Say I want to throw as far as possible.

Obviously, slinging at altitude would help as air density (aerodynamic drag) would be less than at sea level.  Also, standing on a narrow picnic table would allow longer slings to be used as the slings would not hit the ground for underhand and figure 8 throws.  That should add distance to those throws.


But what about slinging from a downward sloping elevation, perhaps similar to a pitcher’s mound?


Pitcher’s mound adds significant velocity (google says 5 mph) to the throw vs throwing on flat ground…partially due to the gravity assistance of the body moving/forward step downhill.

Seems like moving downhill off a small elevation would add gravity assistance to all slinging throws including the body-spinning type windups.



I have not learned the body-spinning sling styles so not even sure what an elevated/pitchers mound would look like. Perhaps a discus throwers circle tilted downward???  What shape would be needed?


Does anybody have thoughts on this? 

I've thought about it. The downhill step does make it a bit harder to throw higher, but it could certainly add velocity IF you have proper mechanics to transfer the extra ground force into hand speed, just like with pitching. Some folks don't get much extra, if any, speed from throwing off the mound (from what I've heard). So it would likely be a learned skill.

Throwing downhill by itself will definitely increase distance. One of the few throws I've had with a non-lead projectile that reached 400m was with a clay glande and about 30-50m downhill. Pretty sure I did 400m because I'm pretty sure I heard it hit a tree that I laser-ranged that far.

Irongoober: I guess throwing into the Grand Canyon would be ideal. Perhaps a horizontal throw such that all throwing energy is directed forward to resist drag????  Would throwing upward into the Grand Canyon add distance? 

The airtime of the stone would be about 31 seconds.

How about that? For distance I would have assumed the angle is 0 (horizontal).

But I could see a slight upward angle would also increase total flight time.

Is this a “best lift/drag” situation?  Are we trying to maximize flight time in order to maximize aerodynamic lift?

Very cool graph. What are the axis, is that a plot of height vs distance?

I wonder what a velocity graph would look like. The upward throw is falling from a greater height (higher terminal velocity) but the upward throw is also decelerating going uphill. My intuition is that slowing down makes the upward throw hit the ground at a lower speed (hence hits with less energy). But I am probably wrong!

IronGoober wrote on May 29^th, 2026 at 3:12pm:


https://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1748832254/9#9

bandit111964 wrote on May 29^th, 2026 at 4:08pm:


I did not put lift into the calculator. Just forces along the trajectory. But in reality I think the stone would keep its initial orientation for a good amount of time which would be beneficial to the distance achieved. I assume it would even start tumbling at the end of the flight.

bandit111964 wrote on May 29^th, 2026 at 4:08pm:


Yes, in meters. Thats the maximum height of the Grand Canyon (at least Google is telling me so).

bandit111964 wrote on May 29^th, 2026 at 4:08pm:


The upward throw will have (mathematically) a slightly bigger impact on ground, because it falls from a higher altitude, but at these heigths we are practically at the terminal velocity at impact. So there should be no difference noticeable in real life.

Now isn’t that a brilliant comment!!  You are right about sling length is always going to be limited in vertical rotations because the sling will hit the ground, so advantage horizontal spinning.

But I had never considered the body rotates in that same horizontal direction too!!  As soon as you said that, it seemed “of course -that should be more efficient!”

Would the goal then to maximize the throw be to perfectly match the body spin axis with the sling’s spin axis? 

Maybe measure the body spin axis as along your spine between hips and shoulders?

bandit111964 wrote on May 31^st, 2026 at 9:29am:

One modification, 'release axis'.  The sling can spin wherever ahead of time, it's the final movement that's important.  Although if we're focusing on distance slinging with thin corded slings, it can be more difficult to change the plane of the rotation quickly.  So pre-rotations in the same plane (or very close to it) are beneficial.


bandit111964 wrote on May 31^st, 2026 at 9:37am:

I wouldn't worry too much about getting things perfectly aligned.  Unless you're doing some weird hunching or limbo posture, your torso is going to have a pretty much vertical axis twist (like you show in your picture).  If you're slinging with an upward angle, the rotational axis of the sling may not match exactly.  But I think trying to rotate your body at an off angle would just result in injury or a loss of power because it's not going to be stable.  Not for me anyway.



The biggest thing to keep in mind is that matching body and sling rotation isn't exactly the goal, but rather a method (that can help) to get there.  The goal is to have a long power stroke so the pouch has maximum time to build up speed.  Having the arm and sling following the same rotational axis helps take advantage of the body rotation to build speed.

But now let's touch back on overhand (I'm using overhand as the term instead of Figure 8).  We already covered that Figure 8 has a fix rotational path.  But a very similar release can be done with pre-rotations of the sling.  If you haven't yet, watch some videos of Channing (Practical Paracord).  He rotors the sling behind his back before pulling forward to throw.  His style (and I'm referring only to the sling's movement) is basically the second half of a Figure 8, with the rotation behind the back being where he uses multiple spins until it's time to throw.

But he does something else too.  He obviously rotates his torso, but he also has a big front leg kick (step) to give him a lot of forward movement of the torso.  Channing also comes from a baseball pitcher background like you (in case you didn't know), and it's very clear in the way he slings.  With the pre-rotations, the nice overhand release like Figure 8, and the big forward movement he generates with his body, he gets a ton of power.  This video is great if you just want to see his style without a bunch of other video craziness going on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of7OHjCCMxU.

If we were going to do some speed tests to compare a slinger on flat ground vs. on a pitcher's mound, our boy down in Louisiana is the guy I'd want doing it.  I could definitely see that additional downward movement aiding his slinging style.  Now a sidearm release....maybe.  But I'm not as convince on that one (without seeing a test).  I'm thinking I have to reach out to Channing and tell him we have a video idea for him.