selecting a switch

On the subject of switches, and similar implements, has anyone written, or come across, any story involving a 'pomlaszca'? (Not sure of the spelling - I mean the rod of braided twigs used in Czech Easter rituals).

An obvious place to look is among Fulgur's stories. I am not sure he has one, but his stories are definitely worth reading anymay

Raspberry canes or switches, do not have thorns in the UK in my parents garden in Northern Scotland (I live in Canada at the moment). May be there are different where you are?

Also they don't really grow in bushes but are separate leggy lanky tall raspberry canes with leafs and raspberries.

The reason I prefer raspberry ones is they are softer material (sometimes the pulp is almost sponge like inside) and not hard so they are safe to work with - they will still leave marks however. I have only used the ones that have died and gone brown - never used the green ones. The only thing that might be sharp is the knots where the leafs grew - but usually these are not sharp.

I know someone in Montana, whom got the switch like you mention with thorns on her legs and bottom by her mother. But the switch was a rose - which of course has sharp thorns - yes that is a very cruel punishment. The rose or holly is the only kind of switches I am aware of that would have thorns? This is certainly an interesting experiment and I may try it out sometime on myself!

Hi Beth. I favor the willow switch. it requires minimal preparation and is easy for the miscreant to select. The branches sway i the wind, each hoping for the honor of being selected to attend to a soft bottom. I also would refer to use of a switch as a whipping rather than a spanking. It makes a swish sound ... like the sound of the word whip.


I need help with a story I am writing, and I'm hoping someone in the library can provide me the information. How do you select a switch to be used in a spanking? What characteristics do you look for? Is one type of tree better than others? How do you trim a switch?

Many thanks in advance, Beth

As always, the Scandinavians are worse than the rest. I assume our raspberry bushes have viking blood. The thorns are not very bad, but if you pick raspberries with bare legs, you must expect a few bloody scratches. As raspberries are related to roses, thorns are not unexpected.

Absolutely with very short shorts and ankle socks! Walking back to the house to the disciplinarian room with a whippy switch with some scratches on the nice long legs after selecting the switch in the garden - all part of the correction. Before the switching on the calves and thighs, when bending over touching toes begins...

I usually have found that those runners that shoot up from the sides or bases of a smaller tree are perfect. But not just anything will do. Some look great and break almost instantly. Others seem whippy until you get a medium length and then you discover they're not so flexible after all. I look for ones also that are not loaded with side branches so there is less chance for sharp edges (though switching with natural material is probably going to nick here and there. At least it has with me). A quarter of an inch thick is good for me. Thicker is too stiff, thinner too wimpy. I also think a shorter length of no more than 30" works best for most disciplinarians. Longer length requires a near-perfect switch and a very skilled "switcher". (that's where those rattan canes come in ....but technically that's a caning lol.) Most people can handle a shorter switch very effectively though.

Dark birch trees, the water-rententive willow, and others that I don't even identify but just "try'...will all work. The thing is you want a wood that will whip not act as a stick, but like I said, most tend to snap or bend. Finding the right one is a bit of a hunt, and when you do, cut several anyway. Some work better than others and some....even the best.... will break.

I used to get all excited when I would see these green runners that looked perfect. And then when i tried them they all broke or bent merely from being swished through the air. So you definitely want a woody brown runner. I live on the northeast coast of the US. If you live elsewhere the trees and things might be different.

(I still have a picture somewhere of a time a casual Top wanted to try switches and i cut some and offered my butt. The end result looks like those insane Ukranian discipline pics you see that freak out most people! LOL. The "experiment" just sort of went on way longer than I would have thought. I looked like a washboard!

Good luck on your story.

Some terrific and fascinating posts in this thread. Not too often you see anything about the switch on contemporary spanking or discipline sites.
For me, the switch is associated with the past, with life in rural or small town communities. Let's face it, pretty hard to find a switch if you live in some city apartment or townhouse complex almost totally surrounded by buildings and concrete.
But the switch and what is remembered by some as the "switch dance" is a valuable part of the lore and history surrounding spanking and corporal punishment.
Some mentioned the switch being used on the bare legs, that such would be just then thing for a scene where a girl is punished for wearing extremely short shorts. That happens to be a favorite fantasy of mine and have a couple stories here where a leg switching is part of the punishment. Of course the same could be the case should the girl or woman be in a swimsuit,a short skirt, or in just her underwear. There was a great letter that ran in Mr magazine that tells how a husband used a switch on his wife's legs when he caught her hanging laundry outside in just her bra and panties.
Cannot help but think about what might actually happened in years past,like the 40s and50s say, when corporal punishment was more accepted. That was when girls wearing shorts and more revealing swimsuits came into fashion. Be not at all surprised if some young ladies who wore short shorts or briefer swimwear(like the first bikinis) did not in fact ended up with a pair of thoroughly striped legs from a switch wielded by a disapproving parent,or other adult.
And maybe the same happened in the 1960s when the mini-skirt became the rage. Some teenybopper in her little mini-skirt or some hippie chick may have found herself in the same painful, embarrassing predicament, getting her legs switched in a miniskirt and having to try and cover up the marks so no one would see. From the parent or whoever's view, they would have seen that as the perfect way to keep her from going out of the house like that.
Be interesting if there are any accounts out there of such happening whether true or fiction. Can just imagine hearing some disapproving grandmother back in the day when leggy pinup girls like Betty Grable became popular say that she needed a good switching on her legs for showin herself like that!

I think there is some truth to that, but I'm afraid that the reason is pretty boring. I suspect that the switch was used on girl's legs mostly for modesty's sake.

Guy

Could be true in some cases, but also the legs could just have offered a convenient target. OTH, I remember as a young boy 9 or so hearing a conversation between some family members of an acquaintance who when her daughter in high school went off with some boy after school instead of coming home,llifted the girl's dress and used a switch on her bare bottom. Being back in the long ago days, presume she was in fact wearing panties which gotl lowered.
Think hearing and always remembering this account played a part in the development of my spanking interests.