Living Water - Dissertations - Bass Ringer's Notebook - Grip

Grip

Let's be honest... for the past umpteen years we've been teaching new ringers the wrong way of grasping a bell. The immediate result has been that they've instantly been less efficient than possible, and the long-term manifestation of that flawed education has been more than a few injuries and RSIs (repetitive strain injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome).

I'm referring to something called "full grip" (at least that's what I call it). It's very natural to assume that the firmest grip on the handle is best because it guarantees that the bell is least likely to fly off into the distance. However, holding a bell in that way means that the standard ringing motion causes your wrist to bend in a direction parallel to your palm, and that's not its most flexible direction.

The current, and in my opinion the best, thinking is that we should be ringing using the "katana grip" (I use this term because Miyamoto Musashi described in his "Book of Five Rings"). The katana is the samurai long sword; I'd imagine that it had about the same moment of inertia as a bass bell. The tradition method of gripping the sword (as recommended by Musashi in his Book of Five Rings) is to hold firmly with thumb, index finger, and middle finger, and to grasp less firmly with ring and little fingers. The theory is to have a strong, yet flexible grip so that the sword may be directed to its target more easily.

While we're not going to battle with our bells, the same grip is applicable. It's being taught for treble bells with a couple of slight modifications: The "strong grip" fingers also act as a sort of oarlock or pivot for the upper part of the bell's handle, and the "loose grip" fingers not only direct the action of the bell, but also pull on the handle to provide (part of) the force to ring it. In the same way, with a little extra care to deal with the additional mass, it also works perfectly with bass bells.