The fairy tale continues
Hillary has a daughter, Sugar, who has just finished graduating from university. She is a very intelligent young lady, but rarely sees eye to eye with her mother.Sugar decided she wanted to learn to play bridge, but was determined to do it without her mothers' help. "I will tell you if I need help, meanwhile I am going to the NZCBA website lessons", she said.
After 2 weeks into the lessons Sugar and her friends started practising every evening. After 5 weeks she phoned her mother,
"Why did you not tell me about the 1NT bid first, we have wasted the first 4 weeks opening a suit when sometimes it was a 1NT bid. What a total waste of time " she shouted.
Annoyed, Sugar decided to leave home and live in the big smoke. A keen golfer, she was at the driving range one day when she overheard a guy on his phone talking bridge stuff... "You hold Ace King to four, and dummy holds ....."
Of course it was Donald my favourite imaginary partner. As soon as he finished his call, Sugar went up and introduced herself, explaining how interested she was in bridge, that she had finished both the beginners and improvers lessons, and was hoping to meet some new people in her new location.
Donald had just had a good day at the TAB, and was in rather a good mood. He said, "We might be able to have a game. Do you play Acol? Good, do you play a 5 card Spade suit?" Sugar looked at him blankly and said, " 5 card Spade suit, what do you mean?"
Donald said, "Don't worry we can handle that. Did you learn Standard Count or Reverse Count?" Sugar was now totally confused and stammered, "Count, what's that?"
Donald looked at his phone and said that he had an urgent call to make, but he might get in touch later, and picking up his clubs, off he went, muttering under his breath about golf, racehorses, and NZ bridge teachers.
Meanwhile Sugar was devastated, phoned Hillary, and asked her point blank, "Why are the Bridge Teachers in NZ all teaching different stuff, depending where you go?"
Hillary replied, "I have spent a lot of time putting together my lecture notes and all my PowerPoint projections, I even have a video, all based on the NZCBA website lessons, put together by apparently knowledgable people some who are even on the NZCBA Board. Do you expect me to change all that just because some so called expert who has played internationally says that what we are teaching is incorrect? Get real, Sugar, that is not a conflict of interest, that is what some of us are going to teach, correct or not!"
Sugar put the phone down, tears in her eyes. Maybe she could go and live in another country, like the USA, where a famous politician once said,
"It is far better to discuss the problem and not reach a conclusion, rather than to reach a conclusion without discussing the problem"
Latest Posts on this Thread
- NICK WHITTEN18 Jun 2016 at 05:08PM
Hi Stanley
I'm not quite sure what you are getting at here, but if you are advocating having a universal set of rules to teach everywhere I strongly disagree
Many learners are keen 500 players who see bridge as "the thinking mans 500"
To have to learn a vast number of inflexible rules without any scope for thinking would turn a lot off
NIck Whitten
- STANLEY ABRAHAMS18 Jun 2016 at 06:29PM
Thanks for your reply Nick.
What am I getting at here? Well firstly would it not be nice if when someone goes to a new club, or a new location, that the beginners can team up with new partners without having to relearn the system. If they are really keen, and not all beginners are, then by all means let them learn modifications.
Secondly would it not be logical, as opposed to completely illogical, to teach the 1NT bid first. If you cannot see these 2 points, put yourself in the beginners shoes, its called empathy, something lacking with our teachers. Empathy is not the same as trying to help them, mentor them, give them all the notes, which we all do, its imagining their problems, its putting yourself in their shoes.
Thirdly can you not see that if a 1 Spade bid is 5 or more, 997 out of 1,000 , would that not be simpler to teach?
Fourthly are you suggesting that learning count is an inflexible rule? Let me lead you to Improver Lesson 6, Second and third hand Defensive play, 3c, Hold up play.
"You hold A84, and dummy holds KQJ75 with no entry. When the declarer plays the 10 and then the King, do not play the Ace. Wait until the 3rd round. Declarer will not be able to get to the last 2 winning cards in dummy."
Give 2, save 2, that is the lesson. Why not give one save 4, if partner can show a holding of 3 cards? I would have been happy not to see this in the lessons at all, but once it is there, it is insulting to all teachers who teach count. (In fact to all bridge players.)
Finally I think that there is plenty of scope for thinking, even after the basic rules are learnt. When the best teams in the world play each other, there are hundreds of imps changing hands, and they know the rules.
But thank you for taking the time to reply.
- DAVID MOREL19 Jun 2016 at 03:41PM
Donald is a dolt. When you play with a beginner you ask what the beginner's system is, and you play that.
But I agree with Stanley that starting with 1NT is about ten times better than starting with one level suit bids. I have always started with 1NT but this year decided to run with the standard NZ Bridge sequence, and I won't do it again.
I have enough difficulty getting beginners to think about attitude, let alone count. Keep it simple, make sure they enjoy it, and introduce them to enhancements later.
David Morel
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