I've seen some hints at this in various threads, but none of the guides explicitly mention it so I wanted to put a post out there to see what everyone's preference is and why.

Personally, I feel like it makes more sense to put the bump from the knee on the outside of the pouch(not touching the ammo), mainly for two reasons:

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So that it doesn't interfere with the ammo in the pouch. Since the non-bump side is perfectly flat, that made more sense to me to be on the inside.

The bump is an obvious weak wear point because it sticks out. It seems like that point would wear through much more quickly because any pressure in that area will be concentrated on the two strands making up the bump rather than evenly spread throughout many strands on the flat side.
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I also have a third inkling about directional torsion resistance, but I'm still thinking through whether that even makes sense so I won't put that in the running just yet.

To be very clear, attached is a photo of what I'm talking about.

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https://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?action=downloadfile;file=2025-07-26_22_19_33.jpg (179 KB | 137 )

I almost always have that bump on the inside. It doesn't really throw off the projectile any, and durability isn't an issue as the stone is, in the worst case scenario, simply touching it when held in the pouch, and doesn't move against the bump in the same way that the stone does the belly. In fact, the bump on the backside of the belly where two strands become one is the entire reason I keep the "kneecap", if you will, on the inner side. The bump from the belly is also necessarily large as it's right at the thickest point on the sling.

Every Balearic sling in my collection has the knee on the inside of the pouch.  I'm not entirely certain why, but one of my observations is that this seems to force the pouch toward an open position instead of the reverse.  Theoretically that should result in a cleaner release.

The pouch in a Balearic sling is usually long enough that the projectile won't come into contact with the knee.  Even if that isn't the case, I would think any interference should be minimal since the projectile is exiting in the opposite direction.

Attached are a couple images of a sling from the master Luis Pons Livermore himself.  When the sling is closed around a projectile, it definitely has a feeling of "wanting" to open, for lack of a better term.  You can see that it naturally angles away from a closed position (being wrapped around a projectile).


Also want to mention, this is a fantastic question.

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Very good stuff, thanks guys! This is exactly the sort of discussion I was looking for. Definitely seems like I am outnumbered here ;D and for good reason.


Caspian wrote on Jul 27^th, 2025 at 1:08am:

In fact, the bump on the backside of the belly where two strands become one is the entire reason I keep the "kneecap", if you will, on the inner side.

Great point. The "half" strands being exposed there make the wear much more prone to catastrophic damage than on the other side where they have already been merged together and would thus have twice as many fibers to resist the wear. And with the release side of the pouch being the heaviest wear point as it is, this is probably far more relevant than the retention cord side where the knee is.


joe_meadmaker wrote on Jul 27^th, 2025 at 1:22am:

Every Balearic sling in my collection has the knee on the inside of the pouch.

Yes! I forgot to mention this. I have a few purchased balearic slings and they all have the knee on the inside as well. This is part of the reason I asked the question in the first place.


joe_meadmaker wrote on Jul 27^th, 2025 at 1:22am:

When the sling is closed around a projectile, it definitely has a feeling of "wanting" to open, for lack of a better term.  You can see that it naturally angles away from a closed position (being wrapped around a projectile).

I think this effect is primarily from training the fibers by slinging rather than from the knee braid itself - a new sling I just made(with the knee on the outside of the pouch) and have only thrown a handful of times already has this effect going in the opposite direction. But next one I make I'll have to see if it tends one direction or another before I start using it!

So the only outstanding thing I'm wondering about is hard to explain over text, is mostly theoretical anyway, and would have at most a very minor effect. So I'll hold off on that until I see you all at the world cup!

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Also another thing for me personally...

the top side of the braid looks like it has arrows pointing down along its length. everyone knows that's indicative of a speed boost  :D

maybe I played too much mario kart growing up...

Oh duh! How could I possibly have missed that. There's our silver bullet! No wonder I've been having trouble throwing faster...

erricrice wrote on Jul 27^th, 2025 at 11:00am:

I think this effect is primarily from training the fibers by slinging rather than from the knee braid itself - a new sling I just made(with the knee on the outside of the pouch) and have only thrown a handful of times already has this effect going in the opposite direction.

Good call out.  I guess I assumed that bending in the direction of the knee would encounter more resistance because of there being more material there.  But perhaps that's not really a factor.



Caspian wrote on Jul 27^th, 2025 at 1:08am:

the bump on the backside of the belly where two strands become one is the entire reason I keep the "kneecap", if you will, on the inner side

Good call here as well, as erricrice also mentioned. :thumb:

Like others have said, I put the knee on the inside, because that puts the bump of the belly on the outside, so the projectile doesn't have to "jump over" and increase wear there.

joe_meadmaker wrote on Jul 27^th, 2025 at 9:40pm:

Good call out.  I guess I assumed that bending in the direction of the knee would encounter more resistance because of there being more material there.  But perhaps that's not really a factor.

Looks like it is probably just from training the fibers after all - fresh off the assembly line before any throws this one does not appear to have any bias one way or the other.

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Yep, looks like it.  Good investigation.