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Slinging how hard fo you remember it? (Read 1371 times)
Unsapien
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Slinging how hard fo you remember it?
May 24th, 2006 at 6:13pm
 
Since I began slinging I've heard most people say "slinging has a steep learning curve", and "It's not easy to learn to sling.” I have in fact said it myself, on many occasions while teaching the use of a sling. However, after much observation and one particular conversation with one of my friends whom I taught to sling; I stopped to think about what I had been saying, and if it actually made any sense.




I admit this might require more thought, and study, but slinging doesn't seem very hard to do. Overall it's simple, and almost any beginner (barring physical impairment), can be slinging fairly well within 20 minutes. They tend to send the tennis ball in the right direction within 10 minutes.

I have even had people with no previous slinging experience pick up the sling, and after three throws be able to plant the tennis ball within feet of their allotted target. 
(The last case is rare, but it has happened)




These observations are all under the assumption those learning wish to learn how to sling.
There appears to be 3 key factors that make the birth of a new slinger possible: a willingness to take instruction and follow it, an ability to accept making mistakes, and a basic understanding of the physics involved.

I have also noted that the last of the three is not required. Although a good understanding of the physics involved speeds the learning process dramatically it is not essential.

Taking instruction and not taking yourself seriously is extremely important to most new ventures, but critical to slinging.

If you have people who meet these three requirements, then you'll have slinging partners within 15-20 minutes. 

The concept of slinging mastery is interesting, because what constitutes a good slinger appears undefined and if at all stated, vague. I'm wondering what constitutes a "Good Slinger"; perhaps the prophetic shepherd boy can be considered so. I don't know.

I have heard the argument that having someone to demonstrate how to sling as opposed to having no guidance is an overwhelming factor on the difficulty level of learning.

In response to that argument I say there is always some form of guide or reference.  If there was no reference then you wouldn’t know enough to even attempt it.

I am one who’s guidance was the occasional advice (and very good advice at that) gleamed from this forum, by nature of the median it took my awhile to develop my slinging skills, however I did in fact learn, and with some persistence I think I can become very skillful in this art. Learning to sling wasn’t easy, but I wouldn’t call it hard. I think the point can be made that I did in fact have guidance in my learning, and it only took longer because I had a slower median to educate me.

It appears that people who attempt to sling always have some form of initial guidance, this can be an actual person or resources on the net. This largely determines how quickly they learn IMO.

(I do realize I am repeating)
The difficulty in learning to sling by nature of the weapon has very little to do with the intrinsic difficulty of the sling because it is such a simple tool, but what type of advice you get while learning.

Any thoughts?

-Unsapien
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Re: Slinging how hard fo you remember it?
Reply #1 - May 24th, 2006 at 8:01pm
 
Interesting. I'm sure that like any other activity there are some people who are just 'naturual' at it. I personally believe that it's all in the mind.

Consider archery, many archers (including myself) can tell you of a time when everything is right, and you KNOW that you can not miss.

In sports, there are certain days when you feel like you can do anything. exempli gratia: a mediocre tennis player suddenly being able to get 10 aces in a row. A baseball player who can suddenly make excellent contact with the ball. While playing golf, you may shoot as good as Tiger.... for a couple holes anyway....

And of course in slinging, we've all taken some crazy shot that we thought we'd never be able to make, that turned out to be perfect.

The point is, that we're almost all perfectly physicaly capable to be incredible slingers- or anything else for that matter.

The problem is just freeing your inner mind, trying to keep our conscious from interfering.
Just the other day there was a 11ft (a very conservative estimate.... at least twice my height anyway) rock wall that I decided to climb... I failed miserably, and actually began to get frustrated (happens very rarely). It actually seemed completely impossible, I thought that my body just wasn't capable of it. I just looked at the wall for, somewhere between 5 seconds and five minutes; just sort of spaced out. When I came back to my senses, I found myself running at the wall, and with a couple quick bounds I was up it with ease. Sure it was terrifying, since I wouldn't have been able to stop in time if I wanted to, but by just letting go, my fingers and feet found their way.  The moral is that we just have to trust ourselves.

When learning to sling, stick at it, but if you find yourself getting aggrivated with it just take a break. Sure analyzing everything a million times, MAY help. But it may just as easily get you even worse. Take a break, relax for a while, don't think about it.

Perhaps this is what makes slinging easy or hard for some people. Control freaks, or just people who like to rely on a set order of things, may have a more difficult time.
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Re: Slinging how hard fo you remember it?
Reply #2 - May 25th, 2006 at 10:20am
 
As for me, it took me a while to learn,simply because I had no one to teach me. I was just trying to do it, and learning from my mistakes. The other disadvantage here is that, due to this thing called winter, I have to stop at a certain point. Tongue
  Yes, the basics don't take long, but gaining control of each new throwing style and amstering it, that takes practice, and time.
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The greatest of all the accomplishments of 20th cent. science has been the discovery of human ignorance  The main difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits.-Einstein   I'm getting psychic as I get older. Or is that psychotic?
 
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Re: Slinging how hard fo you remember it?
Reply #3 - May 25th, 2006 at 4:15pm
 
I am probably a guy who can't stop thinking. After training slinging for now 8 months without a personal trainer it is stll much harder to hit a target than it was for me to hit a similar target with the bow after 5 minutes of training. So at least for me it is true, that slinging has a steep learning curve.

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Re: Slinging how hard fo you remember it?
Reply #4 - May 25th, 2006 at 9:54pm
 
I think the learning curve is not in learning to sling, but in learning to sling well. Take the hispanic guy I met on the beach where I was slinging last Sunday. I told him "Give me 5 minutes and I'll teach you how to sling." And sure enough, within a minute and a half, he had launched his first rock. Now, Francisco was not going to be picking out a spot on a man's face from 20 paces and hitting it nine times out of 10, but he could get the rock going in more or less the right direction. I've been what I call a "Part time slinger" for the past couple of years, meaning I don't sling as often as I should or like, maybe, but I try to get some sling time in when I can. And only now am I really at the point where I can get a full speed rock to go anywhere near the target or hit it as often than not. As well, I attribute this to the fact that I have only really recently started to stress slinging accuracy; most of the time I sling to see how far I can put a rock out there, or how close I can group them from a lobbing hurl.  The learning curve of a sling is very steep, compared to say, a gun. Almost anyone with a reasonable level of physical and mental fitness can be taught very quickly to be proficient with  a gun, partiuclarly one equipped with a scope. I've used bows and guns, as well as atlatls before, in addition to slings. And in 22 years, the sling is the hardest, most challenging and wonderful weapon I have ever picked up. When I first started slinging, I couldn't get the tennis ball to go more than a few yards on a good throw. Now, I know I was throwing it all wrong to begin with, never mind using a tennis ball in the first place. And so, I put the sling down for a while in frustration and mentally discarded it. But I decided that thousands of years of use must have some validity and I picked it up again and taught myself how to throw from my own mistakes and my own rage at doing it wrong. Now, I can get a projectile over 100 metres without straining my arm!  Even in view of my limited proficiency with it, I would be extremely loathe to give it up, both figuratively and mentally. This morning, I took a walk and realised that I had left the truck in such a hurry with all that I had to do that I was without a sling. I actually felt lost and upset for a moment. And I don't know if it's my youthful inability to realise what's truly important or what, but while talking with an older coworker about some of the things you can't do when you get old, I took a second to think about what my life will be like when I am too old to sling. And to be honest, that thought scared me.  What can an old slinger do when they can no longer sling? It will probably take a few more years before I ever get anywhere near as good as some of the people on this board, but I hope to be able to enjoy many more fruitful years practising and passing on to others one of the true loves of my life; slinging.
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Re: Slinging how hard fo you remember it?
Reply #5 - May 26th, 2006 at 1:18pm
 
I'm with slingbadger here. I started off in slinging by reading the original hard copy of mr. Ballards article in the Mother Earth News. From there it was nothing but a series of exercises in futility and fustration. so I quit slinging for about a decade. Then I read another artilce on slinging and went back at it, more of the above exercises, hung the sling on my belt I use when i'm reenacting, eventually found this site, watch the videos...tried a couple small minor (and not so Minor) change in my technique and WHOA NELLY! I'm now completely addicted to the sport. Built slings for both my kids and it sounds like one for the beloved.

What kept me involved....
Cost was a factor, being a poor broke college student helped. Couldn't afford to keep replacing lost arrows and bolts. equally modern ammunition is not exactly cheap Smiley Rocks can be found most anywhere.
Beyond that i'm sure there are other factors it could be the challenge...Slingers across the ages have used these techniques and gotten them down why couldn't I???

Yep it's going to be a bit before you can ccurately hit a point target consistantly with a stone or a glande. and I'm currently working on getting to that level. My main goal is to get good enough at that to eventually hunt small game with just the sling and a knife.

Ah yeah another reason...Give Thumper the rabbit a better chance than if i was hunting him with a "gee-whiz fully equiped modern never miss hunting rifle" since I'm mainly at this stage hunting for sport.

Ok to get back to your original question, It's easy to teach someone to sling a stone/glande/bullet in the original direction( area target) heck I did it early this month with a complete newbie to the sling. Slightly diffrent ballgame to hit say a tin can at 50 meters consistantly.
But hey if it was completely easy it wouldn't be so worthwhile when you can do it, or the first time that you do it

Hopefully this cleared up the mud a bit
Marc Adkins


Quote:
As for me, it took me a while to learn,simply because I had no one to teach me. I was just trying to do it, and learning from my mistakes. The other disadvantage here is that, due to this thing called winter, I have to stop at a certain point. Tongue
 Yes, the basics don't take long, but gaining control of each new throwing style and amstering it, that takes practice, and time.

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