Myself and others have been thinking about this a lot. Over 2020 I probably put in close to 100 shots a day, I saw immediate gains but they seemed to plateau in terms of gaining consistency after a few months. I believe I'm missing something. My personal thought is that my biomechanics are just not quite correct. But I also think practicing the same target and distance is not as helpful as being able to switch it up week to week, which wasn't quite possible for me until recently.

We all have our own ideas, but mine has shifted to structured practice with variation in the distance/ target size as being important. Doing tasks like aiming at very small things has also  certainly helped my accuracy (like trickshots). I think sessions of trying to hit something like a coin would be very useful to throw into the training regime. And lastly, moving targets. It's not something I have done much, but I think it is likely to be instrumental in training the brain to calculate and recalculate on the fly.

My next set of training sessions are going to focus on body mechanics and economy of motion to get max velocity with minimal effort. I believe if I can get into that sort of rhythm then I can dial back power and have better consistency and control.
Which will be the next set of sessions following.

That's my 2 cents, I'm sure you'll get a lot of differing opinions.

Well a lot actually depends on what your definition of a 'good slinger' actually is.

For me fixed distance target shooting is just one small aspect of slinging in general.

Other aspects would include:
Pure distance slinging
Random distance slinging
Moving target slinging
Speed slinging
Learning different slinging styles  - different styles suit different sling uses
Heavy missile slinging
Lightweight missile slinging.
And most likely a few more that don't spring readily to mind.

To be a good slinger, I feel you need to try and master as much sling usage variety as possible.

Short distance target slinging, is fun and pretty easy to train for.
And if competition slinging is all you are interested in, then yes: consistency is king.

If you're interested in becoming a more rounded slinger with a wider variety of slinging skills.
Then variety is a lot more important.

For me, short distance target slinging is probably the least practical of all slinging disciplines.
It's fun, but if that's all you do, then you are actually training limits into your slinging.

For others, competition target slinging is the only thing they ever practice.

Horses for courses.

In the unlikely event I ever have to hunt with a sling, the ability to hit a stationary target at exactly 20 metres, will be of little or no use.

Most hunting shots will most likely be snap reaction throws at totally random distances and target sizes ranging from squirrel to deer and most likely in motion.

Were I herding yaks in the Himalayas. The ability to land a clod of mud near on on a moving animal would be a crucial skill.

In India or Mexico the ability To use a scattergun effect to scare and hunt flocks of birds on my crops would be uppermost.
As might the ability to scare an elephant away from my crops, slings would be ideal for that.

So for me real world slinging skills are equally worth learning and practicing.

Target shooting is fun.
And for that you've already nailed the training:
Same target, same distance, same sling same ammo.
And do it a lot.
That's pretty much it.

Much harder to train for all the other aspects of being a fully rounded slinger.

So does anyone else train for something other than competition throwing ?

Blindfold slinging.

If you are going to train for a fixed target at a fixed distance and always use the same sling and ammo and style.

Then the ultimate goal is to totally eliminate thought.
It's the exact same motion.

You are training muscle memory.
So, eventually you should be able to do it blindfold and just let your ingrained muscle memory take over.

I always find with target throwing that my throws during practice - before I start to think about it, are generally the best throws of any session.

So for competitions, I generally don't bother doing the queuing up and practicing a few shots any more.
And my first round Is frequently the best.
Unfortunately I don't do enough practice target slinging to keep the same mindset throughout a full competition.
At some point I'll think: 'what if I did this, or that'
At which point everything goes all to hell

But it is as simple as that.
Same thing over and over and over until you have eliminated thought.
At that point you should be able to do it blindfold

On a side note, there's a video of a blind woman learning to sling in Guam, that's worth looking up.

Curious Aardvark wrote on Jan 7^th, 2022 at 8:19am:


I completely agree! Though those skills should be practiced purposefully if the slinger wants to be as effective as possible.

joe_meadmaker wrote on Jan 7^th, 2022 at 10:30am:


If I am interpreting this video correctly, then it seems like moving targets would be the best way to learn how to "read" your sling and adjust on the fly.

SerKraus wrote on Jan 7^th, 2022 at 3:22pm:

I agree with you to a point.  But as was brought up earlier in this topic, the design of a practice routine is going to be very dependent on the goal.  Say there's a person who spends a lot of time outdoors, and wants to be as proficient as possible with whatever projectile they happen to pick up at any point in time.  Then I would say that their best option is to continually use projectiles of varying weights and sizes.  This is assuming the person already knows how to sling in a general sense.

In most cases I think you're right though.  I know for myself, being "good" would be the ability to hit a target from any reasonable angle and distance.  So that's what I would add randomness to.  The sling and projectile should stay consistent as possible to remove them as variables, as you mentioned.


IronGoober wrote on Jan 7^th, 2022 at 3:57pm:

It is strange that so many folks report being better at moving targets.  I'm one of them.  I love the pendulum target.  I may not actually get as many hits as with a stationary target, but I always feel like I'm putting the projectile where I want more consistently.

Moving targets may be difficult for some people to set up though.  I think changing your position (as it relates to the target) between each throw is also very effective.  Kick did a couple videos on this not long ago.  He just set tennis balls in random places, then each throw was done from the ball's position.

You're partially right, Jaegoor.  I worded that badly.  I don't mean I would need to be able to hit every throw before I would consider myself good.  That was just intended as the overall goal to form a practice routine around.

But "good" is also subjective.  It can set whatever standard I choose.  You can use a different standard, but it doesn't make my goals or definitions wrong.