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Teaching beginners- throwing style? (Read 1197 times)
JudoP
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Teaching beginners- throwing style?
Sep 3rd, 2017 at 7:42am
 
Quite often on my travels I end up teaching random passers by to sling. However, I'm never quite sure what technique to teach them first.

I usually start with underarm but it does strike me as quite a dangerous one with rocks often shooting straight up or behind in the hands of a beginner. After a time most people pick it up- I always stress to do the initial rotations slowly to make it easier to time but still...

I've also had some success teaching a basic overarm apache style, but that can easily be fluffed too especially with a decently long sling. I had an ex cricket bowler try this and he was getting pretty nice distance with this. Comparable or better to what I can do with apache- though I'm not great at it.

I taught a few 12-13 year olds I met on the beach once and they picked it up really fast. All managed decent sidearms after not too much practice and one even managed a respectable fig-8.

Ideally I would always teach with tennis balls, but it's not always that practical using ammo that needs to be retrieved- or that can be easily lost. It depends on the location. I just try to stand a decent distance away if a newbie is using stones... and tell them to do it slowly.

I haven't tried to teach greek or byzantine but they could work. Helicopter could work as I think it's quite a natural movement but poor stone discipline and a horizontally rotating pouch is a little scary to be near  Cheesy
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Mersa
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Re: Teaching beginners- throwing style?
Reply #1 - Sep 3rd, 2017 at 8:16am
 
I've tryed to teach multiple people and I find children and teenagers are quick to pick up there own technique. I find Most adults try to throw too hard. I think using a safer ammo gives them confidence and the throw becomes more fluent. I use woody fruit from local trees (gumnuts). Slightly safer than stones
I always teach them Apache first ,Byzantine is my go to for second try.


Fresh Spring gumnuts
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Morphy
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Re: Teaching beginners- throwing style?
Reply #2 - Sep 3rd, 2017 at 9:12am
 
The biggest thing I stress is slow rotations. Most people want to use an overly fast rotor which is ineffective and dangerous.
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JudoP
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Re: Teaching beginners- throwing style?
Reply #3 - Sep 3rd, 2017 at 10:58am
 
@Mersa- They look really handy! I definitely concur that youngsters seem to pick it up faster than adults. It's pretty odd I find.

@Morphy- Yeah that's the main thing I find myself saying too.

I think most peoples understanding of how slings work is that you spin it round really fast then let go, rather than actually performing a 'throwing' motion. The result of that is throws getting stuffed up and/or rocks flying in all directions.
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Bill Skinner
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Re: Teaching beginners- throwing style?
Reply #4 - Sep 3rd, 2017 at 11:11am
 
I use tennis balls.  I don't use hard ammo when teaching some to sling.  I also start them with underhand.

Like Morphy, one of the things people seem to want to do is spin it like crazy with shots going off in all directions.
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Curious Aardvark
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Re: Teaching beginners- throwing style?
Reply #5 - Sep 3rd, 2017 at 2:12pm
 
Underhand is good because it teaches you to use the sling and not keep trying to throw the stone.

That's the biggest issue I've seen is that people take  awhile to realise you need to work with the sling and not against it.

If I know I'll be teaching I'll have sock balls with me.
Failing that always got tennis balls in the car Smiley

(note to self: put socks and elastic bands in the car)
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Thearos
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Re: Teaching beginners- throwing style?
Reply #6 - Sep 3rd, 2017 at 4:39pm
 
Mr Morningstar had a whole syllabus on this (start with the simple styles with half rotation around the head, move to helo, finish with fig-8)
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Rat Man
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Re: Teaching beginners- throwing style?
Reply #7 - Sep 5th, 2017 at 8:21am
 
   I've introduced many people to slinging.  I agree with the consensus:  safe ammo is a good idea.  I generally start people with Helicopter because it seems the easiest.  Almost everyone starts by rotating way to fast, as if they want to lift themselves off of the ground.  Once I slow them down I keep our expectations initially low. If they get the projectile to go forward at all I consider it a success.
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