So I’ve braided my own balearic sling from hemp cord. Now I’m practicing and since I’m so inexperienced, I’m just happy with throwing the rock and seeing how far it goes. I don’t try to aim at anything.
The problem is that after 10-20 throws I get an annoying pain in the throwing arm, where the forearm joins the elbow, in the inner side. This pain forces me to stop soon after and it’s frustrating because I really enjoy slinging and because this is a skill gained really through repetition.
I wonder if this pain I get is a result of bad style or I’m just too old for this. Does it happen to any of you? Were you able to solve it by changing anything in the way you shoot? Help this fellow slinger! :)
Golfer's elbow! Flexor tendons. I have a couple of suggestions. I used to get this when I started, I was going for distance as well and I was slinging stones that were too heavy.so that's the firwt one, I'd try smaller stones. Second you might try practicing with your off hand. I started this last year and I got pretty good quickly. Third, I'd do strengthening exercises for the flexors.
Fourth: warm up first. Seriously, I almost fuck up my elbow muscles from throwing without some warm up.
Great idea.
Thanks! I should’ve thought of that first
Thank you! That makes so much sense! And I’ll also make sure to warm up before. Unfortunately I can’t use my left hand because I have q disability after crashing against a glass door when I was 12 xD
Ah I see. Just wanted to add that you might be amazed at how far smaller stones can go. There's one more thing to consider. I came to a point where I wanted to use less arm strength and use my body more for speed, particularly the twist of the torso. I probably had some pain, i was slinging A LOT and I'm a mailman so I use my hands all day. So I would lock my elbow against my body and focus on not using my arm, instead focusing on timing. There was a sense of feeling the weight of the stone in the pouch and letting it guide the throw, instead of forcing it. It ended up revolutionizing how I sling, not only making me more accurate but my throws are more powerful. So maybe work with that a bit.
Do you mean spinning around yourself? Not sure I visualize your method. Maybe there’s a video with that style?
Slings add a lever to the throwing motion, that's why they can throw so far/fast. Slinging is similar to golf in that you are introcucing an additional lever to a system. Throwing has 3 levers: your wrist, your shoulder, and the rotation of your body. The innovation of slings or spear throwers (atlatl) is that they add a 4th lever, which expands power exponentially.
That said, a lot of slingers (and golfers!) don't make full use of the rotational lever. We tend to focus on the strength and power of the arm, but it is the more subtle twist of the torso that the real power comes from.
Tbe idea is to minimize the shoulder lever amd maximize the rotation of the torso. I will try to make a video to share but it's negative temps here.
So literally tie your arm to your body so that your elbow is fixed against your body, and sling.
Yeah, tendonitis.... (Look for it on the web ). Never throw more than at 80% of your strength.
And now you can try other method to throw it... Backhanded by exemple is also fun (like a backhand in tennis ), and doesn't use the same muscles ...
Try also precision and not distance...
Good luck !!
This was happening to me recently with my 85g+ seed bombs. Try not to swing so much, maybe like 3-4x before the actual release otherwise you’re just waisting energy, the centripetal force really increases the “weight.” Warm-up is essential but also try to strengthen the long head of the tricep with close body pushups and overhead tricep extensions. For distance I even started getting good with an underhand sling technique which lets me use the larger muscle groups and get some really good distance without sacrificing my elbow.
May I inquire about the "seed bombs"? Is it as self-explanatory as it seems? And if so... what would be the usage or the need? Genuinely intrigued. Googlimg now.
it’s just slinging ammo with a purpose
Smaller stones. I did the same when I first started.
Small stones can pack a punch. After a while, you can chuck 55 gram stones, which weigh just about 2ounces, or a little over a tenth of a pound fast enough to do lethal damage.