New Club for Juniors Announcement!

[bglover]

ANNOUNCING JR FLIGHT TO HELP PROMOTE YOUTH BRIDGE AROUND THE WORLD!

 

In an effort to bring bridge to a greater segment of the world's youth, TopFlight is announcing an exciting new venture-- Junior Flight.

 

Junior Flight is meant as a means to bring more young people to the game we all know and love. We hope that Junior Flight will bring together all levels of junior players and will foster an environment of comraderie and competition where all young play can learn and thrive.

 

We have a lot of exciting plans, but first and foremost we need to spread the word to any younger players who would be intersted in this new club. We are open to all players 28 and younger (yes we know that is slightly older than the WBF age) and encourage all who qualify who are intersted to contact us.

 

Please contact Spwdo, Ecepal, 2over1, TopFlight or Jr Flight if you see them online to be added to the list!

[vincenzo]

We are doing the same as BBOITA. Giuseppe (my son - 13 years old - nick name Giuseppe) has collected a list with more than 100 junior bbo members. He plays in italian national youth team (under 20) and would like to make some training before european chanpionship (Praga - 1-11 August).

 

Send email to info@bridgebase.it to organize together some tournaments for Junior bbo members.

 

Vincenzo

[bglover]

Sounds good Vincenzo.. We already have almost 40 people signed up for our group and expect to get started very soon.

 

I think some inter-club matches could be a lot of fun once we get everything organized! Be in contact soon!

[aisha759]

Hi Stevie :lol:

Thought more than twice before posting this.. (not trying to be an expert poster by any means)

You have come up with another brilliant idea! I wish i were a junior, is 29 ok?

On a more serious note, I wish you, Ececim, and Marc the best of luck; you have made a good team; Marc (spwdo) is very enthousiastic about this... good choice!!

Maybe one day, you can start a club for serious bridge players like me , who want to improve, but youth ain't on their side (meaning over 30 at least ) ;) Topfllight friends is one of them (but still not a club.... per se)

You have a lot of expert support, and to add to it, your friends support you also...

Aisha♥

[mr1303]

Is this club actually going to play some bridge? I notice that there is another junior club (private club) on BBO, which I joined, and haven't received a word from since.

 

Being a regular on the UK university circuit, I know of plenty of people who would be interested in joining. I would also like to volunteer to direct if necessary.

 

Mark

 

(I'm only 21)

[inquiry]

Is this club actually going to play some bridge? I notice that there is another junior club (private club) on BBO, which I joined, and haven't received a word from since.

 

Being a regular on the UK university circuit, I know of plenty of people who would be interested in joining. I would also like to volunteer to direct if necessary.

 

Mark

 

(I'm only 21)

Hi mark.. I can't speak for when the club will play bridge, but you nned to understand the concept of critical mass. For a club to work, it has to have enough members who are on line at the same time to form a tourment, or at least team matches. A workable club requires somehthing like a minimum of 150 active members to have even a shot at having enough people on line at the same time. Once you get that critical mass, so you can schedule events, then more people will join the club to join the fun... So for this club or another one, it is necessary to do some lobbying to get members to join and when join to play...

 

You could help both junior clubs by working to sign other up... Do you think 52 is young enough to join? If so count me in... :-) and if not, hey is this age discrimination. lol

 

ben

[bglover]

I admit it Ben, we almost set the age at 51 just to ensure you would be excluded!

 

In all seriousness, we have had a great response so far and hope tomorrow to stage our first team match at 13:00 EST to generate some interest in the club! We think it will be a smashing success once word gets out what we are doing.

 

We've been in contact with junior team bridge coaches of several nations already, have had others who work with juniors come to us to help see this succeed. The initial response (this idea is only 5 days old as of this writing) has been beyond our expectations.

 

Like TopFlight, if it is a good idea, it will work. If it's a good idea it will generate even more interest in quality bridge for younger players. It has the potential to offer these young players something unique within the online world.

 

Yes, we are open to all skill levels. We realize there are wide differences in abilities here and plan to address that with strong mentoring programs and other types of educational things. We want to involve the entire bridge community in our mission to help, inform and educatedyounger players. By doing this (as word spreads) we hope new players hear of our venture and come to BBO to be a part of Junior Flight. We think down the road this will surely happen.

 

If we do our job right, we think Junior Flight will succeed as being a force in bringing now, young players to the game and create a new "buzz" for the game. Everyone's support in helping youths discover our wonderful game is appreciated.

 

If you're not a youth but are reading this, tell your kids or grandkids! The more the merrier!

[keylime]

I hope it takes off in a hurry - we have fortunate to be part of the tour de force (new favorite phrase, work with me) that TopFlight is becoming. Too bad I'm not a junior anymore, but at least I will come out and watch the matches. Pard and I are eager to see our fellow Canadians.

[csdenmark]

ANNOUNCING JR FLIGHT TO HELP PROMOTE YOUTH BRIDGE AROUND THE WORLD!

 

An initiative really worth welcoming! - I wish you very much luck with this initiative.

[spwdo]

hi,

 

think we all saw /heard what happened, i just sign in to bbo recieved a message. register for tourney memorial steve/ece???? I m very sorry but i cant run Junior flight not without them togheter whith hosting bridge too far/matterhorn and so on so unless their is a way to let both of them get back on thier disision i see no possible way of proceeding as planned :(

 

 

 

marc

spwdo

[hallway]

I have been somewhat pre-occupied the past few days and had not seen this thread.

 

FANTASTIC initiative !!

 

I will spread the word amongst my members - I have quite a few Juniors from age 10 up.

 

You MUST NOT give it away now - if this Aged Void can resist hitting the Remove Club button twice (yes it does ask !!) then so must you two.

[Free]

Yeah, I wouldn't like it if the club would go away... I like to play with young guns (like me ;) ), but I just don't find them very easy.

[spwdo]

hi,

 

 

i get a lot of questions when jr flight is going to start, well, we need some things.

 

 

Off course a private room, i applied for it a couple of weeks ago.No asnwer sofar

we need the private room off course for lessons/mentoring/playing amoungst juniors/ hold meetings to get ideas and hear what juniors want themselves.

 

steve and ece are on a break/vacation but we are still signing up players so contact jr flight/topflight for junior sign ups.

 

 

 

jr flight

[mishovnbg]

Great idea Steve&Ece!

 

Lack of young people in our beloved game is global problem. I hope that your new club will help to make it more attractive for lot of young people, because they will have a place where to meet similar souls, like BIL.

Successful flight young pilots!

 

Misho

[the saint]

Hi all,

 

I help coach the England U'20s and I hope to be dragging them all in to play practice matches in the junior club against foreign teams. As I'm stillonly 28, I believe I still qualify to play in the club too!! Bonus!

 

Alan

[uday]

marc, FG is away. Send an other email to fred after monday about creating the club and he'll see it.

[spwdo]

hi,

 

thx uday, i m in contact with fred now, things look promising.

 

Happy to announce we JUNIOR FLIGHT is hosting its first all junior tourney today (tuesday 27/4/2004) 13.30(new york) 19.30(rome/paris/bruxelles) 18.30 (london)

 

 

 

Last sunday bbo_ita hosted their first all junior tourney, we exchanging juniorslist so we getting close to a large enough group to really start and get things going,

 

 

I want to thank all juniors off course for signing up, all the support from others(those who volunteerd for mentorship/lesons and so on).

 

Finally i want to share a letter that i recieved on our hotmailaccount, i think this letter says what juniorflight is all about and why and for who we are doing this.

 

Dear Jr. Flight,

I have three sons, ages 13,11 and 8. They are all interested in learning bridge and are currently playing at the beginner level. Please send information on how they can participate in your Jr. Flight offerings.

 

Thank you!

Toni

 

 

 

spwdo&jr flight

[spwdo]

hi,

 

JUNIOR FLIGHT wants to thank edmunte(romanian junior coach)&steve for commenting the hands beeing played in our second tourney today.

 

 

Secondly i want to thank Ben(inquiry) for supporting us and answering on private questions

 

 

thierry(shaggth for working on those deals)&steve/ece for directing

 

 

last but not least i want to thank ariakas(our secretary&juniormember) who does all the hard work behind the screens(not always noticed im sure but oh so needed)

 

 

some numbers, members are over 140 now, 4 tables played today, +14 juniors came to follow comments after, a small start i hope will result i hope in a staedy grow of members

 

More and other events are coming

 

 

jr flight

spwdo

[hallway]

From Acorns do Oak trees grow Marc :-)

[jillybean]

I am enjoying kibitzing the Junior Flight tournaments, unfortunately I am “too old” to join the club which excludes me from the hand analysis afterwards.

 

Would you consider opening the club to people in a strictly kibitzer only capacity so us oldies :) can benefit from the analysis also?

(I don’t know if this is even possible)

 

Thanks & good luck with Junior Flight.

[spwdo]

I am enjoying kibitzing the Junior Flight tournaments, unfortunately I am “too old” to join the club which excludes me from the hand analysis afterwards.

 

Would you consider opening the club to people in a strictly kibitzer only capacity so us oldies :) can benefit from the analysis also?

(I don’t know if this is even possible)

 

Thanks & good luck with Junior Flight.

hi jilly

 

Thx for enjoying to watch our tourneys, im sorry to have to decline on your request( i get those a lot), we want to keep the private room restrict to juniors/coaches/teachers/mentors .Software doesnt have possibilty to lets say make someone kibitzer member, its all or nothing sofar.

 

However we do try to provide regularly comments from experts also during the game, so any star on bbo willing to do that is most welcome on our weekly tournament to kibitz and comment on hands in play.Some deeper analysis/commenting& asnwering all juniors question is done after.

 

Membership is growing fairly good, so we hoping we can provide our first lessons very soon, maybe some excellent players willing to help out (let us know)and mentor some juniors are most welcome too.

 

From today tourney i can provide a link where u can find an excellent lesson/comment about discipline in bridge( thx michael lucy for providing hands today and webpage)

 

http://4.14.62.98/HelenOnlineBI/discipline.htm

 

Wanna thank also rich(reisig) and icey for the fun and good analysis after the tourney today,

 

Thx a lot to all who make junior flight take his/her first steps, maybe some day we ready to fly, but only with your help .

 

THANK YOU

 

JR FLIGHT

[Free]

Perhaps someone can post hands on the forum with a little analyse so all forum members can enjoy this? ;)

[Mr_Sock]

The discussion on discipline is quite interesting, but i think it ignores table presence completely (ok more important for F2F than on BBO). I also think it oversimplifies the idea of a "percentage action". I am sure we could generate deals where the % action is different if you are playing against the Rabbit than against the Hog. Victor Mollo's book is full of such discussions. It follows that i may have a different idea of the % action if i rate my opponents as Rabbit+Toucan, while my p rates the same opponents as Secretary Bird+Walrus.

 

It also makes an assumption about the difference in 'utility' (as in game theory) of good, average or bad results. As an example, a few days ago I played in a slam which my LHO had doubled. Fearing that my LHO had all the outstanding HCP, i took a line which allowed for this, and went off ... it turns out that this particular LHO always doubles a slam when he has one trick (as he told me later). I'm not sure whether or not he should have alerted this double. But i think the mere fact that he doubles a slam with one trick is anti-percentage, at MPs. His explanation was that he is happy to play anti-percentage in a 10-board MP tournament, because he is only interested in winning. To him, the difference between 1st and 2nd place (say 60% and 55%) was far greater than the difference between 50% and 45%.

 

One final point (from article):

The most successful players understand the above [taking the % action] and exercise the power of judgment, discipline and percentage action.

has anyone told Zia? ;)

[spwdo]

Perhaps someone can post hands on the forum with a little analyse so all forum members can enjoy this? ;)

hi free,

 

Maybe a forumplace regarding everthing that concerns juniors and interested parties is a thing to consider.

 

Maybe atracts some of these younsters that way to the forum, and get to know what they think/need and so on.

 

those behind this idea let it know here and add your comments, if we coud get some space i woud be happy to post played hands(leaving the analisys to others) amoung other topics in there .

 

 

Regards junior flight

[aisha759]

Marc hi :)

Who is Helen?Does she really exist, and if not, what is helenonline?I am really curious....... im not a junior, im not a senior (yet) phewwwww.... Gl with Jrflight, great idea, I wish you started that centuries ago, i may have qualified :rolleyes: