Arcane Tinker wrote on Aug 11^th, 2013 at 7:01pm:


That's me to a T.

Good.

Underhand is my most accurate also. I get the best power from Balearic or Helicopter.

It took me a long time to 'get' the figure-8, but now it is probably my first choice. They key to getting it right is really dynamic body movement. Also, dont bend your elbow into the windup too much, leave your arm long so your hand covers lots of distance in a wide arc during the throw. Nowadays I bend my arm less than I did in this movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJjXXnDSB4s

Have recently slung for the first time after having done about 250 hours of home maintenance (painting, etc...) and so my throwing shoulder is kind of not right and I have tingling in my fingers, etc...

I found the apache style to be the easiest on my shoulder, but the Fig 8 wasn't bad either although I noticed it in my shoulder on the first throw (only).  The apache is almost no-impact as far as I can tell.

It does seem that the Fig 8 does provide a lot more power.

Although I think most agree that more pliable slings work better with the fig-8 Ive yet to see anyone explain exactly why in such a way that we can reasonably accept the question as solved.

Such a basic thing and we dont really have a great answer. At least not one that Ive seen.

JudoP wrote on Jul 19^th, 2021 at 5:23am:



I agree there is definitely different muscle groups involved. And it’s true that that’s probably a big part of it. It certainly seems to define more of the specialty of each in terms of what it’s best suited for, if nothing else.

I also think that the angle the sling makes next to the hand is probably much lower than a balearic sling with a side arm throw. This would account for the awkwardness when using very thick, stiff cords. And why a pliable sling just feels better even during the beginning of the throw.

So here’s another question:

If a side arm throw engages the core muscles more effectively is there any benefit to using the figure 8? I personally tend to think there is.

But one thing I don’t like about it is the crossover. At the pull point you are on the far side of your body. That sling pouch is then going to crossover to the other side before release. Some slingers might assume that all that is affecting the throw is the mostly vertical movement of the pitch at release.

I don’t think this is the case. The angular momentum during the crossover horizontally also translates to horizontal movement causing the pouch to sweep out too far past the throwing arm shoulder than a pure vertical pitch would seem to dictate. Is this making any sense at all? This would mean that when you pull vertically downwards into the final portion of the pitch the pouch is not making a straight up and down movement but it’s starting more to the right of your throwing side shoulder and then sharply angling left and vertically down. Not only would this lower power some since you can’t accelerate through sharp changes in direction as easily it also could cause pouch orientation issues and therefore spin issues. And I’ve definitely seen the spin issues so that part at least can happen for sure.

One potential way to fix this is to simply use a diagonal pitch, which might actually end up being the only way to fix it. But then we lose the benefit of a pure vertical pitch which leads me back to my original question of “is there a benefit to the fig-8?”

Most importantly to me is it shows that no movement in a sling throw is isolated. If your wind-up is off position then it can lead to a pull point which is off, which then translates into a position that is slightly off in the pitch and then the release. Or it leads to you trying to fix position mid-throw which is a recipe for failure in imo. And this domino effect goes all the way back to your initial stance so nothing is separate in the sling throw.

@CA- you and I have been pretty hardcore fig-8 users for a long time and that might have something to do with why so much of what youve said sounds familiar from my own experiences.

I agree fig-8 works great with long slings and takes hardly any force to get it out there. And a long sling actually also might solve the problem I proposed on the crossover. Ill have to look at that some more.

One thing I feel differently about is that while wind-up and throw are separate and its true that you can mix and match any pitch with the fig-8 wind up, I dont necessarily rhink the one doesnt affect the other. I think whatever you choose for your pitch angle is going to be affected to some extent by the pouch position as immediately before the pull point.

Now you may have not been referring to that but I figured I would put it out there.

Oh as far as the underhand fig-8 absolutely man. Have you tried starting the wind up on your figure 8 with the rotation in the opposite direction?

Puts you in a perfect position to pitch underhand. I would say this fig-8 could have serious target potential but damn that forward spin lol.