When we asked our Shibari Study Discord community about their shibari goals and rope resolutions for 2025, the answers were as diverse and varied as, well, the community itself. Some people wanted to do ropes every day; others were cautious about burning out and wanted to do less. Some wanted to showcase their rope more, while some wanted to stop overcommitting to performances. Many were eager to start suspending and – you guessed it – just as many were excited to focus more on floor play and flow. However, there were a few recurring themes and better rope habits and practices that popped up again and again in people’s answers, no matter their role in ropes or their experience level. If you’re looking to improve your bondage game this year (or any time at all, for that matter), these five resolutions will put you on a path to more mindful and connective rope, guaranteed.
1 Commit some knots and ties to memory
When starting to learn shibari, it can be tempting to try to get the hang of as many ties as possible as quickly as possible, ticking off one before it’s on to the next. Far from making you a better or more competent rigger, this approach really does place quantity over quality. However, when you focus, instead, on really understanding the building blocks of your rope practice and solidifying those fundamental skills, that’s when the real magic happens. This year, instead of trying to learn as much as possible, try to focus on learning as fully as possible. If you’re a shibari beginner, that might look like drilling and perfecting basic techniques and making sure you commit them to muscle memory before moving on to the next thing. And if you’re more experienced, the same applies – whether you’re learning your first rope harness or aiming for your first suspension, great tension, flow and confidence are going to be borne out of repetition. If you’re looking for inspiration on skills to drill and how to piece them together to realize your rope goals, check out our Rope Resolutions ’25 curated playlists – available until 31 January 2025 only. Lab, rest, revise, repeat!
2 Foster deeper rope connections
Much like overextending yourself by trying to learn too many knots and patterns at once, you can overextend yourself by tying with anyone and everyone. By all means, do find rope partners that you have a good connection with, and then put in the time and energy to deepen those connections. The more consistently you practice communication, the more trust you build and the more comfortable you become within your rope partnerships, the safer you’ll feel to explore more challenging and intense types of play (if that’s what you’re after, of course). Remember, your rope partnership does not have to be sexual or romantic; more important is that you share similar rope goals and interests with a clear and mutual understanding of what that looks like within your own dynamic. Create the types of rope partnership you want to see in the world!
Illustrator: Corey Kraft3 Get deliberate about tracking your rope progress
Progress is a great motivator… however, the flipside of that is that it can be incredibly demotivating when we feel like we aren’t making any progress. While there might not be fitness apps or smart devices for tracking your rope practice (yet), there are other ways to record as you develop and to observe how you grow – be it in leaps and bounds or simply one baby step after another. Whether it’s taking photos when labbing, journaling about your experiences in rope, or even making videos of your rope scenes to observe aspects like pacing, flow and rope handling, simply documenting your day-to-day practice will soon show evidence of your improvement over time. Importantly, remember to be proud of your progress – like we said, it’s a great motivator.
4 Talk as much as you tie
Speaking to your rope partner is also an essential element of tracking your progress – after all, something can look good in a photo but feel all sorts of wrong. Pre-scene discussion and establishing consent is rightly stressed as an essential prerequisite before any tying takes place; we’d argue that post-scene feedback and checking in should be considered as compulsory too. If now is the time for picking up good habits, make one of yours working dedicated time for review and reflection into your post-tying check-in ritual. Ask what felt good, what could be improved, where you might be able to adapt things for an even better experience, and then come back to these conversations the next time you tie and reflect on how you’ve been able to take that feedback on board.
5 Support your rope community
For some people, rope bondage might only ever be an “in my bedroom with my partner” type of thing, and that’s valid. For many others though, the broader rope community is an invaluable part of how we learn, connect, share and grow in what is still a fairly niche pastime. Part of Shibari Study’s own ethos is to make rope accessible to everybody and to put the community at the heart of what we do, and we’re inspired to see how many people in the rope world feel the same. Remember, what the local rope scene looks like is going to vary from place to place, meaning what showing up for the rope community looks like can be just as varied. Visit a rope space, take a class, attend a rope jam, but recognize that it’s not just about buying tickets to classes or visiting local rope spaces, but also about helping to lift people’s practice, sharing your own experiences and insights, and making rope a safer and more welcoming space for all. Maybe you’re working towards being able to share your own rope knowledge or you want to start a rope skill share event in your own town… Maybe you’re leaving love and words of encouragement on a social media post… Maybe you’re even joining the Shibari Study Discord community… All of it counts, helping us build stronger bonds in more ways than we could have imagined.
Illustrator: Corey Kraft
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