I have to admit this thread is tl;dr. For those that don't know that means "too long, did not read." Those types of abbreviations, accompanied by that lack of patience is VERY typical of "Generation Y." As a 26 year old man, I am a member of Generation Y, and hence that is why I lack both the patience to read this entire thread, and to write out "too long, did not read." The lack of discipline in my generation is what is ruining the USA, the world, and everyone under the age of 30. The debt and mortgage crises are PERFECT examples.
So, to solve the problem, I am dedicated to spanking my children and I am SHOCKED AND APPALLED that there are people that are *against* spanking, what the f*ck? have you ever met a 6 year old boy? Not spanking him creates a self-indulgent, thrill-seeking @sshole like me at 26.
As for actual technique, as someone else said, it is very natural once you do it, the butt is padded and seems made for that type of discipline. No one technique works, it all varies with age, size, and severity of the offense. A 3-year old will require a spanking only in the most severe cases of misbehavior and it will be pretty minor. On the other hand, if your 10 year old is back-talking, a couple firm smacks should do the trick. If you follow the plan, you wont even have to worry about physical discipline when they get to 17 because they will be obedient.
A final note, I find it *EXTREMELY* ironic that someone pointed out the lack of cognitive development of children as an argument against spanking?!? That is exactly WHY you need to spank, the lack of cognitive development of children makes attenuated cause/effect patterns indiscernible to children, so your role as a parent is to un-attenuate that link. Kids do not realize that things like say, playing with fire, could potentially kill him and his entire family, especially if it only happens in 1/1000000 cases, so to un-attenuate the link and act prophylactic-ly, if you catch him playing with fire, whoop that @ss!