I am so lucky to have started my rope journey with Dan and Renee at ATU. It really is the best place to learn about rope. They are passionate about what they teach, and truly care about the safety of all of their students. The ATU community is supportive and I have made so many friends along my journey, and have had SO much fun in their classes! I recommend ATU to all my friends that are interested in rope. You will not regret it.

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.

I took the intro class at ATU because I was interested to learn about rope and I have to say the class was super fun and the events that the organization host are even funner. During the class I learned about negotiation, safety and some basic rope skills. For someone who knew nothing about Shibari this was perfect. Dan and Renee where welcoming and non-pretentious about their craft. Now that I have attended that class, I enjoy going to their community events. This community has become the only way I meet other people who I choose to tie with since I know if they have been to the classes they are learned how to do rope safely and consensually.

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.