[sceptic]

Hi all,

I expect you know my standard of bridge ability at the moment as you have seen my posts.

last weekend, I was teaching (yes I realise I am probably not the first choice of many as a teacher) my 15 year old nephew bridge along with his parents

he wishes me to teach him some more. now without wanting to lead him/them up the garden path, how best should I do this, I am trying to persude his parents to let him come on to BBO and join the BIL club for the excellent lessons.

the first lesson I gave them was very basic and I printed some of Karen Walkers pages off for them to read, one of the problems I encountered was, the actually complexity of the first hand, there is just so much to say and so much bad (well considering my own weaknesses) advice I could give.

How do you think I should proceed, he just seems to remember everything I say and the pages he read he has off to pat virtually after one read. he is also very keen and seemed to enjoy it as he kept asking all weekend to just play bridge and talkk about it

[epeeist]

sceptic, on Aug 25 2005, 10:21 AM, said:

Hi all,

I expect you know my standard of bridge ability at the moment as you have seen my posts.

last weekend, I was teaching (yes I realise I am probably not the first choice of many as a teacher) my 15 year old nephew bridge along with his parents

he wishes me to teach him some more. now without wanting to lead him/them up the garden path, how best should I do this, I am trying to persude his parents to let him come on to BBO and join the BIL club for the excellent lessons.

the first lesson I gave them was very basic and I printed some of Karen Walkers pages off for them to read, one of the problems I encountered was, the actually complexity of the first hand, there is just so much to say and so much bad (well considering my own weaknesses) advice I could give.

How do you think I should proceed, he just seems to remember everything I say and the pages he read he has off to pat virtually after one read. he is also very keen and seemed to enjoy it as he kept asking all weekend to just play bridge and talkk about it

What about the free learn to play bridge software? Even if his parents don't want him accessing the Internet unsupervised or whatever, you can download the software and install it -- no connection needed to run it.

Both LTPB 1 and 2 are excellent, and focus first on the play of the cards, before dealing with bidding.

[ArcLight]

The problem with BIL is they may teach some conventions and bidding tricks, without teaching any card play.
A beginner needs to learn some card play basics, and a rudimentary bidding system. I see people with Jacoby 2NT, Inverted Minors, etc. on their card who can't even make a limit raise or take out double correctly.

Be careful not to overwhelm a new player.

Assuming he's smart and motivated:

1) Software
a) Bridge Master (for a beginner up to level 3)
b) Mike Lawrences Counting at Bridge #1
c) Mike Lawrences Counting at Bridge #2
d) Mike Lawrences Private Lessons #1
e) Mike Lawrences Private Lessons #2
f) Mike Lawrences Defense



2) through reading books. Start with the fundamentals.
Declarer play:
- Winning Declarer Play - Dorothy Hayden Truscott [Fun, easy reading]
- How to Play a Bridge Hand - Bill Root [lots of examples and tests]

- there are a whole bunch of nice beginner books by david Bird & Marc Smith . The ones by Bird and Bourke are also nice but a bit more advanced.

I would NOT suggest Watsons Play of the Hand at the beginning. Let him get started on the others first. Besides I much prefer Mollos Bridge Play Technique.


Defense:
How to defend a Bridge Hand - Bill Root [lots of tests]

The Kantar books (Modern and Advanced) Bridge defense are good, but more difficult.


The hardest part will be teaching him a bare bones bidding system. Use only Stayman, takeout doubles, and Blackwood. Later add Negative doubles. KISS.

Freds Learn to Play Bridge on the acbl website is very good for Standard American, but it will take a while to get through that. Thats where you can add value, bringing him up to speed, and answering questions.

You are in the UK, perhaps Acol might be a better choice?

Keep it simple.

[epeeist]

Once the basics are learned, some less instructional, but fun, bridge books might foster continued interest.

I know I read, and enjoyed, Victor Mollo's "Bridge in the Menagerie" books long before I could fully appreciate everything (I still can't appreciate ALL the nuances of play ); the books were entertaining enough that I was motivated to figure out how e.g. squeezes and endplays and such worked. A merely instructional book would not have held my interest in the same way. But I had to know the basics of play first. Similarly with a number of David Bird's books -- the Abbot, Robin Hood, etc.

[pigpenz]

yes Read and read.

Like Watsons play of the hand, something that alot of bridge players could brush up now and then

[hrothgar]

Much as I love bidding theory, I think that the place to start is decalrer play and defense. If a player can't identify what the right contract is, all the bididng tools in the world aren't going to help him.

Start with Bridge Master
Supplement this with a game like mini-bridge

If he's sustains his interest, you can start worrying about bididng

[pclayton]

Yeah like Justin sez, read and read some more.

If he is to become a good player, it must come from him, and his own desire.

Nice job getting another into this game though.

[luke warm]

i'd have trouble teaching someone also, so i'd probably give them fred's htpb 1 and 2 and tell them to ask when they had questions

[shoeless]

Wayne - the WBF and ACBL sites have good teaching resources available.

[shoeless]

Sorry guess some links would be helpful:

http://www.wbfteaching.org/
http://www.bridgeiscool.com/
and you might go into BBO>Explore Bridge>Learn to PLay Bridge

[QuiteACard]

Audrey Grant's ACBL series (especially the first three books) are great for beginners.