So this last weekend in Apuole, Lithuania, first and second unofficial Baltic slinging championships took place. Actually it turned out to be just Baltic nations championship, because we didn't find a single slinging Estonian. 2 Lithuanians and some 5 Latvians took part, one of Lithuanians being JustKnot (Justas) from this same forum and one of the Latvians being me.
There were two championships because after the first another slinger arrived and we had to start the next one
Winner of the first championship was JustKnot (hooray!) and of the second Ugis from Latvia.
I had come to Apuole with intention of spreading the slinging desease, and with the help of JustKnot we tried to do that. Here is what i have learned.
Figure-8 is way too hard for beginners.
Apache is often too weak to impress beginning slingers.
Underhand is easy for beginners and it gives nice distance and shows slings potential, thus encouraging beginners. But it is way too dangerous!!! One kid managed to launch one potatoe and one rock (!!!!) high up-and-behind in the air. We were just lucky no one got hit. (potatoes were old and quite "soggy", so no serious harm would have been done, but it would hurt a lot still. the stone would be differrent story).
I was afraid to allow multiple rotations and horizontal releases. This sadly limited available styles. Though some kids got really good at Apache after some practice! Better than me for sure.
I had made a number of slings and JustKnot also had some. But my slings were all ~85cm in lenght, wich is too long for some kids. Have to bring several lenght slings.
One-string- sling
http://www.slinging.org/42.html is a really good sling to give to the most promising slingers so they have something until they make their own. Thanks JustKnot.
Most of our to-be slingers were kids 4-14 years old. Sadly just a couple of adult-like people showed enthusiasm the kids had. I guess if we could show people that sling can be as accurate and powerful as bow, this would change. I have to become hell of a better at accuracy.
Reinis