After studying many sling videos in slowmotion and the individual releases of different slingers, I've come to the conclusion there are basically 2 forms of release. An inline release, like a conventional trebuchet sling release, and a spiral release.

The spiral release is achieved by having the cords side by side upon release, useful for biconicals, to achieve a clean spiral spin on the projectile

The inline release is achieved by having the cords in front of each other upon release, useful for spheres, to achieve a topspin, backspin or sidespin on the projectile, depending on the style


To me it feels like an inline release feels easier for short distance, and a spiral release is better for long distance. But that's just what I think. A lot of slingers seem to use a hybrid of inline and spiral release, with the release cord not exactly infront but also not exactly above the retaining cord upon release, a compromise of sort. How do you release?

When I throw sidearm, I'm striving to throw a bullet spiral, but usually disappoint myself with an off-center sort-of spiral. I was curious to see how my underhand release was, so I threw a roma tomato into the woods.  I expected it to roll out like a bowling ball, but much to my surprise, it was a perfect bullet spiral.  Probably a fluke, because I'm sure that if I tried to do it on purpose, it would tumble through the air like Skylab.  Oh... showed my age there, didn't I?

Tomorrow I'll chuck some old mushy potatoes (they're elongated and reusable) to see what I'm really doing and let you know.

I color one half of my rubber baseballs black, it allows me to observe the spin quite well. But on tennisballs also I can see the ball spinning if I don't throw super fast. But you can also just judge the spin direction by the way the ball curves. When I release inline I can see a sidespin on sidearm quite well, the effect is also there.
I feel stupid I never really understood the ability to sling inline and always thought that spiral release was the only valid release
but now I've discovered that an inline release is quite viable for short distance, as it seems to be very similar
to a Y-sling release but simply with more spin. I like the inline release for short distance as it feels like
releasing a bola (but with slightly more release delay)

I think there needs to be videos dedicated to showing the different releases, it’s hard to visualize based on a description alone. I guessed spiral because I do a wrist twist upon release. That might be interesting to analyze.

@hirtius here is an example

https://youtu.be/-i4Byu4MCeY

J - I see what you mean by the rotational oscillations.  I've been using thin, flexible cords and didn't notice the twisting.  I just did it again with a stiffer cord sling, and the spiral is much straighter.  Thanks!

Hirtius wrote on Jun 16^th, 2021 at 3:20pm:


Well, to be fair we kind of do. These are just new words made up for concepts that have been talked about for ages. Palm or wrist position is another way to describe aspects of this. Cord position etc.

Good stuff J. Hey man what chance do we have of seeing the accuracy level of this throw? Really cant wait to see it in action.

If your palm is facing forward (somewhat pronated, thumb up), you tend to get a rifled release.

If you release palm up (supinated), you will get what J refers to as an "inline" release. Really this just means that the projectile is spinning like a top. With my grip (right handed, somewhat wide), the pouch is usually in front of the projectile on release, causing a (looking from the top to the ground) counterclockwise spin.  This will cause the projectile to curve out-to-in. See the this throw (and many others in this video) https://youtu.be/EvfubWzk0vo?t=397

You can also get the same "inline" release but opposite spin as J shows in his video by pronating your palm very hard or changing your grip as he does. This causes the pouch to be behind the projectile causing a clockwise spin. The projectile will then curve in-to-out.

Luis does a good job of demonstrating a few releases and the different trajectories you can obtain in one of his videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N-ACnKZN5c&t=127s