It's been a cold dark winter, and working the hours I do I have had almost no opportunity to sling during the winter months.

So, with the clocks going forward I went to the Park on Saturday for my first practice since maybe November.

Oh my. Accuracy has not been affected, but range certainly has... I went to the wall I shoot at to collect rocks, and couldn't find any - had they all overshot? nope - they had all landed maybe 30 metres short!

I have a lazy life, do little upper body excercise (lower body is great, legs good and strong, but arms are like pipe-cleaners) and it looks like my slinging muscles have wasted away over the winter!

Any suggestions for an excercise regime that would strengthen slinging muscles in particular? I use Helicopter by the way.

Pat

anthing that works your arms and deltoids in your back and shoulders is really good, but I would rather sling and work out the right muscles and have fun doing it rather than spending time in the gym.

I'd just suggest some simple free-weights.  Most of all, try to exercise both triceps and biceps - the rotations of the helicopter sling style require contraction and expansion of the upper arm muscles, and both sets are needed.  That's all I'd do if I wanted to improve my slinging.

Zweibeltute,
You have been slinging since about last September?  You are not doing badly.

My slinging varied wildly, at the start and for several months.  Lucky I was slinging tennis balls.  Mostly.  I did sling a few rocks, but I gave that up after I sent one straight up and didn't know where it was going to hit (and so didn't know which way to duck!)

What I noticed, was that I did best when I was not thinking about it.  If I tried a new sling, or a new technique, I did well for a short while, then I did poorly again.  My conscious mind started evaluating what I was doing, and trying to control how I was slinging.  But slinging is too quick for conscious control; you must just look at the target and GO.  And you have to practice and practice to attain consistency.

"Beginner's luck" is something that definitely occurs in slinging: your first few casts may be good, because you don't know what you are doing and so your reflexes (especially if they are trained in some other sport like tennis or baseball) can work the sling for you.  In my opinion, the only people that will sling badly at the very start, are those that think they know how to sling and are working the sling consciously.  Especially if they think they have to build up speed for 10 or 20 rotations before letting go...

But that does not describe you, from what I know of you.  I believe this awkwardness is just a phase in your training, where your conscious mind and your reflexes are fighting for control.  When you learn to consciously select a target and then hand it off to your reflexes, you will get better.  I don't know how this happens.  But it does.  I am much better now than I was at my six-month mark; I've been slinging for about a year and a quarter, I think.

Keep slinging, and don't get discouraged.

how about this fancy device?
http://www.slinging.org/forum2/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=1;action=display;num=11445086...

on each side... you mean one-handed like? congratulations.

I have already noticed, that if I do not get the stone away after two or three rotations it gets really bad.

Quote:


I will do so. Thanks for your advice.

Zwiebeltuete

At the moment my "precission" is back to normal, but not my distance. Today I ignored distance and did some lazy Apache slinging. With little effort the pebbles flew up to 50m, which is not bad compared to my record of about 75m.

Btw. I did made yesterday baked balls from selfdigged clay like they had in the Roman Empire. I also made yesterday a lead glans. (What is the plural of "glans"?)



When people see these projectiles they think the clay ball is heavier. When people hold them they think the lead glans is heavier. In fact both have a weight of approx. 52g.

Zwiebeltuete

Ok, just like in latin.

Zwiebeltuete