Sling is a forgotten exotic weapon generally not considered as true deadly weapon, but rather as clumsy toy. People even don't recognize difference between slings and slingshots especially because in many languages the same word is used for both weapons.
However, people usually can't supress their excitment and surprise when seeing real sling in action for the first time.
There are lot of preconditioned assumptions about slings that only our slinging skill can change.

I tag all my videos with 'slinging.org' and many other people do too.

Thats what I mean.  I'm sure a sling can kill a deer, but what about elk, moose, bison, buffalo, bear, boar, etc.  Deer are certainly not small game, but I have a hard time believing the other animals above could be cleanly killed with a sling.  Using any method to drive animals under a cliff sounds suspect to me.  Driving animals over a cliff is more believable.  And, with all due respect returned, driving some of the larger animals above to areas where ambush is set seems a perfectly reasonable way to use a sling, given shepherds use of them to keep the flock together and under control.  I know of no instances where slings were used to kill turkeys, but that certainly doesn't mean it didn't happen.

Though we're not officially affiliated with youtube I don't think it's a reach to say that it's a big part of what we do here.

Yep, it seems like there are people who spend all day spreading negativity on youtube. One shouldn't take it personally.

There is no excuse for the mindless and insulting comments in some of the replies that have been posted on this clip. Quite a few are merely dumb personal comments about his appearacne etc. and have absolutely no relevance to the content. If anything like them were to appear on this site I and any of the other moderators would instantly delete them and repeat offenders would be banned.

However I don't think that it is necessary to give unthinking approval to every slinger (or whatever the subject matter) merely because we like the fact that he is participating in our sport. Objective criticism can be given if done reasonably and politely. As such, I have also seen this clip several times and am quite surprised by the number of times it has been viewed as both the slinging and the equipment are really quite basic. Bit of a pity in a way as for many it would have been their only exposure to slinging and their impressions formed from a somewhat limited demonstration.

My impressions of the clip are as follows. The sling is too short to give much power with the particular underarm style being demonstrated, the construction really quite rudimentary and not suited to holding a marble which is the ammunition being used. Spherical ammunition rolls around in a flatish pouch and can very easily come out the side prematurely with a rogue shot. Also any marble is really too light to sling effectively. He himself recommends, "an ounce or two", much heavier than a marble.

As for the slinging itself, he needs to rock the sling back and forth to get it started and then has a "crank-handling" style, rotating from the elbow instead of the wrist. This is probably a subconcious attempt to compensate for the overly short sling. Nevertheless it seriously hampers his speed. And when he does release he shaves even more speed off the throw by pulling his shot with his elbow well back, instead of an enlarged movement and a definite follow through.

In summary, he needs a longer sling and more secure ammunition, once the sling's rotation is commenced with a single movement, he should keep his right elbow tucked in close to his hip, forearm out to the side and rotate from the wrist with very little forearm movement. For the final thrust, he should step forward with his left foot and make an enlarged sweeping rotation with his right arm as he releases. By far the majority of the sling's ultimate speed comes from this final thrust and not the preliminary rotations.

As he himself says, excessive preliminary rotations are not required. Doing more does not add at all to the final release speed. However I think one or two allow the slinger to get a better feel for the shot and I don't agree that it's best to release on the initial time around. But whatever number of rotations you decide on it is important to stick to it to give consistency to your slinging. Consistency is absolutely essential to achieve any sort of accuracy.

There are many far better examples of slinging on YouTube, (and many of much worse as well) but most are merely demonstrations not tutorials. I hope that any potential slingers will seek out the good ones to learn from.

Morphy wrote on Aug 2^nd, 2010 at 1:22am:


Thanks for your positive comment.

What the internet provides is anonimity. I doubt if many of the negative comments would be made if those making them had to do so directly. Just cowardice really.

Aussie wrote on Aug 2^nd, 2010 at 1:28am:


I have said the exact same thing many times, Aussie, and not just relating to slinging vids.  Many people will post very ignorant, racist comments on news articles.  I know that these same "people?" would never make the same comments at work, home, church, school, or whatever.  They know full well that they'd be ostracized so they make their idiotic, cowardly comments anonymously.
  I know that the video I commented on above isn't the best on youtube.  But it's certainly not the worst and I can see where it would have some value to a raw beginner.  My question is does it deserve to be torn to shreds as it was?