Working with junior bridge may be the best and most fantastic thing you can do. Sometimes your patience will be severely tested, but it will also be very inspiring and fun to see how fast the juniors develop as bridge players.

To be there and be part of a learning process that will lead to a life-long knowledge is a gift. To watch as the “penny drops” when the students suddenly understand the principles behind establishing a suit, finessing, etc., is a wonderful experience. The real reward comes several years later, when your students stand on the podium to receive medals in a championship, with the national anthem in the loudspeakers. The road there is a long one, however, and apart from training, commitment from members, clubs, and juniors themselves is needed.

The progress will be much faster than you are used to, mostly because the junior players that come directly from school are used to learning, and they will often manage to memorise large amounts of information in a very short time. If you add all the energy they bring, you may realise that things will happen, that usually do not at the bridge club. They will make up new words for many things, and revive the older meanings of other concepts, for example, “dummy.”

This material “Bridge – The #1 Mindsport,” is made for you, as an individual member or a club, and it is a manual and a toolbox for helping and inspiring young people to start playing bridge. It does not matter whether it is in school, at a bride club, at home in the kitchen, or anywhere else. The principles are the same, and the same material can be used.

To keep this initiative going, it is very important that we continue to work with both the wide perspective and the top level. We need new talent, and this is also important for bridge in general, to stay alive and well in the future, and not die out is the same pace as its older players are vanishing.

This file consists of eight main chapters. They are general, the junior, the instructor, the school, media, the bridge club, economy, and other things. The hope is that this covers all components needed for successful junior bridge in general and at school in particular.

Good luck with your work for junior bridge. If you have questions, opinions, or if you miss something in this file, please contact me at mme@svenskbridge.se
Please enjoy!

Micke Melander
Manager of the Swedish Bridge Federation
Member of the WBF Youth Committee

PDF Material                           PPT Material                           DOC Material

“Thanks to Micke and the SBF for the great effort on developing new tools for our beloved sport. And a special thanks to Jan-Eric Larsson for translating the material. We’ll continue with new initiatives and we really hope that you will find a complete manual from A to Z on how approach, teach and create interest about Bridge”

Simon Fellus                          Gilad Ofir
WBF Secretary                   WBF Youth Coordinator