Sorry to about the shoulder. Tried slinging with your other arm?

  I went through a period for years where I could only throw underarm due to shoulder pain, from arthritis I suppose.  After several years I had resigned myself to the fact that this was the way it was going to be for the duration.  Then it mysteriously healed itself.  Hopefully something like that will happen to you.

Thearos wrote on Jul 9^th, 2022 at 10:14am:

Your last sentence gave me a flashback.   I had to stop shooting darts with my right arm years ago because of shoulder problems, so I got into shooting left-handed.   It was difficult and I never did get anywhere near as good with my left arm as I was with my right.   

There's actually quite a lot you can do with your arm kept fairly low.
A waist level wind up with sidearm release just using wrist and elbow works well.

Likewise pure underhand is good for distance.

Shanie you're not nearer it I could sort you out with a few different styles to try.

You can also use your legs and waist to put back some of the power you lose from the shoulder.

I suspect I've probably got this coming at some point as both parents and my sister have a had similar shoulder issues.
My mum and sister had tendon tears repaired and both had bony deposits chiselled off somewhere.
Somewhat disconcerting as they only use local anesthetics.

I take similar joint supplements to the ones we give the dogs.

Just started one with turmeric and green mussle extract (chrondrotin ?) as well as glucosamine.
I think my knees have improved, but only been on it a few weeks.

Touch wood, never had any right arm issues.
Left arm has dodgy shoulder from when I popped the joint some years bach, and I detached the left bicep a while back as well.
Rehabilated myself without surgery, got it back to full strength in about 4 months.

Both currently work fine, but definitely going to have issues at some future point in time.

Good luck and keep taking the tablets

hubert wrote on Jul 11^th, 2022 at 12:42pm:

I agree with this.  That is the best way to heal as quickly as possible. They help athletes get back to competing quickly and this has been the case for me in my own experience.

Any particular reason ?

It's a very versatile style and would have been extensively used to drop rocks behind walls and barricades in the past.

It's also pretty good for target slinging
Nice straight vertical release with a missile rising.

If it's because of some weird American machismo thing.
Watch some 'softball' pitchers.
Buggered if I'd stand in front of them !

Obviously a softball pitch uses the shoulder extensively .
With a sling you can get away with just using the wrist and elbow, for much the same effect.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LaV1eep_VlM

You know what they say: there are no bad slinging styles, just bad slingers 

Personally I don't like helicopter style, but it's effectively used by a lot of people despite its many drawbacks

It always seemed to me mechanically inefficient. This was striklngly illustrated by an archaeological article on slinging and hillforts, where a series of drawings broke down the movement (the drawings showed a bearded man, presumably the author, in a sort of tunic). The end movement and release, with a sort of raised shoulder and hopeful upwards movement of the whole body on tiptoes, were familiar to me from experimentation, and particularly reminded me of how weak the form is at converting body movement into forward release and speed. I seem to remember the underarm form used by other specialists (Thom Richardson), with bad results. The idea that this would have been used historically struck me as unlikely. In contrast, helicopter, sidearm, and fig-8 all converge into effective release in the final stage. They are all attested historically and ethnographically. Is there any evidence at all for underarm being used in such contexts ?

I also find timing of release more problematic with underarm often resulting in ridiculous upwards shots, difficult to adjust. And I speak as someone whose shots aways drag left and high.

These two reasons (mechanical weakness; problematic release times) are why I don't sling underarm, preferring helo (before shoulder issues and in spite of slack issues), "Makron" (one rotation from body facing away), and now sidearm (vertical rotation(s) and side-release).