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The culture of my home island of Mallorca has a pretty deep link to slings, the ancient Greeks and Carthaginians both named us after our slingers, and later on we became a key Roman foothold in the punic wars partly because of the slingers, who became part of an elite unit of shock troops in the Roman Empire

It was our weapon of choice for defence, protecting us from pirates and would-be conquerors as well as farming, as shepherds used both slings and dogs to herd and protect their animals.

I find it pretty fascinating, I'm also a terrible shot with a sling, you have to try it to really understand how hard it is to aim when swinging a rock at something.

[jmkd]

Glad to see this here, Balearic slinging has a rich and impactful history. But sadly this is not much appreciated today on the islands.

The Federation hosts open days where only a handful of people show up. Top slingers from the islands are treated with great acclaim when they travel to international competitions but at home few know who they are. The Balearic Government and local councils show little interest in supporting or promoting this activity.

I can't help feel it could and should be much more popular, with an injection of support and enthusiasm, especially as the islands try to rediscover a post-tourism identity.

But I don't see any evidence of this yet. I continue to do my little part in telling everyone I know how fascinating this sport is.

And yes, how incredibly difficult! I had probably 50 attempts before I hit a large target just 7 or 8 metres away.

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I'll try to make one of the events if I'm in the islands, I saw they do a yearly competition in Ibiza around October, my parents live there now so it's convenient.

As with anything non-tourism related, it's can be a bit hard to find these events when the only advertising might in the town hall website (if that!) and sometimes instagram

[ainiriand]

Hey paisano! Not sure about you but me as a kid in Palma we had 3months of sling lessons during PE class!

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Uep, com va? That's pretty cool, I grew up in Palma too but we didn't have that, I suppose it greatly depends on the school

[bee_rider]

It is even harder to see sling bullets than arrows, right? I imagine fighting slingers would be even more scary than the normal ancient battlefield. Sort of like a proto-gun, in the sense that you have people dying with no warning.

[FarmerPotato]

The Roman word for the projectile was bulla.