Hands have limited reach and utility. For example while she's riding my face, she'll use her crop to strike me in various locations - sometimes hard, sometimes soft.

Also if you get into a real spanking, your hand is going to get pretty sore - the goal is to make his ass sore - not your hand!

GingerAnn - we do not use long whips, we stick to floggers and paddles.

Your comment about 'tails' may be referring to floggers. The 'tails' are called "falls". We have two that we like. One is the Icicles #38 glass handled flogger. The falls are long and rather thin. When wielded with some vigor it provides a stinging feeling. Although we've never tried it, the glass handle can double as a dildo. We also like it because it can be quite pleasurable when the falls are used to simply dance across the skin - no impacts. It's great for nipple and genital stimulation.

Our second flogger has 1/2" wide falls. It gives a totally different 'thudding' feeling upon impact. Because the impact is spread across the total weight of the falls, you actually have to swing kind of hard to produce any real pain. It's good for getting a nice red glow to the skin without a lot of pain - unless of course you want pain, then just swing harder.

You are correct, both require practice - but it's all quite fun. Don't forget to communicate - we don't need a safe word, simply indicating you your partner if it gets to be too much is easy to do.

If you want some real pain - try a 2 or 3 finger Tawse.