Lots of members will remember Luis Livermore, champion slinger from Menorca. He "starred" in the History Channel recreation of David's sling against Goliath:
http://www.youtube.com/user/fonermenorquihttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY7EOspW594&feature=relatedI have been writing to him recently, as he is still making slings. He wrote this interesting piece and gave me permission to share it (my translation below it):
el cuero lo solemos poner solo en el lado de la cola, ya que es el lado que más desgaste sufre al rozar la piedra por él. No hay un estilo de honda definida de la isla, si que hay un estilo definido de lanzamiento, comparado con el de mallorca, ellos hacen girar la honda mas al lado del cuerpo y nosotros un poco mas arriba de la cabeza, y la anilla de la honda ellos (mallorquines) se la ponen en el dedo indice, en cambio nosotros en el dedo corazón.We usually put the leather only on the tail side, as it's the side which wears the most. It suffers from the rubbing of the rock against it. There is no clearly defined style of sling of the island [Menorca]. There is, though, a defined style of throwing, compared to that of Mallorca. They twirl the stone more at the side of the body, and we twirl a bit more over the head. And they (the Mallorcans) put the finger loop on the first finger, where instead we put it on the middle finger.