Ringing Forums

Hi there,

I currently have two learners, both of whom I’m facing a particular challenge with and I’m wondering if anyone has some ideas of how to overcome these challenges.

Firstly, we have a middle aged lady who has been ringing around 2 years. She’s got to the point where she can plain hunt on 5, on the treble to a poor standard, and struggles even more with plain bob doubles. The issues she experiences are around getting up in to 5ths place, she tends to get to 4ths, then drops her bell and never makes it to 5ths. When she does make it to 5ths, she struggles to change the speed of the bell to hunt back down to lead. She’s kind of plateaued now - does anyone have any ideas of how to move her forward?

We’ve tried various things - taking a few steps back, practicing dodging to encourage better bell control etc.

Secondly, we have a teenage boy who’s been ringing just under a year - he’s not plateaued like my first example above, and is making good progress with plain hunting and covering. His problem is to do with his handling - he doesn’t throw his hand strikes down far enough. His arms get to a 90 degree position, then they both stop. This causes his backstrokes to drop. Having chatted to him about it, he says he’s a little worried that his hands won’t “make it in time” on to the tail end. We’ve tried a few things with him - such as ringing solo using just one hand at a time on the sally etc.

I’ve no doubt he’ll cure himself of this in due course, but I’m wondering if anyone has any ideas or tips on how to overcome style issues like this?

For context - our bells are light, and short draft, very easy to ring, so our learners do tend to develop style issues because they can “get away” with it, so to speak.

Thanks in advance