logo DEVON BRIDGE ASSOCIATION
The home of Bridge in Devon
EBU logo
Menu

Reflections on Running a Fast Track Bridge Course

They crept in, Ann, Denise, Jean, Jewel, Margaret, Philip, Reg and Roger, eight brave souls who were ready for a five-day intensive course over two weeks. They ranged in ages from late forties to mid-eighties with a mix of card playing backgrounds: never played cards; friends tried to teach them; had some lessons on a cruise; played a long time ago.Reflections on running a Fast Track Bridge Course A year ago, we went with other Devon teachers to Bristol for the Fast Track launch. None of us were convinced it would work, but still we bought the book! Just two months ago, we were approached by Newton Abbot Bridge Club who had beginners keen to learn the game. The committee asked if it was feasible to try this new scheme. My co-tutor Maureen and I agreed to give it a go. We set about working out how we would run this course by ploughing through the workbook in conjunction with the teachers’ notes.

 

Day one started gently with three hours of mini bridge. Then they reckoned that they could cope with five hours so on day two, we introduced them to bidding 1NT and responses. Days three and four (6 hours each) covered unbalanced hands and competitive bidding. Day five (5 hours) a quick refresher then a whizz through – Stayman, opening three weak two’s and how to bid very strong hands – all tools which we felt were essential if they were to play in the club’s Tuesday night no fear duplicate session. All the students enjoyed the course but like us they found 25 hours of learning bridge exhausting.

We found that there was an enormous amount of preparation work to be done even though we are both qualified tutors with nearly 10 years teaching both beginners and improvers in a variety of settings. In all we probably did around 40 hours preparing lesson plans. The option was open to us of doing nothing other than following the training manual and teacher’s notes. Had we done this, our time spent could probably have been halved. However, we decided that we should be more innovative and bring the course into the 21st century.

We set up a teaching channel on No Fear Bridge courtesy of Leigh Harding who gave our students the same deal as available to all registered teachers. We went through all the relevant tutorials on No Fear, then selected the most appropriate and sometimes told our students to stop at slide x or y. The same with the No Fear notes and exercises. So, there was a lot of homework! And impressively, they generally did it. Otherwise the quizzes, notes and hands were a mixture of the Fast Track play hands and our own which had worked well over the years.

What we did find in practice was that the lesson plan timings in the teachers’ notes were too optimistic – it generally took twice the time because we had to deal with questions and repeat the explanations. We got the points across using the large cards to illustrate different examples. Even if we had not spent so long demonstrating it would still have been impossible to cover all the exercises in the book. As the students bid and played each hand we then got them to turn the cards over, so we could look at the bidding and go through the play and defence. This of course also took time.

On the final day, Betty Golding, Chair at Newton Abbot Bridge Club and Bob Devine who has vast experience of running the club No Fear duplicate evening, came along with some fizz to welcome the students. Bob reassured them that they would be able to play and that help would be available. To further encourage the students, all were given four free vouchers for Tuesday nights. I’m sure that most will become regular duplicate players. Some are friends with club members and they all know that they will be welcomed into this friendly bridge community.

What we learnt:

  • It has made us think again about how we will deliver sessions during a normal term.
  • Detailed preparation is even more vital for a whole day course.
  • Less death by PowerPoint,
  • Using the big cards to display hands works much better coupled with writing on flip charts.

Your local bridge club must have a facility to ease in new players If time is short, then the best thing is just to get the players bidding some hands, then turn them over to check that the bidding is correct. This way students start to understand the different No Trump responses and overcalls according to their positions around the table.

Would we run this course again? Quite simply yes. Eight is probably a good number if they have internet access and are willing to do homework. For us the only problem must be finding the time and energy to run an intensive course - and remembering to bring chocolate biscuits!

Jean Harrison
August 2018