Fundibularius wrote on Feb 8^th, 2013 at 6:15am:

I really don't know. I find it (found it - I havn't been able to sling for some time ) very natural to go from what seems like the 'ready' position seen on the coins into a figure eight. It is little more than drawing the arm back to its fullest extent and then, having allowed the sling to pass around the 'other side' of the arm launch in to the throwing motion.

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I realise you don't mean 'Greek' style - it's just this was the conjectured action drawn originally from the coin illustrations.

I suppose the difficulty I have is how horizontal was the plane of the sling during the wind-up? It doesn't seem to confer any advantage to have the plane passing over the head in a generally horizontal plane rather than in a more vertical plane which would tend to avoid the head gear.
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I agree with you about the head gear, but I'm unsure how much to attribute that to necessities of a slinging style. I simply don't know.

Dear friends, I'm glad my topic is evolving in this way, you all are very experienced and I think your opinions are very important for my reconstruction.
Someone suggested me to write a paper, well I already did it because EXARC was going to publish it, but the deadline was last 1st of November and I was engaged in my training at that date.
Therefore I paste the article here, hopefully it will clarify some points on the equipment I've adopted:

"A Picenian warrior who lived in the 8th Century b.C.: a hypothetical reconstruction.

Iron Age in Central Italy is a period that begins in the 10th Century B.C. and ends as the Romans take control over other Italic populations. Italy is divided longitudinally by the Apennines and the definition “Central Italy” includes the actual Regions Lazio and Toscana on the West side of them, Umbria in the middle, Marche and Abruzzo on the East side of the Apennines. These Regions border on Regions Liguria and Emilia-Romagna on the North, Campania and Molise on the South. We also have the Tyrrhenian Sea on the shores of Lazio and Tuscany, and the Adriatic Sea adjoining Regions Marche and Abruzzo.
Various populations inhabited this territory from the 10th to the early 3rd Century B.C., when the Roman army takes full control of it: Laziali and Sabini in Region Lazio, Etruscans and, from the 5th Century, Celts in Toscana and Emilia Romagna, Umbri in Region Umbria and Picenians in Regions Marche and Abruzzo.
At the beginning of the Iron Age, and until the 8th Century at last, we have evidences of other populations as well, the most ancient being these belonging to the “Sub-Apenninical culture”: Villanova and Proto-Villanovan populations, that seem to have had towns in the Region Marche: Ancona, which is one of the most ancient towns on the Italian shores of the Adriatic, its most ancient evidences dating back to the Neolithic, Fermo and Ascoli Piceno. There are also signs of Eastern European cultures, such as the Illyrians from actual Albania, and other Balkan populations.
Celts conquered the upper half of Region Marche around the 4th Century B.C., founding the town of Sena Gallica, actually Senigallia, 30 kilometers north of Ancona, which by that time was known as the Greek colony of Ankon.

Here’s my hypothetical reconstruction of an Iron Age warrior. This warrior is born and grows up among the Picenians, during the first years of the Orientalising era. Hence he lived between Regions Marche and Abruzzo, between 8th and 7th Century B.C. (Various Authors 2001 pp. 5-35).
The figure that I reconstruct is a middle-class worker; I’ve been inspired by the funerary outfit found in the fisherman-warrior grave in Ancona (Lollini 1972 pp. 117-151, Various Authors 2001 pp. 277-278).
It was the poorness of this outfit, if compared with other graves, that stimulated me to undertake experiments with organic materials, and to propose new interpretations for some archaeological findings.
This study method is applied to the equipment of my warrior, which I’ll describe from top to bottom.

The hat is made of 5 layers of raw linen, glued and sewn together making a cone. It’s a rigid and enveloping headgear, which leaves hearing and visual free. It offers a limited protection against direct blows, but it can be useful in deadening weak blows not aimed directly at  the head. It’s an economical way to protect the head that was widely spread among many Iron Age cultures (Various Authors 2001 pp. 27 and 33, Martinelli 2004 p. 25, Torelli 2000 p. 190, Homerus X 261, Hencken-Saulnier 1971 pp. 27-28, 58, 85 fig. 58, Wary 1980 p. 44. Also compare archaeological findings such as Sardinian and Oscan votive figures stored at the Archaeological Museums in Cagliari, Sassari and Nocera Umbra)  .
The short tunic is made of raw linen; due to the lack of evidences among the Picenians (Various Authors 2008b), I modelled it on the near Etruscan frescoes (Torelli 2000 pp. 344-363), adopting longer sleeves that would give better protection than shorter ones against small abrasions and a small rope as belt.
The kardiophilax is composed of a pectoral and a dorsal disc, one bigger than the other (Various Authors 2001 pp. 120-121, 240-243, 252-254, Various Authors 2008b pp. 209-210). Each of them has been made by pasting together 4 layers of linen, then sewing them to a leather disc, which has been then hardened with boiling salted water. I replicated the suspension system which can be seen on the Guardiagrele Warrior and on the Capestrano Warrior (Various Authors 2001 pp. 240-243), using a leather strap and a smaller string. The decoration represents the chimera, which is typical of the “Paglieta” kardiophilax, dating 8th-7th Century (Various Authors 2001 pp. 120-122, 253). It’s the poor version of the widely spread bronze kardiophilax. Tested against a rock thrown with a sling from a distance of 15 meters, the cuirass absorbed the impact, but it’s not clear what damages the warrior would have taken.
The sword belongs to the “Novilara” type, being a short curved sword, single edged with a thick back and a long tang (Various Authors 2001 pp. 200-201, Lollini 1972 pp. 117-151, Maroni 1992, Varrious Authors 1999 p. 54). Forging it from a raw iron ingot required 6 hours and 6 kilos of vegetal coal, a quench in sweet water followed and the result is a strong iron, enriched with carbon (Fiorentini 2011). The handle is in yew wood, decorated with “dice’s eyes”, and the sheath is in leather, lightly hardened with boiling water and decorated with motifs typical of the era (Peroni 1979, see also unpublished razors at the Archaeological Museum of Ancona). The suspension system with three leather strings has been hypothesized judging by the one seen on the Capestrano Warrior (Various Authors 2001, pp. 240-241), and has been adapted for the use of two bronze rings like these found near the sword of the fisherman-warrior in Ancona (see the unpublished rings stored at the Archaeological Museum of Ancona). This system has proved to be functional for the suspension and drawing of the sword, hence confirming some hypothesis including the speed of pulling a slashing blow (Various Authors 2001 p. 114) and the possibility to obtain the disposition of both sword and rings as the originals in Ancona, making plausible the existence of such a suspension system in that case too.
The sling is made of two leather strings and a pouch; it’s 90 centimeters long and has been used to throw many kind of bullets: irregular shaped stones, rounded stones, replicas of biconical and rounded clay bullets found in Southern Italy (Radmilli 1975 fig. 20), replicas of lead glans found in Ascoli Piceno (Naspi-Radelli 2011) and replicas of the winged lead glans found in Cyprus (Naspi-Radelli 2011, also see www.slinging.org). These various bullets gave different results for  flying speed, air drag and ability to penetrate their targets; the maximum distance achieved was about 140 meters. Further distance tests made with another sling, a shorter braided one, barely reached 60 meters. The use of slings among the Picenians seems proven by the naval battle in the Novilara stele (Fiorentini 2011, Various Authors 2001 p. 33, www.slinging.org), dating 7th Century, and by some unpublished bullets (recent findings in Sirolo).
According to the smallness of the fisherman-warrior funeral outfit, I reconstructed the equipment of a humble warrior, a slinger from the scant economic means. For this reason, and because of the few sources (Various Authors 2001 pp. 256-262, see also unpublished footgear stored at the Archaeological Museum of Chieti), I decided not to realise neither shoes nor sandals.
But my warrior is unshaven, a common practice judging by the great number of retrieved razors (Dall’Osso 1914, Peroni 1979), and has an excellent sword, the first iron weapon that could outmatch bronze ones (Fiorentini 2011, Various Authors 2001 p. 114). His desire to emulate the richest warrior pieces can be seen from the accurate decorations of the sword’s handle and sheath, and of the kardiophilax; a practice that will decline with the  increasing Greek influence, characterized by a standardization of styles, will gain ground in the civilian and military life of the Picenians.


List of references:
Dall’Osso I. 1914, Guida del regio museo Nazionale, Ancona.
Fiorentini M, 2011, ‘Lavorare con il fuoco. La metallurgia fra aspetti tecnici e storici per un’interpretazione antropologica’, teshis, University of Macerata.
Hencken H, Saulnier C 1971, The earliest European helmets, Harvard.
Lollini D G 1972, ‘Sintesi della civiltà Picena’, Jadranska obala u protohistoriji, vol. 23, X.
Maroni G. 1992, La civiltà Picena nelle Marche, Ripatransone.
Martinelli M 2004, La lancia, la spada, il cavallo – il fenomeno guerra nell’Etruria e nell’Italia centrale tra l’età del bronzo e l’età del ferro, Centro stampa regione Toscana, Firenze.
Naspi A. Radelli E 2011, ‘S(hort) M(essage) S(ervice) ante litteram – antichi proiettili iscritti e insulti di guerra’, Forma Vrbis, year XVI no. 2.
Omero, Iliade, X.
Peroni 1979, ‘I rasoi nell’Italia continentale’, Prähistorische Bronzefunde: Rasiermesser, vol. 2, Abt. VIII, C. H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung.
Radmilli A. 1975, Guida alla preistoria Italiana, Sansoni, Firenze.
Torelli M 2000, Gli Etruschi, Bompiani, Cinisello Balsamo.
Various Authors 2001, Eroi e regine – Piceni popolo d’Europa, Edizioni De Luca, Roma.
Various Authors 2008a, Giulio Cesare – l’uomo le imprese il mito, Silvana, Roma.
Various Authors 1999, Piceni popolo d’Europa, De Luca, Roma.
Various Authors 2008b, Potere e splendore – gli antichi Piceni a Matelica, L’Erma di Bretschneider, Torino.
Wary J 1980, Warfare in the classical world, London.
www.slinging.org".

Any doubts you have, just ask 
Greetings,
Mauro.

As far as you not being a skilled slinger, you are head and shoulders above the rest of the authors who have published articles about slingers.  Second, you are doing research that is making the past more understandable, you had to modify certain parts of your outfit to make them work, such as your sword sheath.  There is a large difference between what looks like it will work and what actually works.  Now practice slinging and see what actually works compared to what everyone thought worked.  And then publish the results, that way, the informations doesn't get lost again.  And who knows, if you publish enough, people will start referencing you as the expert.  Because you will be, and you will have done it through practicle application.

Mauro Fiorentini wrote on Feb 8^th, 2013 at 10:27am:


Yes, practice is the only way to go. Thanks to you, and keep us informed.

"Grau, teurer Freund, ist alle Theorie, und gruen des Lebens gold'ner Baum", to quote old Goethe.

Excellant!

I really hope they will change it - I'll write them an email tomorrow!!!
Thanks C_A!!
Greetings,
Mauro.

Thanks David, you're right about the length, I attached a picture of the slinger wielding the sling (the one you can see in my sign) and I hope it will make clear that the sling is 90 centimeters folded 
As for the results, I hope the references to the forum will be enough to tempt the reader and make him take a look at our site 
Greetings,
Mauro.

I think they want something like "Mauro Fiorentini" instead of "Fiorentini M.".
And I find it sad, since your presented them correctly for a librairian (and scholar) point of view (if we forgive the lack of pages )