Ringing Forums

Ask an experienced ringer to watch what you do carefully and then advise you. It may help to ask a friend to take a video of your action while ringing then replay it slowed down so that you see your hand movements in detail. Compare that with what an experienced ringer with a good style is doing.

go through the motions slowly with a stationary rope, I'd slide your hands down the sally instead of pulling it, but otherwise move your hands, and open and close them round the rope, as you would when ringing the bell. That way you can focus on the detail before doing it faster, and then with a live rope.
If your fingers are getting mixed up with the rope I suspect your hand is closing on the tail end much too late. There should be very little gap between both hands opening from the sally and the right hand joining the left hand on the tail end. Somewhere around waist level, and well before the bottom.
Both hands should work together and never go far apart, so the right hand closes on the rope as the left hand places it into it.
The angle of the hands is also important. As the hands leave the Sally the rope is coming out of the top of the hands, but they then turn forward so the rope falls over the front of the band where it's easier for the other hand to get hold of it.
Not sure how clear that is, it's much easier to demonstrate than describe. There's a description and pictures on p17 of The New Ringer's Book if you have a copy.
HTH

One tip I was given which sounds odd but worked for me is to actively put the tail end into your right hand using your left hand - your left hand knows where the tail end is as it's got hold of it! It helped to stop me fishing around randomly with my right hand, which may be why your fingers are going through the loop.

Thank you all. Some great tips.

put the tail end into your right hand using your left han — John de Overa

That's what I meant by the two hands working together, one gives and the other takes. As I said, it's harder to describe than demonstrate.

You could also get someone to take a video of what you are doing. This can be very helpful for you to watch you can then see exactly what is happening. I quite often video learners and play back in slow motion so they can see what they are doing. You can then discuss solutions.

If you stop your handstroke pull short, the rope will be at an awkward angle for your upper hand to get round. If you make sure you follow right down into your lap as you come off the sally, it’s much easier.

As well as the other tips - Practise with a bell below the balance so you ring handstroke with just your right hand on the sally (like ringing up/down). Then you can concentrate on your right hand transferring onto the tail end without worrying about your left hand too.

I get ringers to make sure when they are gripping the sally that the bottom of their righthand is gently resting on the top of the thumb of their left hand and then when they release the sally to "feel" that this is still the case, the rope then will (almost) naturally arrive in the righthand without a problem, it feels a bit funny at first, but it will help.

I have also had learners that tend to slide their hands down the tail end, had to video it before they believed me, video = fantastic tool !

The most recent episode of the Fun with Bells podcast might also help. Three experienced ringing teachers talk through the most common bell handling issues, including hand transfers.

When I was learning to ring the tower captain had a party trick: he placed a £5 note between his right hand and left thumb and rang 20 strokes (10 hand, 10 back) with the note just trapped between them and not held. The challenge for learners was to do the same, if you succeeded you got to keep the note. No learner ever did, and he never challenged competent ringers!

I was wondering how long before someone mentioned the £5 note trick (or the ten Bob note trick as it was when I was teaching other kids in my teens). I have do nonstarter it, but it's very difficult to keep your wrists in contact because it forces extreme wrist bending to open and close round the sally. It's another example where what one might assume is the ideal turns out not to be. I describe what the hands should be doing (all the time when not together on the rope) as flying in close formation. There's a picture on p23 of New Ringer's Book showing the maximum hand separation.

When I was first taught I was advised to imaging throwing the rope through the floor, letting the sally go at the last possible second and finally putting my dominant hand onto that holding the tail, a bit like holding a golf club. Once I'd got used to that my teacher led me into a more relaxed action with my dominant hand. I later found that where my dominant hand actually ended up on the rope varied from bell to bell in our tower. With a comfortable rhythm going, I find my dominant hand ends up in slightly different place on the rope when changing places with another bell during ringing. Not sure if that is an "impure technique", but I mostly notice it when my ringing feels better than my usual...

On finishing your handstroke, and letting the sally go, move both your hands down keeping them central to your body (no sideways movement) your hands are close to each other, and move your right hand to your left hand, where it should be straight forward catching hold of the tail end with your right hand, as it comes out from the front of your left hand.

I do that one, although it does lend to slightly contrived handling. Another neat trick to illustrate a point is to pull off the handstroke, do the hand transfer and then take the left hand away, so the backstroke is only done with the right hand. You cannot do that unless your right hand transfer is good.

neat trick ... is to pull off the handstroke, do the hand transfer and then take the left hand away, so the backstroke is only done with the right hand. — Simon Linford

I tried that this morning, and it's really hard. I need more practice to add it to other party-tricks (one-handed-ringing, wrong-handed ringing down, dropping the backstroke each stroke, the £x-note, etc). The hard bit for me was when to reunite the left hand with the rope: just ringing both strokes right-handed is easier, but presumably not the point of the exercise.

Early exercise is: learner pulls-off first handstroke, and then just does backstrokes while teacher catches other handstrokes: this (let-go with left hand) might work as a reinforcement to the hand-transfer, with the teacher standing the next handstroke and repeating the whole process ...

Even-earlier exercise is: learner pulls-off with dummy tailend, completes hand-transfer while teacher does everything else and stands. Learner letting-go with left hand might work as reinforcement, with less effect on the moving bell.

When faced with this issue, we use a dummy tail end while the ringer is first trying assisted handstrokes. As they let go of the sally, they are instructed to bring the right hand to immediately join the left on the dummy tail end and let them rest in front of their lap while they wait for the sally to come down from backstroke. It's also a useful aid to build the confence in those ringers who curl their little fingers round the tail end whilst holding the sally for fear of dropping the tail end.