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Impact & pain

Floggers and crops: a beginner's guide

Floggers and crops spread or focus sensation in ways a hand can’t. Thuddy feels like a deep massage. Stingy feels sharp.

In the quiz

• Floggers or whips
• Riding crops

How to start

1. Start with a flogger with wide, soft tails for thud.
2. Practice your swing on a pillow first.
3. Stick to the upper back and buttocks.
4. Build slowly and check in with a number scale.

How to keep it safe

• Avoid the spine, kidneys, neck, face and joints.
• Tails can wrap around and hit the sides or front of the body. Find the right distance.
• Crops are precise and sting more than they look.

What you need

• Starter: a soft suede flogger.
• Upgrade: a riding crop.

Ideas to try

• Alternate flogging with light touch.
• Warm up with a massage, then flog.

Is your partner into it too?

Take the quiz on your own phones. You'll only see floggers and crops in your results if you both said some kind of yes.

Take the quiz

Sources

• Herbenick et al. (2017). Sexual diversity in the United States: Results from a nationally representative probability sample of adult women and men. PLOS ONE.
• The biology of BDSM: A systematic review (2021).

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• Spanking

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• Hair pulling

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• Biting, scratching and marks

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Educational, not medical or legal advice. Updated 2026-11-09.