I have not even tried this style, because, I don't even have a sling right now and I have to secretly go out and sling.

So much for a good simple sling.

Well speaking as someone who picked up a sling with no prior knowlege of any kind of technique I'd have to say that sidearm is probably the most intuitive and natural method of slinging - it's the only thing  I even considered or could make work properly for quite some time - it's not until you start reading the forum that you have a go at other styles.

So I'm going for sidearm as the earliest as it's the one that feels right as soon as you pick up a sling with no prior knowlege of styles :-)
Now it's not amazingly accurate so it's not the one that will be recorded in history for individual cultures. So while it's not the most used I still say it's probably the first slinging form.

I have used Ralph Craig style but whit just one hurl, made it up myself .
before that i was using the baseball throw, but then one day i when i was walking on a road, i tried to sling at the left side of the road and "smack" it was there.
Ever since i have been using that style.

I have been doing weight training to build up forearm strength and found that it really helped my helicopter!  I am slinging with more power and accuracy.  The effect seems less evident in other styles though.

Today I followed the instructions on the Balearic page (with pictures). I was quite impressed by its range and accuracy. But for me it only worked with the sling made using aussieslinger's pouch. My split braid sling kept losing the small stones while the bigger stones messed up the style.

Hmm, a bit hard to describe by words and I have no camera. Hold your hand in a loose fist, just tight enough to hold the release cord (and the retention cord, depending on your grip). I have my thumb lying on my index finger holding the release cord. Hold your arm still (but still as relaxed as possible) and draw clockwise circles with your thumb (with the right hand; with the left hand you would draw counter-clockwise circles). Nearly all movement should come from the wrist. You can train that in front of yourself with an empty sling until you feel sure enough to do it overhead or with a loaded sling.

I start the throw with the sling hanging at my right side, by swinging it up to the front and to my left, then I continue with the rotations.

When you want to throw with that style do not move your arm back too quickly. I tried that (quickly moving my arm back and forth again like I would normally be throwing) and lost all the power. Move it back slowly while rotating it and then just make a fast forward moment. You should feel the right moment for that in your hand and your wrist.

I've been slinging on and off for almost half a year, mostly with the helicopter style, and have had no consistency whatsoever. Every now and then I'll hit a target absolutely spot-on, sometimes I'll get close most of the time, often I miss by half the distance that the target is away from me. Often I hit the ground. And I've had no idea what I've been doing differently.
It's been infuriating.

But now I think I've worked it out. This is what seems to work for me:
I swirl the sling fairly slowly around my head with elbow bent a few times, then when the pouch is behind me on the last rotation I drop my left shoulder downwards, my torso twists around to the left, my left arm swings back and I whip my right arm, with the sling, up over my head and down in a cricket bowl motion (or Apache style cast). So I switch from a horizontal wind up to an Apache type release. I think this is what Ralph Craig describes.

as a person who is always gunho about knew things I discover allow me to plug the new style I am trying
                   http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1171266013
warning the snap at the end of this style is exstremely rough on slings