- Joined
- Aug 18, 2013
- Messages
- 281
Using a spear to Practice No-spin
When I was a kid we had a bamboo grove near our house and several thousand acres of what had been the Durand Plantation in Decatur, GA within a block of our home. We spent most days there whenever we were not in school. The whole area is now covered with homes and part of Emory University. But then it was just a vast forest full of creeks, small waterfalls, a ruined mill and blacksmith shop and miles of trails that were loaded with small game. Like most kids we didnt have any money but over a period of years adapted that bamboo into an entire small village, elaborately carved barbed spears for hunting and fishing and also made compound bows that worked fairly well. From about 8 years of age I was throwing spears every day and by 11 was taking rabbits fairly regularly. Sometime around the age of 14 my time to do this diminished as girls became my main interest and by the age of 16, I owned several rifles, an old car, a job and had moved 60 miles away to an even more rural location where rifle firing attracted no attention. So I largely stopped throwing spears.
From time to time over the years I still picked up a random pole and gave it a toss. I never lost my ability to correctly judge the throw so that it would strike perfectly on point at any range. But my accuracy had suffered a great deal and the idea of hitting a rabbit at 50 feet had become impossible. Then several years ago this changed. My grandson was over and I had some bamboo poles in the garage. I took a nice light, dry one about 6 ½ feet long and carefully fashioned a sharp but durable point on the larger end and took him over to a pile of leaf debris. We spent all afternoon throwing at the little pile from all sorts of ranges and angles. My goal was to teach him how to find the balance point and project the thing so that its described arc made a good point first landing in the debris sticking up each time. He loved it and has now become quite proficient at it. Meanwhile I had begun trying to learn how to throw knives Thorn style. I had been trying to throw the knives mostly inside due to crappy weather but now as I threw that spear, I was able to copy many of my arm motions with the heavier and longer knives I was using. Suddenly, no-spin began to come more easily for me. I could see what the knives were doing in the air and the effects of balance. I also quickly realized that I had been trying to throw too hard in most cases. As I threw the spear, I had a very fluid and forward motion to my throws that I now put much more naturally into the knives when I throw them. I also noticed that as I threw the spear, my accuracy with the knives improved and as I threw the knives accuracy with the spear improved.
It is not usually really necessary to throw a spear hard because it is so heavy that it actually picks up speed at the end if its arc, as it approaches the target and will completely skewer small game pinning it to the ground. One of the best points I ever used for hunting as a kid was a large nail I found somewhere that just slipped into the end of a bamboo pole and could be taped into place with friction tape. The thing was about 8 of exposed spike, easily kept sharp and always pinned game to the ground for easy retrieval. Of course the closer you are to the target, the less arc will be followed by the spear and since there is less gravity to power the spear, you have to throw harder. This is all true with no-spin as well. You need to throw direct throws harder and long throws more gently so they follow the arc.
I have two spears I use for practice from time to time. I had ordered some small throwing knives about 6 long overall that were entirely too small to be useful for throwing. But affixed on the end of some 6 foot plastic coated bamboo tomato stakes, they make a nice light dart that approximates the weight of my large Gil Hibben Gen-X throwers. My grand boys both love them and can throw them pretty well. The little spears stay out by my range and anytime I feel bad about the fluidity of my throwing or just want to improve accuracy, I throw them. They take a bit less finesse to throw than a knife does and dont wear the thrower out nearly as quickly as good form Thorn throws do with a knife. But overall, I find that this practice aids both my overall accuracy, judgment of range and fluidity of my arm movements. I think that best of all, the breaking of the wrist and hand position when releasing a spear is almost exactly what it should be when throwing a knife Thorn style. This occasional light spear chucking has greatly improved my knife throwing skills.
When I was a kid we had a bamboo grove near our house and several thousand acres of what had been the Durand Plantation in Decatur, GA within a block of our home. We spent most days there whenever we were not in school. The whole area is now covered with homes and part of Emory University. But then it was just a vast forest full of creeks, small waterfalls, a ruined mill and blacksmith shop and miles of trails that were loaded with small game. Like most kids we didnt have any money but over a period of years adapted that bamboo into an entire small village, elaborately carved barbed spears for hunting and fishing and also made compound bows that worked fairly well. From about 8 years of age I was throwing spears every day and by 11 was taking rabbits fairly regularly. Sometime around the age of 14 my time to do this diminished as girls became my main interest and by the age of 16, I owned several rifles, an old car, a job and had moved 60 miles away to an even more rural location where rifle firing attracted no attention. So I largely stopped throwing spears.
From time to time over the years I still picked up a random pole and gave it a toss. I never lost my ability to correctly judge the throw so that it would strike perfectly on point at any range. But my accuracy had suffered a great deal and the idea of hitting a rabbit at 50 feet had become impossible. Then several years ago this changed. My grandson was over and I had some bamboo poles in the garage. I took a nice light, dry one about 6 ½ feet long and carefully fashioned a sharp but durable point on the larger end and took him over to a pile of leaf debris. We spent all afternoon throwing at the little pile from all sorts of ranges and angles. My goal was to teach him how to find the balance point and project the thing so that its described arc made a good point first landing in the debris sticking up each time. He loved it and has now become quite proficient at it. Meanwhile I had begun trying to learn how to throw knives Thorn style. I had been trying to throw the knives mostly inside due to crappy weather but now as I threw that spear, I was able to copy many of my arm motions with the heavier and longer knives I was using. Suddenly, no-spin began to come more easily for me. I could see what the knives were doing in the air and the effects of balance. I also quickly realized that I had been trying to throw too hard in most cases. As I threw the spear, I had a very fluid and forward motion to my throws that I now put much more naturally into the knives when I throw them. I also noticed that as I threw the spear, my accuracy with the knives improved and as I threw the knives accuracy with the spear improved.
It is not usually really necessary to throw a spear hard because it is so heavy that it actually picks up speed at the end if its arc, as it approaches the target and will completely skewer small game pinning it to the ground. One of the best points I ever used for hunting as a kid was a large nail I found somewhere that just slipped into the end of a bamboo pole and could be taped into place with friction tape. The thing was about 8 of exposed spike, easily kept sharp and always pinned game to the ground for easy retrieval. Of course the closer you are to the target, the less arc will be followed by the spear and since there is less gravity to power the spear, you have to throw harder. This is all true with no-spin as well. You need to throw direct throws harder and long throws more gently so they follow the arc.
I have two spears I use for practice from time to time. I had ordered some small throwing knives about 6 long overall that were entirely too small to be useful for throwing. But affixed on the end of some 6 foot plastic coated bamboo tomato stakes, they make a nice light dart that approximates the weight of my large Gil Hibben Gen-X throwers. My grand boys both love them and can throw them pretty well. The little spears stay out by my range and anytime I feel bad about the fluidity of my throwing or just want to improve accuracy, I throw them. They take a bit less finesse to throw than a knife does and dont wear the thrower out nearly as quickly as good form Thorn throws do with a knife. But overall, I find that this practice aids both my overall accuracy, judgment of range and fluidity of my arm movements. I think that best of all, the breaking of the wrist and hand position when releasing a spear is almost exactly what it should be when throwing a knife Thorn style. This occasional light spear chucking has greatly improved my knife throwing skills.
Silent death to the rabbits in the garden. And a use for those 30 y.o. hay bales in the hayloft of the barn.