The way to prevent a sling pouch from oscillating up and down, which causes the rolling of the ammo in the pouch back and forth, caused by cord seperation in the hand, as a result of the turning of the wrist during the rotor, is to totally eliminate the cord seperation in the hand, and eliminate the wide grip from the equation altogether. And instead, grip both cords together, with the release cord above the retention cord (side by side), so that their length during the rotor is not varied.

This seats the projectile very securely, which in turn allows a less cupped pouch, and a lesser chance of premature slippage of the projectile from the pouch. The prevention of the swaying of the ammo might also have a minimal effect on accuracy.

The generally accepted way to get consistent pouch angle control is to eliminate side ways oscillation of the sling cords and pouch (twisting.), and achieve taut cords that respond very directly to the wrist, and this is achievable by finding the right balanced projectile for your sling and through various technical means utilized in the sling's construction, or widening the grip and increasing the cord seperation in the hand.

Now my questions is, is the wide grip many of us use, including myself, merely a bandaid for a ''badly'' balanced and/or engineerd sling and/or projectile?

Many of us use a wide grip, the argument being it gives us a greater control over the pouch angle and a cleaner release. But what if we engineered our slings so that we wouldn't need a wide grip to get this pouch angle control and clean release we seek? What if we could obtain this control over the angle of the sling and a very clean release, even with a tight grip on both cords?

In my opinion this is attainable, and the most susceptible way to achieve both things seems to be through a rather wide  corded, flat, sling. This type of sling, when balanced with the right projectile,  has very little oscillations to the side, due to its twist resistance and it not being able to bend freely in all directions. This in turn allows a very tight grip, without sacrificing pouch angle control, thus eliminating up and down oscillations at the same time.

This might explain, why a wide grips are a rarity on the Balaeric islands, due to their flatter slings, and why wide grips are more popular with round  and thinner slings.

Here is a quick video I shot, it's not about accuracy or power or form, but it's to show the tight grip I talked about and the flat sling in action. I wasn't convinced I could obtain this type of pouch angle control and clean release with a tight grip, until I used such a flat twist resistant sling. But I have yet to determine if I will stick to this tight grip, having used a wide grip for years.
https://youtu.be/zxEUiuom96k

Screenshot from my video last summer, showing a spiral release with no cord separation (at the hand).
Around that time I favoured having the loop on the index finger and gripping the release cord next to it.
This was the throw that hit the plate.

The major downside of a wide grip is the projectile swaying/rolling in the pouch back and forth. This means the projectile is seated less secure.
Not improper spin! To get proper spin is the reason why many use a wide grip in the first place. I have to use a wide grip on my paracord slings or I often lose complete control over the axis of the pouch and get bad releases, sometimes with the biconical spinning nearly vertical. So the wide grip is a bandaid there, to help me control the orientation of the pouch.

I am talking about engineering the sling in a certain way so that you don't need to use the wide grip to get proper spin axis/orientation control, and instead have this control even with a tight grip due to certain sling/ammo characteristics/qualities, and questioning if this is the way to go for precision slinging. I certainly do think the tight grip allows for a ''less secure'' pouch due to the lack of swaying/rolling of the projectile.

AncientCraftwork wrote on Mar 26^th, 2021 at 3:00pm:


Of course you are right J. But my apache sling didnt drop a single stone. Plus it sings me to sleep.

But dont get me wrong. What you are saying not only makes sense I think its a really important point. I just have no clue if its right or not. But i enjoyed reading it and look forward to any tests you can do on it.

   Personally I've never had a problem with the projectile rolling around in the pouch.  I pretty much stays put.  I guess I'm lucky.

Jaegoor, don't take the title about the Spaniards too seriously  . It's how I stereotypically differentiated two generalized groups of slingers, the international Gringos here on slinging.org including myself, and the Spanish slingers in Spain and the Isles. But of course, the Spanish all use very personalized methods to hold the sling and so do we Gringos.

To be on topic. I still think the wide grip is useful. But I see it as a stop-gap measure at the moment. The same when I use Greek style to circumvents multiple rotations, if multiple rotations would result in my cords twisting around each other. A bandaid, a stop-gap measure, a temporary measure or short-term fix used until something better can be obtained.

What does the wide grip do ask I myself. It partially opens the sling already whilst in the hand. Thus the projectile is
seated less secure. Why would we want this? For less than ideal projectiles that could hang up in the sling
(edgy, angular rock) it might be useful for accuracy to have reduced friction by slinging a partially opened sling.
It can be also useful when its not possible to control the pouch orientation properly with a tight grip due to the nature
of your sling/projectile combination, to prevent the cords from radically twisting around each other.
Of course for many its just the way they slung always and is most comfortable keeping it that way. Not trying to convince anyone here to do anything different, just trying to educate.
.

given the opening premise is nonsense. Not sure where to go really.

Most balearics have the retention loop over the middle finger so very few use a narrow grip.

And any stone movement is die to the really stiff nature of the balearic sling pouches.

With a leather pouch that actually hold your ammo securely - there is no movement.

It's an invalid argument based on an incorrect premise.
what more is there to say ?