Because there are a lot of helicopter haters out there, this is how you do it properly:

Stand sideways on to the target with your throwing arm extended directly away from the target, elbow bent to raise the hand.

Hold the loaded pouch with your other hand towards the target so the cords pass over your head.

With the pouch hand, pull the pouch sideways and release it into a horizontal spin. Use a twirl of the throwing arm to put more energy into the spin.

The pouch now spins horizontally above your head. Use only your wrist to maintain the spin, dont use your whole arm. Its like stirring a cup of coffee, not stirring a pot of stew. Relax your arm, rotate your wrist.

Make sure the center of the circle is behind you. A common beginner error is to try and make your head the centre of the circle. This makes the throw very weak. Get your elbow back behind you and spin with the wrist.

Dont try to put lots of energy into the spin. Another common beginner error is to try and spin as fast as possible. Use only enough spin to keep the pouch horizontal. Any more than that is a waste.

Start a count of the spins as they cross in front of you. The count is 'One.... two.... THROW!'

When you throw, stop rotating your wrist and drive your hand straight towards the target. It is vital that the throw is straight. It is not a bigger spin, or a faster spin, or any kind of spin at all. You are throwing the center of the circle from as far back as possible straight towards the target.

During the throw you will feel a surge of centrifugal force as the pouch whips around behind your hand. It pulls back against your throw. When this surge dies away, let go of the release cord.

As the open sling whips around in front of you, use your free hand to grab the retention cord a short distance from your throwing hand. Pull the sling through your free hand until you reach the pouch.

With your throwing hand, take your next ammo. Bring the ammo to the open pouch. Use your pouch hand to fold the pouch around the ammo and hold it.

With your throwing hand take the dangling release cord and slide it through your grip until you reach the knot. You are now ready to throw again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GXkmT7eJFo

Great description David!
I just wanted to add that mastering greek horizontal style makes helicopter easy as 123 ;)

Helicopter is a good style to teach beginners because of the 'One.... two.... THROW!' count. Knowing when to start the throw is what confuses a lot of people when they first try and this leads to wild shots. Releasing on the other side of the 'surge' ensures the shot goes forwards.

I honestly don't get what is supposed to be so bad about the Helicopter style.  To me it's just another style, no better or worse than a lot of them.  Granted I have much to learn, but at least to me the Helicopter style is OK.  
  Your description is excellent, DM..  There is only one thing that I would add.  This works for me anyway.  As you begin your release, shift most of your weight to your front (left for right handers) leg/foot.  I find that this helps with the power and even a bit with the aim.  Throwing off of your back leg kills power whether your throwing a ball or slinging.  

Rat Man

great description, David. okay, i'll admit it, i'm one of those 'helicopter' haters. hate is a strong word, though. let's just say that i'm not a huge fan. i don't doubt the effectiveness of the style once mastered, it's just that i think its drawbacks outweigh its advantages. it's probably because i hunt with my sling and if i ever tried to use this style i'd never bag anything. using a sling to hunt is hard enough without scaring game with a twirling style. single stroke overhand, underhand, or sidearm styles are the order of the day when it comes to fast, nervous critters. now, warfare is a totally different story. helicopter might even be an advantage when squaring off with an enemy. that stone seen buzzing around in a circle over the head of David 'Madman' Morningstar would certainly make me think twice about mixing with him!

Rat Man wrote on Sep 9^th, 2009 at 2:20pm:

I honestly don't get what is supposed to be so bad about the Helicopter style.  To me it's just another style, no better or worse than a lot of them.  Granted I have much to learn, but at least to me the Helicopter style is OK.     Your description is excellent, DM..  There is only one thing that I would add.  This works for me anyway.  As you begin your release, shift most of your weight to your front (left for right handers) leg/foot.  I find that this helps with the power and even a bit with the aim.  Throwing off of your back leg kills power whether your throwing a ball or slinging.   Rat Man

This is definitely my experience also. IMHO slinging is largely merely improved throwing so any technique which applies to throwing will also apply to slinging.

Watch a slomo of a baseball pitcher. His hand actions will be almost exacty the same as those of a good Fig.8 slinger.

 I love the figure-8, but then I love slinging period.  I regularly use all slinging styles, you never know when you'll be in an area that you can't use your favorite.  Helicopter is a fun style, and I find my accuracy with it is not bad.

I will readily agree that Helicopter style would be absolutely lousy for hunting and useless on thin woods paths.  For target shooting or just letting them fly in an open area it's OK  

Aussie wrote on Sep 9^th, 2009 at 11:46pm:

Rat Man wrote on Sep 9th, 2009 at 2:20pm: I honestly don't get what is supposed to be so bad about the Helicopter style.  To me it's just another style, no better or worse than a lot of them.  Granted I have much to learn, but at least to me the Helicopter style is OK.     Your description is excellent, DM..  There is only one thing that I would add.  This works for me anyway.  As you begin your release, shift most of your weight to your front (left for right handers) leg/foot.  I find that this helps with the power and even a bit with the aim.  Throwing off of your back leg kills power whether your throwing a ball or slinging.   Rat Man This is definitely my experience also. IMHO slinging is largely merely improved throwing so any technique which applies to throwing will also apply to slinging. Watch a slomo of a baseball pitcher. His hand actions will be almost exacty the same as those of a good Fig.8 slinger.

Also watch an American style football quarterback.  When flushed out of the pocket and forced to throw off of his back leg his passes will always die in mid air, unless he's Brett Farve, who could, in his prime, throw well standing on his head while whistling Dixie.  He's still not terrible.

Rat Man wrote on Sep 10^th, 2009 at 2:22pm:

Also watch an American style football quarterback.  When flushed out of the pocket and forced to throw off of his back leg his passes will always die in mid air, unless he's Brett Farve, who could, in his prime, throw well standing on his head while whistling Dixie.  He's still not terrible.

Too bad he's terrible at pronouncing his own last name!

I can't stand that they make the R sound clearly come before the V sound.  That's just not right.

I had a friend in high school named LeFebvre.  It ended up pronounced "LeFAY," essentially.
The French-style pronunciation of "vre" is difficult to describe; it's almost like the word dies off into silence.  Surly "FARVE" is not correct, though.  Somewhere through the ages, the Favre family forgot how to pronounce itself.

Thank you for the tutorial! After years of wild slings, it's nice to learn how. I've come to use a modified, "Start like a helicopter, end up vertical" sling, and consistently fire off to the right (I'm a lefty).

My brother in law uses this kind of goofy looking underhand, and actually gets pretty good accuracy and power out of it.

Go figure.

K'Jev
8-)

Another video. Me slinging a tennis ball at C_A behind the camera. I may be biased here, but I think its rather awesome  8-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kikC0Q9m8O8

Now that is a slinging video.  For a moment there I asked myself; Where did that tennis ball go?  Then it became obvious :)
timann

like i said, MADMAN! absolutely terrifying!

It's amazing that c_a was able to keep the camera so still with that coming at him.  Maybe he didn't have time to react.  

It was on a tripod  ;D

Of course.  Duh!  I should have figured.

I've never really liked using Helecopter style. It's not like I have a problem with others who use it though. I just never found it..... natural.... feeling. :P

The only style I use often that involves repeated twirls is the Balearic style. In my honest opinion, it feels more... natural to me.
(If you haven't tried it, then try it out. That way you can find out if you like it or not yourself. :D )

what exactly is Balearic style?

I would say (opinion alert!) that it has a few windups done behind/to the side before a sidearm throw. The windup spins often lift up to the final throwing angle, either over several spins or on the last rotation.

The master of the Balearic throw has to be Luis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY7EOspW594

oh, that's my favorite style lol. kill 2 birds with one (sling)stone

it was on a tripod, camera was on high zoom - tennis ball came nowhere near me (and did you miss the part where I stood in a field and had larry bray sling real missiles at me ?) no time to react indeed !
lol


Quote:

Because there are a lot of helicopter haters out there,

who do you mean lol

Nice tut - but you could jaut have said; 'whirl it round your head and at some point let go' :-)

Curious Aardvark wrote on Oct 9^th, 2009 at 12:50pm:

Nice tut - but you could jaut have said; 'whirl it round your head and at some point let go' :-)

Pfffft.... what do you know about slinging styles, Comanche-boy?  :P

I don't like helicopter. Of course, it is powerful as any other technique when used with proper training. However, in this training phase, the stone can go pretty much everywhere until you get a feeling for it...

Hi, Khalazar;
   That's a good point.  Other than spooking game when hunting, that's the only real drawback to the helicopter style that I can think of.  With an underhanded style if your projectile gets away from you at least it'll just go in a straight line, either in front of or behind you.  A run away helicopter shot can go anywhere.  
  I use the helicopter style sometimes but as I become more skilled and learn more styles that may change.

Rat Man

David Morningstar wrote on Oct 8^th, 2009 at 4:16pm:

I would say (opinion alert!) that it has a few windups done behind/to the side before a sidearm throw. The windup spins often lift up to the final throwing angle, either over several spins or on the last rotation. The master of the Balearic throw has to be Luis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY7EOspW594

   I like the Balearic style a lot and it would probably be my main style in that it feels very natural and powerful to me, but...  I can't use it because it tends to catch the dog's leashes.  They are almost always in tow when I sling, as most of you know.  

Helicopter was my one and only style. Now i'm a figure 8 guy. Course, I didn't throw like DM on his vid. I used to get right into spinning a rock over my head - directly overhead - and when the mood struck, I would let 'er rip. Today I tried just two rotations and throwing on the third and twirling more behind me and throwing through the center and letting go of the release cord when I didn't notice any drag from the stone (whew!), but it was a miserable failure. I really just wanted to helicopter until I was damned good and ready to let go.
Some habits are pretty hard to break, but i'm going to keep at it cause it is a good threatening/menacing style. Especially if you are good with mean facial expressions! It's kinda like pulling your vest open to let your opponent know you are carrying a .44.  The fig 8 is over and done with in just a few seconds. A concealed weapon at the poker table. No warning...

walter  

Quote:

Pfffft.... what do you know about slinging styles, Comanche-boy?  Tongue

lol enough not to keep making up indian or historical civilisation styled names ;-)
I mean byzantine style ? Why not the gondwana land twirl or the Ur & Lagash backspin special ?

And I'm pretty sure I've read more westerns than anyone else on this forum - no evidence that commanches used slings that I recall.
Knives, hatchets, bows, guns, counting coup, eating dog (hence the term for the elite warriors: dog soldiers) yes - slings, not so much.
And fictional westerns are easily as good and accurate a source for sling style names as anything else ;-)

Curious Aardvark wrote on Oct 11^th, 2009 at 7:12pm:

Lol enough not to keep making up indian or historical civilisation styled names ;-) I mean byzantine style ? Why not the gondwana land twirl or the Ur & Lagash backspin special ?

Don't forget the Lemurian Pitch (Those darn Apaches ripped this one off of them.)  ;)

Curious Aardvark wrote on Oct 11^th, 2009 at 7:12pm:

Quote: Pfffft.... what do you know about slinging styles, Comanche-boy?  Tongue lol enough not to keep making up indian or historical civilisation styled names ;-) I mean byzantine style ? Why not the gondwana land twirl or the Ur & Lagash backspin special ? And I'm pretty sure I've read more westerns than anyone else on this forum - no evidence that commanches used slings that I recall. Knives, hatchets, bows, guns, counting coup, eating dog (hence the term for the elite warriors: dog soldiers) yes - slings, not so much. And fictional westerns are easily as good and accurate a source for sling style names as anything else ;-)

Still have to do a demo of the Patagonian contra-rotational. At my age the consequences would be immaterial.

I just tried it with my longest 32" PJ sling and some quarter size clay balls. Seemed to work ok, also seems like a bit more power since you get a couple extra rotations to get things up to speed. Also, once you learn to "feel" the sling you can put the clay balls pretty much where you want em' to go. I was actually a bit more accurate with this method then with my Byzantine style.  I think it does work better for the longer slings though. A shorter sling can't take full effect of all the extra momentum you build up.

I find longer slings better suited for the Helicopter style also.  Here's something you'll figure out anyway, if you haven't already, Frank.  When using the Helicopter style you can control the arc of your shot by where you center your twirl.  If you twirl with your hand as far to the right as possible you'll get a very high arc on your shot.  I'm assuming that your right handed.  The farther left your hand is when you twirl the straighter or flatter your shot is.  If you want a line drive shot with no arc,  twirl with your hand behind your head and the sling rotating over your left shoulder.  Don't forget to reach back for some real power.  

Thanks for the info RM, I'll give it a try next time out.  ;)