[Laird]

Hello Everyone

Logic, Visualisation and Emotion

In sport these are some of the key ingredients regarding the successful motivation of athletes and sportsmen.
I wondered to what extent similar principles prevailed in Bridge?
Is it really a balance of the three ingredients that determine whether or not a successful outcome will take place?

Logic...what system is best for you...natural/ scientific. To what extent are opponents likely to interfere with your assessment?

Visualisation... to what extent do you see or are allowed to see the line that should be taken?

Emotion... is this not the area that really needs to be under control?

Convince by logic....move by emotion!

Blinded by Science!   Bull Sh.. baffles brains! Are these emotional outbursts or something based on experience.
Ah yes! ... experience .... this too must surely be taken into such an equation.  :-/

I am assuming the absence of drugs and booze  

Kind regards

John

[Laird]

Hey Laird.... You been tippling your national drink again?

Bridge and sport... next you'll be telling me bridge could be an olympic event!

Can you imagine the headlines...' UK and USA teams seen carrying out their pre - session training.....pumping iron, deep breathing and three laps of the block'... Come on, you and I know that the average age at the bridge table makes that unlikely. Hip replacements and cheap supplies of viagra are more likely to be the topics of conversation.
Booze and Drugs! You must be joking, thats when the best contracts are made, under such influences...even at the recent  vugraph presentation the Brazilians are reputed to have had a smoke break....  
Mind you if the bridge players at the olympics had to play as the original Greeks did it may be something worth seeing!

Is that right Laird, Bridge an olympic event?
I don't know, can't really imagine so, after all Bridge is purely an intellectual activiity!

[JRG]

Hmmm. Talking to yourself again?

Despite your playing Devil's Advocate with your own question, I think it is true that Logic, Visualization, and Emotion play a very large role in successful bridge.

Keeping one's emotions under control is important. It is one of my failings that emotion often clouds my ability to use logic and to visualize. By the way, I think "logic" and "visualization" are very similar (is visualization simply some kind of "intuitive logic"?).

Logic comes into play in the bidding and play - what does partner hold for his bids? what does an opponent have for his? How are the cards distributed? and so on. Visualization - it seems obvious, given some of the exploits of top bridge players, that some people can visualize a hand (sometimes even during the bidding) much better than others. These people are superior bridge players.

Emotion? Well, as I mentioned, I don't have that control to the degree I would like and I know it affects my results - overbidding when an opponent preempts is a good example. That is one I see all the time when kibitzing. I suppose the handmaiden of emotion is psychology. It seems to me that psychology, perhaps "playing on people's emotions", plays a large role in bridge.

[the hog]

"Can you imagine the headlines...' UK and USA teams seen carrying out their pre - session training.....pumping iron, deep breathing and three laps of the block'... Come on, you and I know that the average age at the bridge table makes that unlikely."

Now the Hackett twins pumping iron and running around the block - that I'd like to see. (Perhaps not!)

[Cave_Draco]

Seems a touch gender biased?

I'm sure we've all encountered "Little Old Ladies" who play like world champions,  .

The two methods we use are logic & visualisation & control of emotion...

The three methods...  lol.

[Laird]

Sorry Cave_Draco about the unintentional gender faux pas...
Yes indeed!   I have been mugged frequently by 'Little Old Ladies' and I might add by 'Kindly Old Gentlemen'.
'Three down, doubled and O'h! You were vulnerable... what a shame'.
Geriatric assassins!    You can spot them but you have to be mean .... ignore the smiles, the complaints about aching backs and the shaky hands. Its in the eyes, bright, clear, all seeing, all knowing and of course they come in all nationalities!
Thats the disadvantage of online bridge you never really know who you are playing and cannot rely on such clues. However all is not lost, when you suddenly start to lose regularly you can be pretty sure you have been trapped by one of them - or even worse, perhaps a pair.
Leave as soon as you can, certainly before the score reaches (-45 imps), you never know what untold damage to your ego will ensue!  

John

[Laird]

Well! ' I don,t believe it'
... it seems that Duplicate Bridge is now likely to become a fully fledged Olympic sport in time for the Turin 2006 winter olympics...WBF will need to adopt the Olympic Charter, accept the Court of Arbitration as well as the anti - doping regulations.

The 'Mind Sport of Duplicate Bridge'....'Mind Sport'!..now appreciates the importance of physical preparation as does the Physical sports area appreciate the importance of mental preparation.

We all, I'm sure, smiled at the mental picture conjured up by The_Hog when he suggested the possibility of the Hacket twins pumping iron and running round the block ..... However all of a sudden it seems to me that Logic, Visualisation and Emotion, important motivation factors to be considered in Physical sport may be equally valid for Mind sport.
John Goold recognised that they do have an important role to play but I,m not sure about his phrase of visualisation being some kind of 'intuitive logic'. If you can accept Logic as being 'the discrimination between true and false' and intuition as being some kind of 'immediate insight or perception of a truth'(Collin's). Then in this instance we are talking more about the use of techniques to improve the individuals motivation.
Fred's 2000 Bridge program is a excellent example  of what I mean... you are struggling along with say a level 1 problem and no matter how hard you try its impossible. You finally use the wee film and it shows you visually step by step the solution. By copying these steps you find that you too can do it. Not only that but by adopting the same principles to tackle similar problems you have equal success. Its up to you now to try to create a personal mental picture of these successes for use at the bridge table - Fred also uses additional visual/auditory stimulus to further motivate you. Who can fail to be lifted by the triumphant fan fare and pictures of Jaggy, Auken or Fred himself as you finally find a successful outcome.
For Acol players I can also recommend this program 'Acol bidding with Bernard Magee' where similar techniques are applied but with a rather nice British ( ok English ) slant to it.  

Ok everyone...sit up... lets start.... deap breathing first,followed by gentle running on the spot and then off to the pub for a pint ... there you can now claim to be a Bridge sportsman or sportswoman.

[hrothgar]

"  ... it seems that Duplicate Bridge is now likely to become a fully fledged Olympic sport in time for the Turin 2006 winter olympics...WBF will need to adopt the Olympic Charter, accept the Court of Arbitration as well as the anti - doping regulations. "

My understanding is that the lobbying efforts to include bridge as an Olympic sport suffered a severe setback when the President of the World Olympic Committee stepped down and was replaced by an individual much more skeptical about including "Mind Sports" as part of Olympic competition.

I had hoped that this effort had died a quiet and ignomious death.  Is there any evidence to suggest that this is being seriously contemplated once again?