For the last 32 years I have been teaching people to play bridge and have
taught over 6000 courses. Over this period I have picked up ideas on teaching
certain subjects with visual aids, mnemonics, and of course innuendo the most
important element of teaching adults!!
I would like to use this page as a forum for teachers like myself to offer
tips on teaching to help their students to absorb this most prestigious of card
games.
suit establishment(by
Harold Schogger) In order to teach suit establishment the key is to use a pack
of cards at the table. The students extract just ONE SUIT and dishes
out the suit as follows
762
85
J109
AKQ54
Show that initially there are only three tricks for North South but as the
suit plays 3 more tricks develop.
762
AK9
83
QJ1054
Show that initially there are NO TRICKS but then after the Ace has gone 5
further tricks will eventually be made. .
The key is to use ONLY ONE SUIT per table, leaving the other 39 cards
aside.
entries (by Harold Schogger)
The biggest problem with new players is that they want to play off all their
high cards and then they run out of steam. This time we must use all fifty two
cards, which are dished out in equal shares (13 each if you please) and the
students are asked to throw into the middle of the table the cards that they
think are entries. ie ACES, KINGS ands QUEENS. (not small cards) These cards
are then shown to be the most important cards and are NOT TO BE SQUANDERED.
EMPHASIZE that there are indeed 3 types of entry
card to enable you to go from dummy to hand
card to enable you to go from hand to dummy
card that allows you to regain the initiative from the opponents.
It is all well and good establishing a suit. If you can't get back into
the game because you have squandered all your other high cards then you
will have to give up !!
LEADING PARTNER'S SUIT(by Harold Schogger) A lot of students seem to learn
from the cradle that you lead the 4th highest card of your longest suit
regardless. This rule is OK used SPARINGLY and in the right place. The
emphasis should definitely be laid on LEADING PARTNER'S SUIT IN ALL
SITUATIONS AGAINST SUIT CONTRACTS AND ESPECIALLY AGAINST NO TRUMP
CONTRACTS
Before commencing the lesson ask the students to guess what
ALPS might stand for
ALPS stands for ALWAYS LEAD PARTNER'S SUIT
One group I taught some years ago decided that it might stand
for Always leave partner in the Shit. This can be used to prove that
if you don't lead your partner's suit you will indeed be in the shit.
One group of Singles suggested it might stand for Always Leave
Partner Satisfied. This particular idea really appealed and works very
well at the bridge table if you have led your partner's suit.
THE THOUGHTS OF CHAIRMAN DECLARER(by Harold Schogger)
After the dummy has been exposed students should be encouraged to stop
and think it through. However this is not as easy as it sounds and most
inexperienced students won't have a clue as to what they should be thinking
about. Therefore the following well known phrase (or saying) should be
committed to memory with the appropriate tag:-
WE winners
LOVE losers
EVERYONE entries
PASSIONATELY points
FOR finessing
DOING drawing trumps
RIGHT ruffing ??
EVERY TIME establishment of suits
Alternatively students can make up their own mnemonics and they may come
up with WELFRED for above or one group (when it was topical) came up with the
following :
We Loathe Edwina Passionately For Damming Rotten Eggs
BRIDGE AND SEX
by Harold Schogger
Anywhere that you can introduce sex into a teaching point will help
students to remember the item.
A good example of this is teaching about a
GAME FORCING OPENING BID by telling your students that "IF YOU WISH TO
AROUSE YOUR PARTNER TO GO ALL THE WAY (to game)" then you open 2C.
After many years of teaching this notion to my students one student
suggested that the 2D bid was a means of saying "I'VE GOT A HEADACHE!!"
Also at this stage you might like to
EMPHASIZE THAT THE F WORD in bridge is FORCING
(this always gets a chuckle)
If you would like to contribute to this page you can E-Mail me your ideas
and I will be delighted to publish them on this page with a credit.
