Practical Skills Training

Practical skills training is perhaps the area with the largest variety in training that a new submissive might be exposed. For the purposes of this discussion I will divide practical skills training into three main areas; domestic skills, social skills and artistic expression.

Domestic Skills

Domestic skills training is primarily concerned with real-life, D/s relationships where part of a submissive’s duties relate to maintaining a dominant’s household. As an example, a submissive either male or female, might become responsible for meal preparation and if he or she lacks the food preparation skills to prepare the kind of fare preferred by the dominant, the dominant might choose to have the submissive enroll in culinary courses to become a more accomplished cook.

In addition to cooking, there are a host of others domestic related skills that I have known of a submissive being required to acquire, either from outside sources or from in-house training provided by the dominant. One former Domme assigned me to perform general housecleaning chores at her home and while for the most part I was quite competent with regard to cleaning, she had some particular results in mind and so spent a considerable amount of time educating me to her particular standards of cleanliness and methods for obtaining them. This included both demonstrations and a good deal of personal supervision until she was satisfied that I could provide the results she was looking for.

I have also known other subs who were required to learn to do things like sew and assemble specific outfits for use in scenes with their dominants and to learn skills like spinning, weaving and furniture refinishing. It is not at all uncommon for male subs who live with their dominant to be required to acquire the necessary skills to accomplish minor household repairs and vehicle maintenance tasks if they lack those skills at the outset.

If one belonged to a dominant who enjoyed outdoor activities such as camping, it could easily be expected that the dominant would instruct a submissive in skills like building a campfire, setting up a tent and outdoor cookery.

Social Skills

Social skills training that might be expected to be received by a submissive whose dominant enjoys entertaining and hosting home parties might include learning formal serving practices, place settings and presentation skills. Acquiring or brushing up on social etiquette skills is another possibility for those charged with preparing, sending out and responding to social invitations.

In some relationships, the submissive becomes in a very real sense, a personal assistant to the dominant and may be called upon to answer personal correspondence, return telephone calls and the like. Thus, a submissive without good letter writing skills might receive personal instruction from the dominant, some other qualified person or simply be provided with appropriate written resources to help them develop letter writing skills.

Artistic Expression

The obvious skills related to artistic expression that a submissive might be expected to acquire include learning to dance, sing, play a musical instrument, paint or write stories or poetry. I once knew a submissive who had very poor writing skills when she met her first Dom because she had always disliked writing. He insisted that she improve those skills by taking creative writing courses and in time she became a rather accomplished erotic fiction writer.

Craft making is another area related to artistic expression and a submissive might be called on to learn skills associated with making BDSM specific jewelry or BDSM toys and equipment like restraints, floggers, etc. I was once required to design and make a “humbler” CBT device because a former Mistress desired to employ one in our scenes and wished to save me the expense of purchasing a commercial model.

The kinds of practical skills training that a submissive might expect to receive are really limited only by the interests, desires and creativity of his or her dominant. The primary purpose of practical skills training is to enable the submissive to provide more competent and pleasing service and to help them become a more well-rounded person overall.

From BDSM library.