[mr1303]

Hi all

At the moment, my bridge has definitely entered a slump. I'm going off in laydown contracts right left and centre, and losing matches to people I'd expect to beat easily.

As a regular partner of mine told me last night, I'm being battered like a cod

A possible excuse may be that I have an awful lot of organisation activities to do at the moment, being publicity officer for my county association, and being chairman for this junior bridge camp that I'm trying to organise next summer.

However, I don't like giving excuses. I want to turn the corner and start playing some decent bridge again.

Any ideas as to how?

Mark

[nickf]

I started playing bridge about the same time as one of my best mates. He is now a regular winner of national bridge events and last year was in the Aust. open team.

I asked him the same question about 7 years ago and his suggestion was to give up bridge for six months and return refreshed.

nickf
sydney

[cherdano]

mr1303, on Aug 1 2006, 10:52 AM, said:

Hi all

At the moment, my bridge has definitely entered a slump. I'm going off in laydown contracts right left and centre, and losing matches to people I'd expect to beat easily.

As a regular partner of mine told me last night, I'm being battered like a cod

A possible excuse may be that I have an awful lot of organisation activities to do at the moment, being publicity officer for my county association, and being chairman for this junior bridge camp that I'm trying to organise next summer.

However, I don't like giving excuses. I want to turn the corner and start playing some decent bridge again.

Any ideas as to how?

Mark

Is it really excuses? To me, giving excuses means giving dishonest reasons. If this stuff is really bothering you at the table, anything else but acknowledging this fact would be dishonest.

[dogsbreath]

hi..
try coaching a beginner or intermediate for a while .. you my find it helps clarify your thought processes as you strive to keep things simple for your p.
Rgds Dog

[MickyB]

Hmm, actually that's what Mark has been doing for a while.

Try not doing it

[SoTired]

after you figure out this one, also figure out how to get a professional athlete out of their slump

Some things that occassionally work for me:
1) stare at each card and say it to yourself
2) play very.... very... slowly... especially when on lead defensively. There is no reward for fast play
3) breathes deeply
4) always play E/W
5) if u r a quiet person, chat enthusiastically with the opps before and after each round.... wish them luck before you pull the cards out the board... thank them after the round for being so nice and friendly
6) if u r a chatty person, be extra quiet... friendly nod only to the opps... look real serious... scare your partner

[Al_U_Card]

Why do you play bridge? For the results and the glory? For the pure pleasure of the play? For the social interaction with your pard? Think about concentrating on what you like about the game and the rest will follow.

[mikeh]

I once quit for almost a full year, but I quit playing, not reading. I quit mostly because I was getting frustrated and irritable rather than because I was playing even worse than usual... I found that I truly enjoyed the game a lot more once I returned.

I also quit serious bridge (and almost all bridge) in 2002 after getting into the same state of mind... I have played some serious bridge in the past 3 years, but now intend to get back to it more next year. During neither of these absences/slowdowns did I ever stop reading.

So my advice echoes other advice posted here: take a break. Whether that is a break from the game altogether or is my kind of break, depends on the individual, but stop playing. Then come back mentally refreshed.

[barmar]

I think getting back to basics can help. This is similar to the suggestion to coach a novice -- it forces you to think about the game from a different perspective. I just read Root's "How to Play a Bridge Hand" -- it's widely considered one of the best bridge books, but somehow I'd missed it (on the other hand I read Watson's "Play of the Hand at Bridge" when I was a beginner -- it was too much too soon and didn't sink in). It was refreshing, and reinforced many techniques I really should know better.

On a related note, there's an article in this month's Scientific American that I'd like to recommend. It's about how experts think and how they become experts. The article mostly uses chess masters in its examples, because of the well-known intellectual and memory feats they perform (e.g. multiple simultaneous blindfolded games), but the general conclusions are applicable to just about any mental endeavor (and bridge is mentioned once in the article, regarding experts' ability to remember past hands). One thing they point out is that experts STUDY, they don't just practice.

[FrancesHinden]

I agree with cherdano. If you are stressed out over other things, you won't play your best bridge. My working life has been very hard and very tiring for the last couple of years, and my bridge results have gone downhill. The two are obviously related.