IronGoober wrote on Jul 24
th, 2020 at 2:39am:
Anyone else notice the stone slipping out of the sling early at 26:40?
Yes, that's what happens when you have thin cords tied to a flexible pouch at the middle. They flex sideways.
If he used a cradle pouch instead he would not have that problem like on this staff sling.
Cradle pouches allow very good sideways stability even with very flexible thin slings.
I no longer use this type of staff but i still use the cradle pouch depicted here as a hand sling
It works wonderfully well even with 500G+ rocks and as a hand sling.
It made me realize that thick stiff cords are really not a neccesity for heavy rock slinging, it's the sideways stability that matters, not the stiffness or weight.
I can throw heavy rocks much further and farther with this thin cord cradle pouch sling than with a heavy stiff balearic sling of this size.
The rock depicted here is a 500g rock and I have no trouble throwing it as a hand sling pirouette style. In fact I throw it further that way than using the staff.
I only get very dizzy
The sideways stability you speak of is a crucial factor for retention of large and odd shaped stones. I call it pouch rolling when the pouch rolls over and dumps the stone out sideways, and roll resistance or stability the characteristic of a sling which resists this. Seems to account for nearly all premature stone drops.
It is why I mainly favour balearic or thicker apache for larger stones. You can also replicate some of the effect by whipping either side of the pouch to increase stiffness, or using a stiff connection method. Not tried a cradle type pouch before.