I've been trying styles with which I pre-rotate the sling for over a year with not much success. I can't seem to get consistent accuracy.

More recently, I've switched to figure 8 overarm and sidearm, quick styles without pre-rotations, and they've been producing far better results to the other styles I've tried, Balearic for instance.

How do you pre-rotate properly without detriment to accuracy or power? What do you all think?

A no pre-rotation style will naturally flow into the final throwing arc. A pre-rotated throw might have circle of pre-rotations that does not match the throwing arc at all. I saw this recently with a guy who was a slinger but hadnt met any other slingers before. His pre-rotations were not matched to his throw and so he was dragging the ball out of its circle while it was trying to go in a completely different direction. I was able to get his circle aligned with his throw and his accuracy improved immediately.

   I honestly don't have a preference.  I'll sling either way depending on the mood I'm in.  If you're going to use pre-rotations the main thing is to relax.  The only rotation that actually means anything is the last one. 

Do you have a video of your throw?  That would be extremely helpful to provide feedback of what's happening.

To speak generally on the topic, pre-rotations (rotor) tend to be very much a personal preference.  As an example, here's a post from a few years ago that also included a poll: https://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1590665970.  As you can see the poll results were split right down the middle.

As David mentioned, something to try to do is make sure the rotation of the sling is in the same plane as the release.  I will mention that this is not required.  In the past I've used a more vertical rotation into a sidearm throw and did fine with it.  But I do think having the rotation and release movements in a similar path can be helpful if you've having trouble.

Another thing is don't be concerned with your rotations being fast.  A lot of times beginners will try to rotate the sling very fast, but this only makes the release need to be much more precise.  And I don't mean to imply that a fast rotor is your problem, just mentioning it.

One more thing that often isn't mentioned, the pre-rotation also decreases the amount of energy needed during power stroke.  The reason is obviously because the sling and projectile are already in motion.  There's usually an increase in power during the final release, but the projectile doesn't need to be put in motion from a stationary position.  I'll also clarify that I'm not saying one or the other is better, just that it's one of the differences.

..."pre-rotate the sling for over a year..." is the problem!!  ;D  your arm must be realllly tired!

I only rotate 3-4 times, if any; usually just a single 'whip-round' and release.  Working on the Apache or similar "trebuchet"  style -- like my staff sling throw but without the staff..

I haven't recorded myself slinging before. I might try get a video soon, though I've got to be careful not to capture my face as I'm not a fan of showing my face online  :-/

I've been experimenting with different sling designs, some heavier some lighter, though none seemed to fix the problem I'm having.

I think? I've been pre-rotating in the same arc as the release, though I'm not too sure. I'll make sure to observe that next time I go slinging. I generally only do a few slow rotations. Increasing/decreasing the speed doesn't really help in my experience.

Wear a mask!  Surely you have a few Covid masks laying around! 

We need to SEE what you're doing to be able to help correct what you're doing...

I'll just record from behind when/if I get around to it, should be fine then.

In any case, thank you all for your advice!  :)

I don't know what just happened, I wanted to edit a small thing I posted, and I accidentally deleted my whole post in this thread it seems, not looking where I clicked, apologies.

How sad! Your post was very helpful.

AncientCraftwork wrote on Mar 24^th, 2023 at 4:47am:

I don't know what just happened, I wanted to edit a small thing I posted, and I accidentally deleted my whole post in this thread it seems, not looking where I clicked, apologies.

The forum does have a Recycle Bin.  But unfortunately individual posts are not moved to it when deleted.  Only full topics are.

A part of what I sid was, that prerotation slingers usually favor somewhat thicker slings in my eyes, but not all of them.

An interesting sling type is the Balearic sling. I think that design evolved from their slinging style, which to my knowledge is almost always with prerotations.

I prefer no prerotations for most of my slinging following my preference  to using very thin and light slings. No prerotation styles just seem to give me a greater consistency. I still do use prerotations sometimes for the fun of it, especially when I am demonstrating the sling. It has a cool aesthetic to it, and with prerotations, one can run into the shot, for those wild distance attempts. But I rarely use prerotations when I am target slinging.

I experimented a lot with using Y-slings, which sling more like a bola. These Y-slings taught me how a sling-release without release cord deflection on the projectile should feel like, and I feel that I approach this the closest with a very light, thin conventional sling

A big cause to any inaccuracy with the sling is wild flyers , caused by release cord deflection due to pouch angle errors and bad angular rocks.   A thick release cord and light rocks greatly increases this effect, in turn, a heavier rock and a lighter release cord diminishes it

however, now I am changing the subject of this topic a bit, that said, all these things intertwine with each other.

How does a Y-sling look? I don't think I've ever seen one.

There's lots of examples, but here's one.

https://youtu.be/_whf3AV3850

Joes example is a perfect one

Funny, I almost accidentally made one like that, 'till I thought it was uneven so I took it apart and restarted.

Goat and cow herders here usually use no pre-rotations.

So turns out I've been doing Balearic style wrong this entire time. I always made a wide arc with my arm during the power-stroke, and made sure to swing it heavily and powerfully. That always produced underwhelming results, with both power and accuracy.

Now, I just bring my arm around nice and relaxed, not outstretched, producing a sort of 'flicking'. Getting far better results already, I just hope it stays that way.

Yfir wrote on Mar 27^th, 2023 at 1:17am:

So turns out I've been doing Balearic style wrong this entire time. I always made a wide arc with my arm during the power-stroke, and made sure to swing it heavily and powerfully. That always produced underwhelming results, with both power and accuracy. Now, I just bring my arm around nice and relaxed, not outstretched, producing a sort of 'flicking'. Getting far better results already, I just hope it stays that way.

Oh... turns out I've been doing it a bit wrong too. Well, now I know what to fix!

Unfortunately since I posted that I've been having issues with my technique yet again... it's so damn hard to diagnose problems when teaching yourself how to sling!

If you can, posting a video of your throw can help others give you some tips.

Yfir -- we don't care if you're famous and hiding your face, or just self-conscious.  Start posting some vids of your slinging.  If you don't have someone to vid you, there are ways to remotely start the camera when you're ready....

I'm famous alright!

Nah, I just don't like the privacy implications of my face being on the internet... AI can access it, facial recognition, what not? I know I can record myself without showing my face, but doing that takes a considerable amount of effort on my behalf so I'm in no rush at the moment. For now I'll just keep on trying to correct myself, if I do get around to recording I'll post it later on.

Timpa always wears a ski mask in his videos.