Ringing Forums

It's not a simple question of which is easier. They each have different things to go wrong. When lowering you are going 'downhill' but you are going from a slow stable rhythm with the balance point on hand if needed into a faster, less stable and mpre crowded rhythm. When raising you are going uphill but the further you go the more open (and familiar) the rhythm.
The seeds of a bad rise are sown with a bad start, failure to establish a stable two stroke rhythm early on. Typically the bells start too spaced out (and take too long to start) so there's an extended period with hand and backstrokes overlapping. Add in any unsteadiness and no one can hear whether they are right or wrong so different bells try to 'correct' in different directions. The whole thing is a mess until the bells are much higher and manage to sort themselves out.
This can be avoided if the Treble rises briskly to start with, which (a) gets quickly to a speed where the Tenor can strike and (b) pushes the other bells together leaving space for the second stroke to come in so everyone can hear what's happening. Once the Tenor is striking on both strokes, the Treble sticks to its tail and goes up at the Tenor's speed but before that it helps if the Treble mantally puts in the Tenor's backstroke so mthat when it emerges everything fits.
I just looked back to see what I said in 'Raising & Lowering in Peal' (is it really 35 years since I wrote it?) You might like to haqve a look. Feel free to copy anything you find useful.

I think it very much depends on the skill level of the band, particularly when it comes to bell control when well below the balance. My experience is that if the band is weak and the raise is bad, the lower will be even worse. The usual cause is the inability of the front ringers to keep actively ringing the bell once they are one-handed on the sally and just letting it flop down, compounded by the first coil chaos when they take in great gobs of rope and the bell then drops like a stone. It's usually the case that the weakest ringers are round the front which compounds the issues. The back bells have zero chance of keeping up so they either end up dangling from the ceiling as they desperately try to drag their bell down, or they just give a resigned sigh and ring down at a sane pace. The result is chaos either way.

thanks that's the first time I have laughed today! Lovely description of the perils of the lower!

it's the sad story of my ringing life :wink:

I'm teaching someone to ring up and down at the moment - I'm using the ART "Small, Simple Steps" ethos and I'm working on getting them to be able to continuously drop and make coils whilst keeping the bell at exactly the same level whilst they do it. We'll see if it helps :smile: