How long should a meteor hammer or rope dart be?

Question

I am insterested in making either of those two weapons for practice. I need to know what length is ideal for someone who is just learning. Thanks for any responses, other tips would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Hi.

It's generally the same for both the rope dart and meteor hammer, twelve feet is average however it depends on your personal dimensions.

Add together your height up to your shoulders and the length of your arm span (just stretch out your arms as far as they will go and have someone measure from finger tips to finger tips).

Or you could stretch a length of rope from one hand to the other (holding one end of the rope in one hand) and while keeping your arm as horizontal as you can let the excess fall to the floor.

Both of these should give you a fairly accurate rope length; just give yourself another six inches to tie the loop that you wrap around your wrist and to tie the actual dart to the rope.

Again, twelve feet is pretty much average, I'm about 5' 9" and twelve feet is almost perfect.  Once you become more experienced you can increase the length, especially if you are target practicing.  You can also start out with a longer rope and simply wrap what you don't need around your wrist while practicing certain techniques and when you need more all you have to do is unwrap a little bit.

-----------

Whether you’re making a practice dart / hammer or buying the real thing I suggest you start out with something weighing 6oz or less.  I made the mistake of buying as a first dart one that weighs 8oz.  That may not seem like a whole lot and even less of a difference but trust me, when you have a hunk of metal flying around your body at any speed it really does make a big difference.  Also the 6oz dart hurts less when you make a mistake :P

Though some rope dart practitioners would look down on this, for safety purposes while learning a new technique or just while playing around I use weighted tennis balls.  I have two; one that is weighted to 4oz with rubber bands and another that is weighted to 6oz with silicone adhesive.  

There are many reasons why you should not make any rope dart or meteor hammer substitute like weighted tennis balls your primary practicing tool and should use the real thing instead but using these weighted tennis balls has probably saved me from a concussion.  If you use a substitute for the real thing you should really only use it until you’re reasonably comfortable with a new technique then switch to a real dart / hammer.

-----------

Without knowing how exactly you are going about learning the rope dart it's hard to say what other tips you might be able to use.  I am more than happy to help so if you have any more questions feel free to e-mail me at:

[e-mail]

Whether or not you do, I hope this helps :)