This post is aimed at ringers who have recently “moved on” from Plain Bob Doubles, and those who teach such ringers. Plain Bob Doubles has a lot of features that aren’t often explicitly taught, usually because it would be too much information at once for the ringers learning. But continuing to work on it andContinue reading “From Plain Bob Doubles to Triples”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Understanding Bell Handling with One Weird Trick!
Handling a bell is complicated. Part of what makes it difficult to understand is just that it is a series of actions, and many components and consequences of the actions aren’t visible. But we can make visual representations of things, and sometimes that can be a big help with understanding! Look at this cute littleContinue reading “Understanding Bell Handling with One Weird Trick!”
“Better never than late”
Before I learned to ring I did a lot of contra dancing, which is what Americans did to English country dances. One caller would say at the end of his beginner lessons, “the rule is ‘better never than late’.” The music and the other dancers aren’t going to slow down or stop, so if youContinue reading ““Better never than late””
Fishy Fishy Dodgy Dodgy
Once at my high school we had a really interesting presentation about the brain and memory. The presenter, a visitor who I think was some kind of academic, had us do a little experiment. We each got a little slip of paper with ten words on it, but there were three options for the instructions:Continue reading “Fishy Fishy Dodgy Dodgy”
Beware the vicious cycle
At the most recent practice at St Mary’s in Edinburgh, Ian Bell dubbed me Alison “pull the handstrokes less” Stevens. I think he would agree that I’ve been on a mission almost since I moved here to get people to pull less in general! It’s normal in ringing to overpull a small amount most ofContinue reading “Beware the vicious cycle”
Where to aim; or, How to do what you want
Say you’re doing archery, shooting arrows at a target. Naturally you’ll aim at the center, since that’s where you want to hit the target! After you’ve fired your round of arrows though, it turns out they’re all *above* the center. Aiming at the center is pretty reliably getting your arrows…not in the center. So, tryContinue reading “Where to aim; or, How to do what you want”
Thinking Ahead; or, Theory and Practice
An important part of ringing efficiently, ringing without tiring yourself out, is translating the abstract idea of a method into what to actually do physically. The photo above shows a page of my first ringing notebook where I wrote out a plain course of Stedman Doubles, drew a line through the 4, then wrote howContinue reading “Thinking Ahead; or, Theory and Practice”
Change the other stroke
I am on a quest to get ringers at one of my local towers to use as little effort as possible. The more efficient we can be in our ringing, the longer we can continue, and the easier it will be to ring heavier bells. A big part of this quest is teaching people howContinue reading “Change the other stroke”
When to bend your knees
In 2019 I went on a ringing trip to Calgary with some of the other Vancouver ringers. Among other things, we rang a quarter peal of Plain Bob Minor with three Vancouver ringers and three Calgary ringers! Before we started, Anne Hutton said, “Every time you make seconds, bend your knees.” I had previously experiencedContinue reading “When to bend your knees”
Let the rope go up
The current crop of learners at St Mary’s in Edinburgh tend to resist the rope on its way up. Telling them to let the rope go up so often has prompted me to ask myself whether *I* am letting the rope go up as much as it can. It turns out, if I simply moveContinue reading “Let the rope go up”
Among Sallies and Bobs 