A few days ago I was at my friends house teaching him various slinging styles when he ," what kind of style did David use ?" I did not know and was wondering if any of you guys new anything about what style an anceint Isreali sheperd might use ?

an effective  ;) style that affected  :o Goliath ... or to put it simply I have no idea what style was used.

A bit hard to say now, as it supposedly happened some time ago.  But something fast, sneaky and effective, is my guess :)
timann

Impossible to determine I´m afraid. Every person uses his/her own style and there is no description of the style David may have used.

If forced to speculate, I would suggest something fast without windups or else Goliath could have retreated behind his shield bearer.

Note also the staff... a staff held between two hands can hide a loaded sling held between two hands. Drop the staff, Greek throw... SMACK!

dunno. but when you have God on your side, a underhand tennis ball would do wonders.

David Morningstar wrote on Jul 28^th, 2010 at 5:41pm:

If forced to speculate, I would suggest something fast without windups or else Goliath could have retreated behind his shield bearer. Note also the staff... a staff held between two hands can hide a loaded sling held between two hands. Drop the staff, Greek throw... SMACK!

I agree with DM that it was most likely a short snappy style which nailed Goliath before he knew what was coming. Note that prior to the actual fight David and Goliath were close enough to talk (shout) to each other and then David ran toward Goliath once the battle proper started and loaded the sling whilst running, so the range was likely very short. Personally I wouldn't be surprised if it was similar to the way Luis Pons Livermore slings. Things like slinging don't change much.

However no specific details of the throw are given so we cannot be definite. The only detail the writer feels obliged to state is that David selected five stones from a creekbed. As we all know smooth river stones give much superior performance so that would be logical. As to why five; other than the obvious reason that it would be fairly unwise to go into battle with only one shot, Goliath allegedly had four brothers so the five stones represent a total victory over them. A nice touch to the story, but speculation only.

I think the best way to guess at this question is to look at what style the shepherds in this area use today. Sling tradition probably hasn´t changed much since biblical times.

picklepie159 wrote on Jul 28^th, 2010 at 8:53pm:

dunno. but when you have God on your side, a underhand tennis ball would do wonders.

Totally agree, David could have done a backhand with a marshmallow and taken down Goliath with God on his side. :)

Aussie wrote on Jul 29^th, 2010 at 9:01am:

David Morningstar wrote on Jul 28th, 2010 at 5:41pm: If forced to speculate, I would suggest something fast without windups or else Goliath could have retreated behind his shield bearer. Note also the staff... a staff held between two hands can hide a loaded sling held between two hands. Drop the staff, Greek throw... SMACK! I agree with DM that it was most likely a short snappy style which nailed Goliath before he knew what was coming. Note that prior to the actual fight David and Goliath were close enough to talk (shout) to each other and then David ran toward Goliath once the battle proper started and loaded the sling whilst running, so the range was likely very short. Personally I wouldn't be surprised if it was similar to the way Luis Pons Livermore slings. Things like slinging don't change much. However no specific details of the throw are given so we cannot be definite. The only detail the writer feels obliged to state is that David selected five stones from a creekbed. As we all know smooth river stones give much superior performance so that would be logical. As to why five; other than the obvious reason that it would be fairly unwise to go into battle with only one shot, Goliath allegedly had four brothers so the five stones represent a total victory over them. A nice touch to the story, but speculation only.

http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1276961659  Check out this link if read a little more into 1 Sam. it reavels everything you need to know.  

As you say other quotes make it evident that Goliath had brothers, but it is not unambiguosly clear that David selected five stones to symbolise victory over them all. Of course that is a possibility but I think there is often a tendency to "spiritualize" everything about the encounter. In essence it was a fight between a skilled slinger and an overconfident arrogant champion who greatly underestimated his opponent.

There is no doubt that David was indeed a gifted slinger.And God was indeed on David`s side.

Reading 1 Samuel is what brought me to this site....I was gonna make my own sling.And thanks to all for your articles on making them.

One must consider that he smote a lion and a bear also.Being a hunter,shooter,and reloader leads me to believe he knew how to change calibers.He before the battle took a supply wagon thru hostile territory,and it would be hard for me to imagine he went without ammo in his pouch,yet the text says he went to the creekbed for suitable ammo for Goliath.Items listed for the battle was his ammo pouch,staff,5 different stones,and his sling.I cant imagine taking anything un-necessary to a battle to the death.Even the giant`s statement,"am I a dog that you came to fight me with sticks" is quite odd and that the giant would have certainly known of slings and stones.

Coming here for the first time(December) I noticed something about a staff sling.WHEREUPON  all the literature made complete sense.I vote for the staff sling as the weapon used.I think David had the real weapon neatly concealed just behind his shoulder,taking out the giant quickly and by surprise attack.And like Aussie says the giant greatly under estimated an opponent.I have been beaten at chess by young people the very same way.

With that said....could David just have used just the sling??? Yes of course we all know here how powerful a weapon it is.And at the risk of "gnosticism" which all my Bible teachers have warned about in the past....I still vote for the staff sling.

sidearm/nowindup-balearic is the most probable.

It's a sty;e m,any slingers come to naturally, it;'s powerful, accurate with practice and used from a relaxed position with the sling hanging down at your side.
Takes about a second to go from relaxed stance to a hard release.
Can be easily used whie moving too.

But it's all guesswork :-)

I agree with c-a, propeller-style windup and sidearm release with a sudden speed snap. There was a vid posted by Rockman a year ago showing berbers slinging like that-- but it's no longer on YouTube. So the old "Mediterranean shepherd" / Balearic / Bedouin style...

A staff-sling-- I think not. Apart from the fact that there's no evid for this weapon that early (which of course is not conclusive-- there could have been staff slings before C1st AD but simply not documented anywhere), the Bible seems pretty clear: he had a staff and a sling, not a staff-sling

picklepie159 wrote on Jul 28^th, 2010 at 8:53pm:

dunno. but when you have God on your side, a underhand tennis ball would do wonders.

Aahahahahhahah super!
Mauro.

David actually missed. Goliath started laughing so hard that he fell over and struck his head on a rock, at which point David ran over and cut his head off. ::)

If I had to guess, I would guess maybe a quick Apache style overhand throw for fast accuracy while hiding his sling till the last moment from about 25 to 35 yards.  This would give him time to reload and throw again if needed before Goliath could realize what David was doing and close to javelin range.  Best to take Goliath down from beyond Goliaths effective range but not so far that accuracy would drop off to much.  (Although I do like the one about Goliath falling down laughing!)