A random YouTube popped up on my iPhone and apparently I am into slinging now.

Been only a month, but I have already progressed from “complete randomness” to “in the general area” on my throws.

Here’s what I think I have figured out so far:

First, making your own slings adds a lot of fun to the hobby!  Seatbelt slings and slings from a single cord are quick and inexpensive to make. I would recommend making your own to anybody getting into slinging.

Second, it really helped me to try different styles of slinging. At least for me, my natural throwing motion works best for accuracy.  Slinging styles for me seemed to be just different windups to get to my natural throwing motion.  It really helped me to find styles that more compliments how I naturally want to throw.

Third, practice helped make the slinging windup is familiar. At first I was counting rotations for example and throwing on “3”. I got better once the windup became familiar so I can think about the throw instead of the windup. I find I now throw on  1 or 2 and not always on 3.…just whenever am ready to throw it.

Fourth, I had to lower my accuracy expectations. I found a good thing for me is to first just throw at a target normally without a sling, then try to get the same number of hits using the sling.  If you can’t hit it throwing at it, most likely you can’t hit it slinging at it either.  The sling, sadly, is not magic.

Fifth, “what sling length?” seems to be a very big topic!!  Fortunately and surprisingly, sling length for me only changes velocity/distance but has no effect so far on my accuracy. I had read shorter slings should be more accurate but I have not experienced that so far.  I have a 19” sling for indoors, 29.25” as my standard length, and 39.25” as my underhand ling distance (any longer and it will hit the ground). When I first change sling length throws get off target but always come back within 4-5 throws. No idea why this is like this for me.

Excellent summary and I agree with all of your points. I'm glad you figured out the 'trying different styles' point sooner rather than later. I thought it would slow progress, but in fact, I think it speeds up progress. It only took me 12 years of slinging to learn that, so I'm glad the lesson has only taken you a month!

Ratman:  I think your length guide is probably the best.

Getting started I kept reading any sling over 30” was less accurate, so I made my first sling 29.25”. It was supposed to be 29” but I didn’t know what I was doing and it came out a bit long…oops!  That sling wound up being fingertip to shoulder for me.  Shorter than your suggestion.

My second sling is 39.25” because I read 10” longer gives you 5 meters extra distance…and any longer for me and the sling hits the ground with softball-style underhand throw. This longer sling is fingertip to center of chest. THIS IS THE LENGTH YOU SUGGESTED.

Both slings seem similarly accurate sidearm and underarm. So likely I do not need the 29” sling as I do not see any accuracy advantages.

Guess should gave asked you first!   

@Bandit  Have you checked out "Turkey style". It is where you hold the sling behind your back, with your offhand holding the pouch. THen you can just whip it forward just like a throw.

You can also try Greek style. It feels more like a throw if your sling isn't too long.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwmcwYi_hUs

https://youtu.be/fWHV2WYdfTI?si=InILXpir75OlaH4l

IronGoober wrote on May 5^th, 2026 at 10:06pm:


I thought it was Byzantine, even based on the short video about styles on your channel.
Or are they similar?