People occasionally write to me with questions about learning to ring. Having taken the time to think out an answer and write it up, it seems worthwhile to put these replies onto the website….

Help please ! Try as I might, I CANNOT seem to keep in the right place when ringing up or down in peal. I cannot see whether I am getting ahead or dropping behind.

 (more will follow when I have time to dig them out)

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Ringing up and down in peal: you will lose it if you do not do not react quickly enough or hard enough when first beginning to get out of place. A very small error so quickly becomes compounded. Every pull puts you further and further away from the correct spot. That is why it is essential just to have enough in hand to let your bell rise that little bit extra to keep behind (after) the bell you are following every pull. One must keep ones bell rising at the same speed as everyone else. It is the running round a racetrack analogy. (If you were running round a race track with friends, and you stopped to tie up your shoe lace, you have to run faster to catch up: then when you catch them up you will be running too fast so if you do not instantly realise you are back in place you will carry on too fast, past them and out of place again.)

1. GOING UP TOO SLOWLY> The gap between you and the bell you are following* gets too small. (You get too close). Within a couple of pulls you will find that your bell rope is actually coming down in front of (i.e. sooner than) the bell rope that you are supposed to be following. You are not getting your bell up fast enough. Because you are not letting out enough rope. Which is either because you are not pulling hard enough, or because you are pulling hard enough but then not letting the rope go out through your fingers at the top of the backstroke. Cure: PULL IT! a couple of really LONG, efficient, hard pulls and let the rope pull out through your hands at the top of the tailstroke until you have regained the correct gap. (you may have noticed some of us on larger bells almost go onto our knees for a couple of pulls then return to ringing smoothly as if nothing was amiss.)

2. GOING UP TOO FAST> The gap between you and the bell you are following* gets too large. (too wide) Your tailstroke goes on sailing up into the air while the bell you are following* has started on its way down again. Result, you rapidly get too wide. This is caused by pulling the rope too hard then not (or not being able to) beginning the tailstroke pull down quickly enough, so that the bell in front gets away from you. Cure: EASE OFF THE PULLING A BIT and make sure that you begin to pull the tailstroke back down immediately behind the bell you are following. If your eyes drift away from the bell you are following during a rise, back onto your own sally this can happen in an instant. You MUST watch that rope, every single pull. There is no free-wheeling during a rise or a fall. This is 'cutting' not 'pulling' - two different things.

3. How to get right once very wrong. This is difficult, often impossible if the rise has fallen apart. (if too many people go wrong it is very hard to keep the remaining ones correct). To get right you have to get your bell back swinging at the same height as everyone else. AND you have to get into the right place. These are not the same. If you are too high or too low you may come right for one pull but the next one will be out again. either 1 or 2 above will apply. If 1. you need to pull and let out rope; if 2. you need to 'hang around a bit'. Having done this you will gradually notice that you seem to be going up and down in phase with the other ropes, but you may well not be actually in the right place (e.g. 1 2 4 5 6 3 ...1 2 4 5 6 3...) In this example you are striking after the 6: look around and see which bell your rope seems to be following most nearly. So now gradually work your way around from that bell to your correct hole. (1 2 4 5 3 6... 1 2 4 3 5 6... 1 2 3 4 5 6) Then make sure you stay there. (Race track analogy again, having been moving at a different speed to the rest you now have to adjust your speed to fall back into step with them else you will rapidly lose them again).

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