I just read an interesting thread and thought I'd follow it up with this one.
I have studied "no spin" knife throwing for several years and, while I'm not excellent at it, I must say it has imparted a few nuggets of wisdom. For one, I don't carry a gun, and second I don't carry throwing knives. But I am learning (and teaching, whenever I hold a "class") to use objects around me as missiles whenever the need arises. Whatever I can pick up and throw works.
I had a teacher who, when we trained in the desert, would throw sand at us whenever he'd get low enough to grab some. Heaven forbid he got lucky and grabbed a rock instead. It was inevitable that he'd do this if he had the chance, because he didn't have a reason not to - if it didn't buy him an advantage at least it didn't slow him down. And he learned how to do this from his teacher, who made him throw spikes for hours on end. To him, shurikenjutsu used specific tools (knives and spikes mostly) to teach distance control, timing, and how to combine combat movement with evasion and advancement.
So here's why I started this thread... I want to know your opinions on "combat throwing," whether it's a knife or a screwdriver or a coffee mug. Have you ever thrown something at someone as a distraction or simply on impulse only to find that you gained a usable advantage by doing so? And what objects would you want to have handy in case you wanted to throw something deliberately? Please, no "I'd just pull out my Desert Eagle" comments, because that isn't the point at hand.