Rope sight

What is Rope Sight?

Rope sight is effectively two things, that are both the same yet slightly different depending on how you view things. Most simplistically, rope sight is the ability to "see" which bell you need to follow. The extension of this is that you can also see which place you are in.
From rounds if you look from treble to tenor each bell pulls off in order. Six is following the five, five the four, four the three and so on.
Now instead of thinking about which bell you are following, consider which place you are in.
If you are on the 3rd bell, you are in 3rds place. That is you are the third bell to ring. So if you look at the ropes, the treble and the two will pull off before you do. If a call is made treble to two, the order becomes 213456, the 3rd stays in the same place, though the bell it follows is different. So using rope sight you can see you follow the treble, but there are still two pulls before you do.

If we were back in rounds and three was called to four making the order 124356, you know from the call that you are following the four, but what has also happened you have moved "up" one place. So looking around there are now three pulls before you do.

Then if it is called three to five, making the order 124536, again you know from the call you are following the 5th but the place is now 5ths place. So four ropes are pulled before you pull off.

How can you teach/learn Rope Sight?

This is the hard question, a lot of ringers when asked this will think and then respond that it "sort of happened", or "something clicked and I could see it". Without it, it makes ringing quite difficult, but generally does come to people in time.
There are things that you can do to try and help "see" it.(http://ringingtips.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/progress-while-not-ringing.html)
(http://ringingtips.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/churchyard-bob-plain-hunt-with.html)

Other things that could be done is to ring plain hunt, but instead of thinking about the bells you follow, consider what place you are in at any given time, so imaging you are on the Treble think, with the number in brackets showing the order of bells in front of you:

2nds place - 1 Rope (2)
3rds place - 2 Ropes (2,4)
4ths place - 3 Ropes (4,2,5)
5ths place - 4 Ropes (4,5,2,3)
5ths place - 4 Ropes (5,4,3,2)
4ths place - 3 Ropes (5,3,4)
3rds place - 2 Ropes (3,5)
2nds place - 1 Rope (3)
Lead - 0 Ropes (-)
Lead - 0 Ropes (-)

The other advantage of ringing plain hunt is that once you have rang over that rope, you will not follow them again until after you have reached the back, so you can effectively ignore that rope when spotting the new one.

Goal Setting

In work and school we are set goals that we must achieve and are assessed on how well we have done so, and yet in ringing this does not seem to happen.

So why set goals?

Simply in order to try and maintain progress. Sometimes it is easy to get to a point, say ringing plain bob doubles and think you have arrived and then not prgress any further.
Why are you ringing what you are ringing now and where do you want to get to? Without a specific goal we can sometimes wander along with a vague momentum pushing us along.

What sort of goals should be set?

Goal setting should be done SMART as George Doran would say. This is a mnemonic for goal settings.

S - Specific
The goal should be defined specifically, so "I will ring better" is not a specific goal, "I will improve my striking" is more specific but still not great, or "I will ring Plain Hunt from the 4th". This is what you are hoping to achieve.
M - Measurable
The specific goal should have some concrete way of determining when you have achieved it, this links to Specific, "I will ring better" is very hard to specifically measure, whereas "I will ring plain hunt" is measurable you can either do it or not.
A - Attainable
This is more specific in terms of ringing, with personal goals, whether or not it is attainable is purely down to you, in ringing though quite often it is the band which provides the limit. Afterall, there is no point in having a goal of ringing suprise if the band you ring with cannot ring it, or of ringing plain hunt 12 in a 5 bell tower. Similiarly, they also need to be within reach, picking that you want to ring plain bob when you are still learning to handle might not be the best of goals.
R - Relevant
This is more common sense, the goal needs to related to what you are doing. A goal of "I will bring cake to every 4th practise" while it will be popular with your commardes probably does have little to do with you improving your ringing.
T - Timed
When is this to be achieved by? Open ended goals tend to get pushed back but with a fixed date for completion. Again this should be tied into how attainable it is, if you have just started ringing a goal to ringing rounds unaccompanied within 6 months is perhaps realistic, a goal to ring splice surprise in that time frame is probably not.

What does a SMART goal look like?

For example a ringer who has mastered plain courses of bob doubles in a strong band might choose:
"I will be able to ring unaffected touches of bob doubles without needing to be put right within 3 months"

Or generally "I will be able to [ Goal ] within [Time]"

Summary

SMART goals help people focus on where they are and what they want to do. These do not need to be formally kept by the tower captain and such structure might not be a welcome addition to all, as for some the idea with the excercise is just to move along at a comfortable pace without feeling pressurised to attain. Also bear in mind some ringers have a niche, they get to where they can ringing what they want and do not see the need to go further.
When reviewing the sucess/failure of the goal remember to provide clear feedback and do not be put off giving the same goal again but with a different time scale or perhaps choose a different goal similiar to the stretch/consolidation excercises.

Mexican Wave

The Mexican wave is an idea by Gordon Lucas (http://cccbr.org.uk/education/practicetoolkit/pdfs/fs_kaleidoscope.pdf) that involves a series of place making. Starting at the front and progressing out towards the back.  The link provides more details about it and tips on band placement and conducting/teaching it.

Starting from rounds ·         1 and 2 swap over ·         1 and 2 swap back ·         2 and 3 swap over ·         2 and 3 swap back ·         3 and 4 swap over ·         3 and 4 swap back ·         4 and 5 swap over ·         4 and 5 swap back

So why do it?

There are quite a few reason to try this

·         For a band who can ring call changes but has mastered plain hunt yet, this provides a little bit of the something different,

·         A learner can practise going into the lead from the 2^nd

·         For the bells further back they get to practice covering as they need to watch the bells under them go from rounds, swapped over and back to rounds before they need to swap themselves

·         Gives a bit of rope sight practice, especially towards the end of the change as they have to watch the change come up to them

·     Gives a striking practice since each person can hear their change individually
 

What to do next?

·         Treble/2^nd ringer a method that makes 2nds and back such as Bastow/Little Kent

·         Plain hunt singles

·         Start from a different position Queens/Tittums etc.

·         Have multiple Mexican Waves at the same time, e.g. call a 2^nd one when the first is about to make 3 and 4 swap

·         Instead of doing just a place try something else

Progress while not ringing

There are times when you wish that your learners would just “get it” or make quicker progress than they do. There are certain activities that they can do to improve their skills when not ringing.

Improving rope sight

Rope sight is a difficult thing to teach, some people just see it, others struggle and never quite get it. There are several exercises that the learner can do to try and help them improve their rope sight while sat watching ringing.

·         Whilst ringing with a covering tenor, get the learner to try and spot who the tenor is following

·         Try and spot what order the bells lead in

·         Try and spot whom the treble is following

These are best attempted while ringing plain methods like Bob Doubles.

Improving listening skills

Being able to hear your bell in the change is an art and with more and more bells is even more difficult, but if you can hear it then you can correct any crashes around yourself, so what the learner can do is while they are sitting and waiting try and get them to hear the treble or the tenor in the change, and where it is and if it moves. Picking the treble or the tenor is easiest as they are the highest or lowest notes in the change, once they can do that move on to the 2^nd (or 2^nd to last) bell and they can repeat until they are able to hear where the middle bells are without difficulty.

Homework

At the handling stage there is very little that can be done away from the tower, however, once the learner is confident at called changes you can start giving them things to think about during the week in between practices. Simple things could include getting them to think about how they would call changes from Rounds to Queens and back, the blue line (or circle of work) for doubles methods. It seems to me that the more experienced ringers become the more “homework” they do learning new compositions/methods indeed my desk is usually strewn with blue lines that I have drawn out.

Progression vs. Perfection

There is a fine balance between progression and perfection. I have seen both extremes a ringer who claims to ring surprise minor who couldn’t strike in rounds and a learner whose rounds were practically perfect but didn’t learn plain hunt because the striking wasn’t quite up to scratch.

Progression is important as it allows a new challenge and gets the learner up to speed with the rest of the band, the temptation can be if you are one short for a particular method to bring the learner up to speed quickly to get them to ring what you want, while this is all well and good it should not be done at the detriment of learning all the steps properly in the meantime.

Perfection is, of course, what we all strive for. People say that method ringing is supreme however I have had just as much enjoyment in ringing some very good rounds and called changes in Devon as I have ring surprise in Liverpool. Certainly, the called changes were the better struck ones in that case.

The balance can be very hard to achieve. In inexperienced bands striking perfection is not always such a requirement as if the learner is striking as good as the rest of the band that is good enough. In an experienced band the learner could be striking just as well but because the rest of them around the learner are that much better they aren’t moved on. Continual progression is important in keeping ringers interested.

Using feedback you can balance the need for progression with perfection so let them know that they are ringing well but need to strike better before moving along. Perhaps consider practising the skill in another way using consolidation or stretch exercises.

Consolidation and Stretch Exercises

I tend to classify the work for my learners into three types:

1.       Revision of previous works

2.       Current Work

3.       Additional Work

The revision is either the same work that the learner did last week, or the step before. This should be a good solid piece of ringing which does not need to be prime, but should put the learner into the mind-set that they are here and ready to ring, this should be the first thing that a learner does. A good piece should give the learner confidence in doing something “easy” well. This then helps to build them up so they can do the next work.

For example:

A learner is currently putting both strokes together, not their first time of doing so. The first time they ring this practice night get them to do some backstrokes and handstrokes singularly so they relax.

Current work is what you have planned for them to ring this evening. This would usually be the prime ring and should make up the majority of the time on the end of the rope.

Additional work is either Consolidation or Stretch.

Stretch is for when the current work has been rung well and consistently throughout and gives the learner an opportunity to ring the skill that they have just learnt but in a different context. This could well form the basis for what will be current work next practice.

For example:

A learner has rang Bob Doubles without problems striking well and then as a stretch ring an unaffected touch. This way they continue to ring their plain course but with the bells around them in different positions.

Consolidation is for when the current work is not good enough to progress but it has not improved over a period, or there is a specific aspect which needs addressing,  these pieces of work either re-visit a skill that has been learnt previously or apply it in a different sense.

For example:

A learner has rang Bob Doubles but keeps making mistakes while making 2nds. There are many opportunities to practise this but based on the learner’s confidence as to whether to do Mexican waves with them on the treble or two so they lead make 2nds lead or a method where the treble just hunts to 2nds like Bastow Little Bob Doubles.
 

In a lot of ways the consolidation and stretch excercises may very well be the same thing but used in different contexts. 

Planning for the Individual

When deciding what each person will ring requires four questions to be answered:

·         What is the learner’s long term goal?

       ·         What is the learner’s short term goal?
       ·         What did the learner do last time?

·         How well did the learner do last time?

In the early stages of ringing quite often the long term goal isn’t applicable, after all if you are handling the next goal is rounds, planning further ahead might be a bit excessive. But if you are ringing plain hunt, the longer term goal could be trebling to a method.

The questions really need to be answered in reverse order, how well did they do last time?

·         Got it! (Time to move on; do the short and long term goals need to be changed?)

·         Almost there (Some more of the same until they get it)

·         Still a little way off (What is it that they are not getting, are there intermediary steps that can be brought in?)

·         Nowhere near (Is what they did last time appropriate? are there intermediary steps that can be brought in? Has the exercise been explained to them in a way they understand?)

Then based on how well they did you can then decide what they should be doing this time. Some people can remember what people did and how well they did easily and so they are very easily able to plan for the next thing for others this is quite difficult. Do not be afraid of making notes about what people are doing and where they are supposed to be going, that way you can easily see what is being done and alert you if someone has been at “Almost there” for the same task for the last 6 weeks; maybe that is a sign that there is something fundamental about the task which they are just not able to grasp.

The other thing to consider is making sure that the learner is not bored at doing the same thing each time. It might be possible for them to learn the same skill in another way, for instance using Mexican waves to help with moving their bell into the right place instead of just called changes.

Planning a Practice

It seems that we are all living increasingly busy lives, and because of that we are all trying to get the most out of everything that we do. It is a frustration of mine when at the end of a touch or piece of ringing there is a 10 minute discussion about what to ring next. That time could be filled with a quick touch of something, or ringing something else for someone. The key to make the most out of your practice night is to plan in advance, like the old phrase says “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail”. It doesn’t need to be down to the detail of band placement for each thing rang, but it could do.  However, there should be an overall plan and structure to the night. Some ringing masters make this seem effortless and seem to be able to do this on the fly; others will have it all written down.
In its simplest form it is a list of who you have coming to practice and what you want them to ring that evening, that way everything will have a purpose and you have identified what you want as your prime rings.

Ringer	Prime Ring
Dave	Rounds with call changes
Eric	Plain hunt on 5 from the treble
Fran	Touch of Bob Minor
Etc.	Etc.

TIP:

To help you plan your practice, consider having a sign-up sheet, that way you know who to expect and what to plan to ring. After all there is no point planning to ring surprise major if you know you won’t have enough ringers. Similiarly, there is no point in planning to ring Plain Hunt for another learner if they are on holiday.

This sign-up sheet can also be used so you know who is available for Sunday Service ringing, that way if you are going to be short you know about it in advance and can either cancel ringing or call round to get one or two extra ringers.

Prime Ring

One practice I visited were ringing plain hunt on 7 for their learners.  I have no objection to ringing stuff to help learners, what I did object to was that there were four learners in it. So we had learners on the 2, 3, 4 and 5. There were some lumpy rounds and we went into the changes and it starts ok, and gets worse until the point where the 2 is somewhere up near 11ths place the 3^rd never got higher than 5ths and there is a lot of shouting and it stands up. We tried again and again the slow decay set in until it stood. On the next attempt we actually got round, well that’s all was called at the end so I guess that that was progress. The next attempt was just the same as the first. I thought there has to be a better way than this.

And there is.

There is a concept called the prime ring, a term I first heard coined by Pip Penney, though I have experienced this beforehand elsewhere. The idea is that for each learner they have (at least) one piece of ringing where they are the only learner. This has the huge advantage that, say in the plain hunt, the learner could rely on the rest of the band to be right, and even give those tell-tale winks and signals so that the learner knows who they should be following. The consequence of this is then that the learner is able to learn things quicker because if they are for instance following the third in fourths place they will always know that that is in the right place instead of suddenly holding up because the third is too high. They will be able to see the gaps, if they have rope sight and certainly hear if they are wrong.

It is not always possible to give each learner a prime ring, for instance, in the first example if there were only eight people in the practice then to learn plain hunt on seven all learners would have to ring at once. If it is not possible to have one learner per attempt then look at making sure that they are not on bells that course each other, say the three and the four, that way they head out in opposite directions.

Not every ring needs to be a prime ring, but I would suggest that the learner should get at least one piece of prime each night if possible.