Glad you are making progress!

Next you won’t think about it at all! 

At least that’s where I am at. And it only took me 3 weeks basically to finally feel like I got the figure 8 under control

Of course am still working on being more accurate, but who isn’t?

Learning the figure 8, seemed like I progressed from initially just learning the movement (arm fully back and standing 90 degrees to target thru windup were hardest not to “rush thru”). Was a bit confusing, plenty of videos online but no definitive “must do this” so had to iterate and try different things to finally get it.

Then went thru an entire second learning process incorporating the figure 8 windup into body movement. At first just weight shift only without stepping forward. Then stepped forward…but only after hand started throwing forward as windup was too slow and careful. Finally now just face 90 degrees from target and just immediately step forward into the throw before arm starts moving backwards from starting position…the arm just knows to windup and throw as if it is a normal baseball throw without a sling.

Sounds like you will have this down and it will be second nature in no time!

I have extensive baseball and softball experience. I am sure that helps. In fact this video convinced me slinging was easy (the motion is identical to throwing!!)

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vVywF9ha5LM

Of course once I tried slinging I have found that it is not exactly as easy as I thought!!


Honestly, figure 8 has been the hardest to learn. The timing is all wrong with the required full windup that can’t be rushed. But with practice and self videos to help see what I am doing wrong, I got there.

xy747: do you still have your amazon sling?

That was my first sling too. Of course bought the cheapest one for around $9 and the release cord broke within a week due to throwing rocks at the beach. Granted these rocks are hard on a sling’s durability but that was one really cheaply made sling!

The rocks in Maine have destroyed another seatbelt sling I made with poor whipping and have also worn thru the paracord outer layer in one spot on another sling.

At least seatbelt slings are quick, easy, and cheap to make such that despite losing 3 slings so far, I still have another 10 slings already built in my inventory that I carry around.

I actually have enough paracord to make two more slings too and then I will buy another color besides black!  Black is usually the cheapest but it sure is hard to see when tying knots!!

I had a good practice session today.  I spent my time noticing the tension and direction of my sling before initiating the release sequence.  Most of my throws went straight towards the target at the desired level.  It took a while to get here because my weight distribution and body angling need to be automatic before I can spend cognitive load on the sling tension and direction.

Now it feels like I am target practicing, versus whatever I was doing before, which did not feel like slinging.

bandit111964 wrote on Jun 2^nd, 2026 at 7:22pm:


Bandit,

I went out again today, and my throws are consistently level or at the right elevation.  So I think I have this technique figured out.  Now I am tightening the grouping of my throws.

Extra weight seems to help me too. If you have been following the discussion about the Twin Loop sling I made, it has proven to be more accurate with a tighter grouping for me because the extra pouch weight makes the tennis ball seem heavier.

Of course that was by accident!  Was just trying to make a sling to better fit tennis balls so I could not fiddle with the pouch loading them.

Good to be lucky!