like anatomy, rope history, and even getting the hang of some ties myself! The course taught important fundamentals for participating in rope safely and gave important tools in order to advance in your rope journey. It gave direction and the opportunity to have important conversations and make deeper connections with your partner.

I took the online 101 course after quarantine killed the in-person classes. I took this course as a top, when I’m normally a bottom. This course is filled with so much great knowledge and clear instructions on how to do the ties, and really truly builds from the basic fundamentals up.

During the pandemic, I’ve taken a lot of classes with ATU — Intro & Safety (now Getting Started), Negotiation, Vetting, and with my partner, the 101 and 201 series.

The advantages of the Intro & Safety class as well as Negotiation and Vetting for everyone are that you learn skills you can apply both with rope play and mostly with any other kind of BDSM play, too. You’d think that a bottom could get pretty much everything he or she needed to know through those three classes, right? The essentials of safety, plus how to vet a potential partner and negotiate a scene — that’s all a bottom really needs to know about rope, right?

I’m here to tell you that’s a big nope! While those classes are highly recommended, they are only the first few chapters of the story. The advantage of going through the 101 and 201 series with my partner — the live classes, watching all the videos, and doing all the ties — is that I am now a far more informed and knowledgeable bottom than I was before. I know how to tie a single column — and I can barely tie my shoes, so that’s no small feat — (hah!) but much more importantly, I now have the knowledge to evaluate the my partner’s skills.

I adore my partner ( ❤ you Ari! ) but it is possible that someday I might want to try tying with someone else. And I will need to know if it’s safe to do that, because rope play can result in injury if a top is trying to tie above their skill level. Going through these classes with my partner has given me the ability to evaluate a partner’s skill, beyond what I learn though vetting and negotiation, in about 5 minutes during a basic tie. I know what to look for now, and that has made me much safer.

It’s also made me a better partner, because these classes have taught me a lot about communication before and during a tie. I’m not all the way there yet, but I’ve started to be able to evaluate things like the evenness of tension on a rope. I know where the nerves are (in my upper arms especially) so I can tell a partner how to avoid them.

As bottoms, a lot of us want nothing more than to be able to relax into the rope and zone out. But you can’t do that until you trust your partner, and these classes have started to give me the skills to evaluate whether a partner is deserving of that trust.

I took the 201 course after taking the 101 course and it didn’t disappoint. It dove deeper into the fundaments that one needs to really lock in your ties, communicate with your partner, and have a deeper meaningful experience with your partner. The soft skills sections of the course such as anatomy, negotiation and intent went deeper as the risk level and of tying increased. Most importantly it forced me to relearn some forms I “thought” I already knew. Although I may have known the form from an elementary level, I realized I needed more work and practice on tension and frictions. It’s definitely a journey that requires time and patience.

The work Dan puts into his classes is second to none. This class was online yet I felt I knew all of the students because of the discussion forum we used for assignments and other discussions. There’s more than enough training material provided to get you going deeper into the journey.