Hi there my name is Ralph, i'm 30 years old and from Arnhem in Holland.
I have always loved history and the further i go back in time the more i want to know about it.
Don't know why, i guess i was born in the wrong time..  :-?
I especialy love the Ancient Greek, Celtic and Saxon Cultures and Religions and i love to learn about warfare in these cultures.

I also like to buy replica's and even more: to make them myself.. recently i made a greek tunic and bought a corrinthian helmet and i even made a perfect (probably by sheer luck) welsh Longbow.

Recently i was gathering information on Greek slingers and i decided to make a sling myself made with a black kind of heavy cotton for the pouch and laces from an old hoody for the strings. Thanks to the instructions on this site and youtube i finished that sling and i'm now working on my second one because i'm not totaly satisfied with the first: I think the sling is too long and the pouch too wide.
But then again i've always used either small or very small rocks, this in combination with the very big pouch may cause these problems (The small rocks often do not even leave the pouch).

I have been slinging for a few weeks now and i have some succes, meaning that the rocks (if they do leave the pouch) go forward threu the air and not into the ground. I also prefer to sling overhand but i have tried many other styles including "apache" and tomorrow i head to the park for some "Byzantine practice".

The many ideas for my second sling are still on the drawingboard, i plan on making this sling historical accurate and i wondered if anyone has any idea of how ancient Greek/Macedonian or Celtic Slings looked like or what they were made of?
Well that's all about me and what kept me buzy the past moths and i'm happy to be part of the clan ;)

Greetings Ralph

Welcome!

For the sling length, many people have diffrent answers. What I like is to fold the sling halfway, stick my middle fingers straight out, and hold the sling so that the release and retention cords come up to my armpit.

You should try more styles of slinging, you might be surprised. I thought my sidearm had been my most powerful technique all the time, but I recently tried greek overhead and was surprised to go 30 meters beyond my best shot! Look up david morningstar's videos. He's got all the styles in slo-mo- helicopter, sidearm, balearic, apache, ninja, greek, figure 8, and more.

I'm sorry I can't answer the question on authentic Greek slings.

Thank you ;)

And thanks for the advice on sling length, i will give that a try.
I noticed after some more practice with bigger rocks that my first sling was not that bad at all.. It just needed big rocks.
Finding big, smooth rocks in my area is'nt all that easy, finding small rocks is.. so i made a new and simple sling out of an old shoe for smaller ones which was a lot of fun.

So now i have two slings made of basically trash and in the meanwhile i look for info on the traditional ways of making slings.
I also couldnt find anything on greek/celtic slings, too bad but there are many other designs i like and with all the tutorials on this site it will be easy.

And i have tried more throwing styles and i realy liked the "apache" and "Byzantine" style and i have'nt been realy succesfull using the Greek overhead myself.
David morningstars tutorial have been great indeed!

Greek slings traditionally would be with multiple straps for the pouch, braided or possibly woven from wool. in homer's writings he refers to slings as "well twisted wool" however, a more literal translation i think is well "spliced" wool (or so i've heard) either way braiding is the way to go for most traditional slings

http://slinging.org/wiki/index.php?title=Methods_of_making_Slings_%28Modern_and_Historical%29#Reconstruction_of_Etruscan_sling

i dunno why theres a gap between slinging.org and /wiki-etc, but when copying and pasting just remove it.

it also refers to roman slings, but the greeks also used that, as well as most pacific islanders.

Hi Ralph;
  Though we've already communicated on the forums, Welcome to slinging.org.  Many of us here feel that we were born in the wrong time.  

xxkid123: Thank you so much, this is what i was looking for! I did search on Slinging.org's Wikia but obviously i did'nt look good enough.. I never braided a Sling before but i will give it a try.

Rat Man: thanks and maybe that's why i already feel so at home here :)