I know OTK is the king of positions, but it has one significant drawback: it's difficult to get exactly right. The spankee can be falling off forward or backward, or otherwise mispositioned, and both spanker and spankee have to coordinate their movements to correct the position. Bending over is different: once it's understood, near-perfect positioning can be obtained with only a few simple instructions to the spankee. And of course if you love canes and larger paddles as I do, bending over is the only way to go.
What tends to go wrong when bending over are the following:
- knees bent instead of being straight
- insufficient back arch
- insufficient bending
- thighs not vertical
Figure 1 - the right-angle bend.
It's o.k. for the spankee to be bent over further, of course, which means the angular measure would be less - touching toes would be something like an angle of10 degrees.
In Figure 1, we not only have a right angle, we have the thighs oriented vertically. This makes a difference (see Figure 2 below):
Figure 2 - same angle, but rotated with respect to the floor (thighs no longer vertical).
In this position, we have enough bend, but now the spanker must apply the implement at a downward angle of about 45 degrees to contact the target squarely. As long as the thighs are vertical, the spanker only needs to keep the strokes level (that is, horizontal).
Insufficient bending often results from bending the spankee over a horse or other object the wrong way so that the feet wind up too far back (see Figure 3 below).
Figure 3 - an oblique angle (insufficient bending over)
Let's take a look at two examples. First, the spankee is being bent over too low a desk. To maintain her balance, she had put her feet so far backward that she's hardly bending over at all. Also, because the thighs aren't verical, the cane must now be applied at a downward angle, which is easier than it would be with a paddle but still causes unnecessary problems. The same thing happens when bending the spankee over a trestle or over a horse from the wide end.
Insufficient bending over. Photo courtesy of Institute of Discipline.
And here's an example of the right way to use a horse: bend the spankee over from the narrow end (i.e. the long way). Notice that this way, the feet stay forward with the thighs vertical and we maintain adequate bending (elbows on the supporting surface). The strokes can now be applied horizontally and they will land squarely on target.
Bend over and look straight ahead! Our model here is nicely arching her back and sticking her bottom out. Note that thighs are vertical with feet forward, not far in back of the hips. Photo courtesy of Montrose Academy.