Practice Sling

This is the companion Instructable to my first Instructable last week.

https://www.instructables.com/id/Making-an-Ancient-...

In that one I mentioned this future Instructable.

This is how to make the practice sling, which allows you to train either indoors, or outdoors in confined locations.

I made this from a leather thong, but you can use any suitably sized rope, including Parachute cord.

The lace can be substituted with any rope you have.

Tie the knot to make the loop so you can place it around one of your fingers.

On the other end of your cord, tie a simple overhand knot.

Place the knot and loop in your throwing hand and let the cord hang.

Grasp the cord with your left hand and bring the cord over your head to a comfortable position.

That will be the center of your tie-off point.

Begin tying a knot, then re-knot around the same point, either above or below the first knot.

Repeat this until you have a small loop left.

You now have your practice sling.

Safety:

You need about eight feet of unencumbered room for this size of sling.

Throwing Styles:

If you want to see and try some other style of throws, there's an excellent instructional video in my first Instructable in this series. See the link at https://www.instructables.com/id/Making-an-Ancient-...

Greek Style:

To do the Greek style throw, begin with an overhead stance.

Bring your arms over your head.

With your forward aiming arm pointing at your aim point, release your pouch (or knot) and fling it behind your head while cocking your wrist in a baseball throwing motion.

Do not try and force the speed, just use a normal speed throw, as if you were throwing a baseball or tennis ball.

With enough practice, your throws will be as accurate as you can throw a ball.

The force multiplication of a sling over throwing just a rock or a stick was immeasurable.

Bonus:

The end loop in the practice sling can be used to hurl an Atlatl.

That will be a future Instructable.

Bonus 2:

If you have time, and want to make a good practice sling, you can make a monkey head knot with a longer piece of rope, and tie the loop and knot after you've completed the round knot.

Danger:

Never put a heavy object at the practice pouch location as this will create a dangerous weapon ... against yourself. If you tried throwing one of these with a knot containing something like a Nut or Bearing, you would seriously injure something. Even the knot can sometimes whack you in the leg or back. I've had a knot on the end of the rope hit me in the back of the head once. I was trying something and it kept coming back. :)

Wearing safety glasses is encouraged until you become proficient in slinging.