Develop member skills

Why

You’ve got a bridge club and everyone is playing an enjoyable weekly game of duplicate bridge. You might be asking why you should bother with a program to develop your players’ skills. It is better for players brains, it improves their ability against other players and increased enjoyment.

Bridge for brains

Bridge is called a mind sport with good reason. For young and old it provides brain exercise.

For the older players, the research on dimentia is that learning new skills helps delay the progress of the condition. Learning bridge is a first step. But studying bridge and improving your game will have a greater impact than just playing.

For youth bridge teaches logical thinking, patience and concentration. On top of which, and where it is superior to chess, you learn how to work as a partnership.

Competitiveness

Even the most social of players gets a kick out of doing better. Players in your club might like to increase their competitiveness against other players in your club.

This might be new players wanting to challenge the established players, or just jostling for position between players of similar experience. Every player has their own competitive benchmark they next want to meet. As a club your role is to let players identify these goals and provide development opportunities.

Enjoyment

Ultimately, people play bridge for enjoyment. The game can rapidly become unenjoyable if you are regularly taking a drubbing. Enjoyment can be increased by developing players.

It can also be increased by increasing the variety of sessions you play at the club. In a teams event or swiss pairs a win or two even comes with masterpoints.

Always remember that people do things for their reasons not yours, so put a high priority on understanding what brings joy to your club members – and that not everyone is the same.

How

Bridge involves three fundamental skills: bidding, declarer play and defensive play. Too often player development focuses on bidding.

One senior bridge player has observed that many players concentrate on adding more gadgets to their bidding system that get them into more marginal contracts that they don’t have the skill to play. Another has noted that the most notable change from playing in restricted tournaments to open tournaments isn’t the auction, it is the play. We think the four important aspects to player development are planning, reading, courses and revision/practice.

Planning

Ultimately, player development is up to individuals and developing partnership understandings. However, clubs can and should play an important role. The first is encouraging players to develop their own development plan.

How that plan is structured is up to the player. One of Australia’s most successful players, Paul Lavings, reveals in this news clip that his approach has been to focus on one aspect of his game for six months, as he says “reading, watching people but focusing on my weakest area.”

Certainly for new beginners the club should have a curriculum of proposed development oppotunities for players. The role of the club in all cases is to make development opportunities available.

Reading

Many bridge books have been written. These start with series by authors designed to provide a curriculum from beginner to advanced players. The books by Derrick Browne and Paul Marston fit into this category. There are then other books that focus on specific aspects of bidding or play, plus various compendiums of systems.

How you should develop your bidding depends on your preferences and those of your partner. Additionally you might like to learn the systems that you encounter most often. A good example is the multi 2 diamonds. Understanding this bid helps you decide how to contest the auction against it.

No matter how small, your club should maintain a library of useful books. Paul Lanings Bridgegear and The Bridge Shop provide a wide range of books.

Courses

Bridge courses come in many varieties. They range from online courses, bespoke courses put on by clubs and top-end courses combined with bridge holidays such as those provided by Andy Hung.

Just like reading it is important to choose courses that develop all three bridge skills.  Bridge NSW publishes in Bridging NSW flyers for courses we are provided with. We also maintain a list of upcoming courses we have been notified about on this website.

If your club identifies a need for a course, the chances are that other clubs nearby see the same need. If you need help identifying suitable instructors or with organising a course please contact education@bridgensw.com.au.

Hand revision

Hand revision is the staple of every bridge column, magazine or book. Having someone at your club running hand revision sessions gives players this opportunity with hands they have played. Revision can occur at the end of a session, maybe with refreshments. It can be done before next week’s session or it can appear in the newsletter.

Even if you don’t organise revision sessions regularly, remind members of the facilities you provide for self revision.