Bridge Coach vs Teacher vs Mentor
Last couple of years, I am seeing bridge players, specifically in Indian Bridge circuit, getting stagnated, I have been speaking to quite a few top players who all more or less share the same opinion. We, the Indian Bridge players, have the right talent to perform well at the top level of Bridge, but lack a structured approach to how to achieve it.
I am planning to write this series “Joy’s Corner” to elaborate on this topic. Today’s article is based on 3 important roles who help us learn, develop and improve in our game
Bridge Teacher
This is the foundation. If introduced the right way, bridge learning can be fun. A good teacher is the one who knows how to introduce the subject so that your foundations are strong. They are essential during the initial 6 months of learning bridge. A good teacher gets you “hooked”
Mentor
After getting introduced, for you to improve your game, you need a mentor. This person, patiently, helps you improve your game. They normally play with you in BBO or in real life. If you get a right mentor, your game can really improve quickly. Normally, this can be anywhere from 6 months to 2 years.
Partner
Once you have got the basics cleared, enough exposure to play live tournament bridge, it is time for you to find a partner with whom you can play long term. This is where you really start planning for long term. Finding a good partner is actually VERY difficult. It is far beyond individual bridge skills. I have found that the following areas which play part for successful bridge partnership
- Bridge Goals
- Style
- Temperament at the table
- Overall emotional quotient
- Financial status of both partners – more or less should be from same socio – economic background
- And most importantly – similar education level
Coach
Once you have developed a stable partnership, have been producing results, but are getting stagnated in your bridge career, time to see if you can get a coach. Coach DOES NOT teach you bridge, he focuses on fine tuning your partnership. He works on the interpersonal issue. Looks at areas of improvement for the partnership and focuses on how to rectify partnership problems. He focuses on your ability to conserve energy for long term tournament, perform optimally, constant training and constant evaluation.
More on it later …. And lets all make BridgeDuniya a place where we can express ourselves
thank you…looking forward to read more…from Pakistan
If you have any suggestion on what you want to see, please post it here. Will be delighted to write.
Very nice! Looking forward to learn more from you at Delhi…
Smita
Me too. It will be fun meeting you all at the workshop
Almost exactly on same topic and same title , I had written an article on occasion of the 2015 B’lore summer nationals .
Will be happy to share the same here .
Please do. This is one of the often neglected area of Bridge and people have slowly started realizing the need for a coach to perform at the highest level
Joyjit , that article of mine is mainly about teaching and mentoring but coaching is only briefly mentioned . May be, because partnership coaching has been practically non existent in Indian bridge ( just like appointing a good NPC during international campaigns – Ironically , multiple world champion Nickell always has both coach and NPC ) . Also the article touches upon Youth Bridge issue .
You want me to still post it here ? I can just mail it to you first ……
Please post it here. More discussion we have on this topic, more useful it will be for advancing players
Good beginning is half done, they say :). And this corner is only a beginning. Hoping to learn a lot and enjoy more and more from joy’s corner. Please continue the good work.
Thanks Mohan. Would be interested to get some thoughts from people around what they would like to see.
Joyjit, you have made a very important and accurate distinction in highlighting the difference between a bridge teacher, mentor and a coach. Not many great teachers of bridge understand this.The three are as different as chalk, cheese and Mars. Are bridge coaches found on earth ? 🙂
Serious question. I am looking for one.
Regards,
TJ
Glad you liked the topic. I am pretty sure that there are quite a few people who are capable of being a good coach. This is a very specialized job and like any other sports can improve performance of a team. The challenge is not in finding the right coach, the challenge is for bridge players to realize they need a coach. I have been recently coaching one of the top teams in India who has shown the willingness to continue.
Would love it if you could share your coaching methodology on my email id.
Thanx.
TJ
Would love it if you could share your coaching methodology on my email id.
Thanx.
TJ
While my framework is a work in progress, it starts with understanding the current level of the partnership. I am copy-pasting the highlights that one of the pair wrote about my methodology:
”
I must emphasize that he is not teaching bridge – the first principle is we, the players, are the experts – he has created specific exercises to:
Streamline, document and standardize our system, agreements, meta-rules
Defining roles for various players in the team (aggressive/defensive etc)
Team expectation from players in various scenarios
Identifying areas of weakness (competitive high level auctions, forcing pass scenarios etc)
Work targeted at area of weakness
Preparedness for specific situations (strategy for when leading/trailing, strong opposition/weak opposition etc)
Discrepancies in approach of two partners in a specific set of hands/auctions
Identifying partner’s tendencies in certain scenario (aggressive here so better apply breaks etc)
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