As I write this, the Summer holidays are in full swing, the Olympic Games have drawn to a close and, for some, it is an opportunity to go on holiday and be able to take a little bit of time out from the usual routines.
I mention the Olympics because they reminded me of an interesting seminar that was given at the ART Conference earlier this year. This talk was given by Dr Gareth Jowett who is a Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Leeds Beckett University. He works with athletes and coaches in order to help develop motivation, perfectionism and well-being within sport.
Very few ringers are also elite athletes so what was the relevance of this presentation? Well, in the world of training elite athletes, it is easy for some to suffer from burnout. This is brought on by the constant striving for perfection and the worries associated with not meeting that aim. Dr Jowett identified exhaustion as a feature of burnout, additionally he also suggested that a sense of lack of accomplishment could be a factor linked with burnout. I think that sometimes ringers also suffer from burnout and this is perhaps very likely to occur at this time of year when the weather is good, the tower is too warm, half of the band are away on holiday… All of these are factors that might affect our motivation as to whether or not we attend a ringing session or just let it pass this time.
The holiday season is coming to an end and perhaps it’s time to look, as a band, about how things could be changed to improve the motivation. Some of you will recall that the late Dr Michael Mosley had a very successful series on Radio 4 called ‘Just One Thing’ where he would look at how changing one small thing in a persons life would benefit their health. Could this work for ringing? Could changing one small thing about the ringing in your tower benefit the health of the tower and consequently the motivation of the ringers, helping to reduce the risk of burnout?
It might be something very simple like a tub of sweets – this certainly goes down very well in many towers. It could be more ringing focused such as just ringing some very even rounds, some well-struck call-changes or a simple method very well during the practice session.
Rather than a band target, it may be an individual thing such as visiting another tower’s practice night. I have rarely found a tower that does not welcome visitors, no matter what their ringing ability, and this could give an opportunity for an individual to finally be able to try to ring something that is not possible at their own tower such as ringing on 8 bells.
As we head towards September, can I just remind you all that the Association 6-Bell Competitions takes place at St George’s Church, Beckenham, on Saturday 28th September. The 6-bell Inter-District Method Competition will take place in the morning with the draw at 9:45. I do hope that each District will be able to send a tower to represent them.
In the afternoon, there will be a call-change competition with the draw at 2.00pm. This will follow the same format as last year’s call-change competition which means that teams do not have represent a single tower and I hope that you will be able to gather teams together to take part in this. If you would like to enter a team into the Call-Change competition, please do let me know by Saturday 21st September. As with last year, there will be a limit of 10 teams able to enter this so please do not leave your entry until the last minute.
The rules for both competitions are available on the KCACR website or following this link: kcacr.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/KCACR-Rules-for-Association-6-bell-competitions-2024.pdf .
Whilst it may be too late to do anything this year, don’t forget that the Heritage Open Days take place between the 6th and 15th September. These have given some towers an excellent way of recruiting new ringers and showing the local community what bellringing is about. To find out more and register your event go to: https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/get-involved.html
Finally, a date for your diary. During the last couple of years, we have held an Association Service at Rochester Cathedral in November. This year, we will be holding an Association Evensong at Canterbury Cathedral on Sunday 17th November. The service begins at 17:30 and all members are invited to attend. More details will follow once the arrangements have been finalised.
Neil Jones
KCACR Chairman