A good beginner idea..

I agree; we did that as well, before progressing to any sort of pressure. It feels exceptionally submissive to have someone's hands around your neck, especially if you are tied up. It's a huge rush, because you know you can't do anything to stop them, and your life, essentially, is in their hands!

For starting to break people in to the BDSM world, I also really enjoy silk (or silk-like) sashes. They do restrain well, but they are soft, slippery, sexy, and non-threatening. I don't bring out the locking leather cuffs until much later

I also like light discipline roleplay, like schoolgirl/schoolboy gets a spanking kind of thing. Again, another big fantasy MANY people have that is really BDSM masquerading as vanilla!

Totally agree!

That is exactly were me and my boyfriend started. It kind of turned us on to the whole thing

You aren't doing anything wrong if its something the turns you on. My husband I started out that way and have build uo trust to have him apply a fair amount of pressure. It is rather erortic.

For other types of play? Agreed with starting out with something non-threatening. silk sashes or ties, blindfolds, light spanking, light hair pulling, etc. The key is to keep light at first. You don't want to shock your partner. But its also going to depend on what you are wanting/willing to explore and the one thing to always always think about is communication. When started out I told him under no circumstance are you going to do x, y, z. I told him he hit/spank anything on me but my face and one night he decided he was going to lightly slap me. Totally caught me off guard I didn't know whbat to think. After we were done we talked about it. And while I did ultimately like I did wnt him to know it would have been nice to know beforehand he wanted to try it. Remeber to keep it light, talk about it, and if like something work your way up, don't just jump into something with both feet. Like (Re)tired stripper said don't go straight for the leather locking cuffs right away until you know its something that you like.

My GF likes this too. We do not do it everytime we have kink play, but it is fairly common for me to put one hand around her throat and apply a little pressure. She likes the dominance and submissiveness too!