February 20, 2025 • 50 mins
Join Chris Kustanbauter on this special episode of the Live Parkinson's - Live an Exceptional Life podcast as he explores the surprising benefits of bridge for brain health. Chris interviews Brian from thebridgeteachers.com to delve into how this strategic card game can be a powerful tool for maintaining and even improving cognitive function, especially for those living with Parkinson's disease.
Discover how the engaging nature of bridge can positively impact various aspects of cognitive health. Brian shares his expertise in teaching bridge and provides compelling examples of the cognitive improvements he's witnessed in his students. This episode offers valuable insights for both individuals with Parkinson's and their caregivers.
Key Topics Covered:
- Introduction to Bridge: A simplified overview of how to play.
- Cognitive Benefits for Parkinson's: Improved communication, memory, organization & planning, strategic thinking, and social interaction.
- Brian's Teaching Experience: Real-world examples of cognitive benefits observed in bridge students.
- Personal Benefits of Bridge: Brian shares his own experience and the advantages he gains from playing.
- Caregiver Benefits: How caregivers can also benefit from learning and playing bridge.
- Getting Started: Resources and avenues for learning and playing bridge to support cognitive function.
Looking for ways to enhance your cognitive health or support someone living with Parkinson's? This episode offers a unique and engaging approach.
Call to Action:
- Subscribe to the free monthly Live Parkinson's newsletter for more valuable insights and resources: Visit liveparkinsons.com
- Support the podcast and website: Show your support at ko-fi.com/liveparkinsons
Hashtags:
#Parkinsons #ParkinsonsDisease #BrainHealth #CognitiveHealth #Bridge #CardGames #Memory #Caregivers #BrainTraining #LiveParkinsons #Podcast #HealthPodcast #SeniorHealth #Dementia #Alzheimers #CognitiveFunction #MentalWellness #TheBridgeTeachers
Contact Brian at the Bridgeteachers.com via his email at brian@thebridgeteachers.com
Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only is not intended to treat or diagnose Parkinson's Disease. Please ensure that you are following the treatment plan developed by your doctor. Please ensure before starting anything new you get approval from your doctor. The information being provided is based on my own personal experiences and does not guarantee that it will benefit everyone.
Disclosure: I discuss and promote products in this podcast that pay me a small commission at no cost to you. I use the commissions to help support this podcast and my website Liveparkinsons.com. I make you aware of any affiliate links by adding AFFLIATE Link right beside the link. Thank you for supporting this podcast.
To help support the podcast please visit me on my Ko-fi page and buy a cup of coffee if you feel that I am providing information that is relevant and actionable to help you live a better quality of life.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello and welcome to Live Parkinson's Live an
Exceptional Life the podcastdedicated to helping you live a
great quality of life throughstrategies, stories and science.
I'm your host, chrisKustenbader, and I've been
living with Parkinson's for 15years.
Thanks for joining me today.
Today we have a special guest,brian from thebridgeteacherscom,
and we're going to talk alittle bit about how Bridge for
(00:24):
Parkinson's can help boost brainhealth through card play.
One of the things that wealways talk about on the podcast
is that we need to make surethat we're maintaining or trying
to improve our cognitivefunction through mental
stimulation, whether it's cardgames, board games, crossword
puzzles, sudoku, whatever ithappens to be.
I'm fortunate to have brianfrom thebridgeteacherscom today
(00:47):
to talk a little bit about howbridge can help us with our
cognitive function.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
So welcome, brian oh, it's amazing to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Thank you so much can you tell me a little bit about
yourself and how you becameinterested in playing bridge or
how you became a bridge player?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
sure.
Sure, I was working at astudent union back when I was a
very young man and thisbeautiful young lady came into
my store.
She lived in a dorm across thestreet and we became friends for
about a year and then we'dknown each other for a year and
I asked her out on a date andshe said sure, I'll go on a date
with you as long as you learnto play bridge first.
(01:26):
And she had parents who'd beenplaying social bridge, kitchen
table bridge pretty much herentire life, but they never
taught her the rules of the game.
And then, right before she leftfor college, they taught her
the rules of the game.
And bridge is a partnershipgame and she didn't have a
partner, so she needed someoneto play with.
(01:49):
And I remember thinking, well,okay, how hard can that be?
And I really wanted to go outon a date with this lady.
So I said, okay, sure, I'lllearn to play Bridge.
And that's how I got started.
And 33 years later that younglady is my wife.
(02:12):
She's been my bridge partnerthe entire time.
Probably the main part ofthebridgeteacherscom she does
all the video recordings of thelessons and things like that and
I'm more behind the scenes typeof infrastructure.
But yeah, we still play Bridgeto this day and we're married
(02:33):
and happily together.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Nice Well, can you tell for listeners, myself
included, unfamiliar withplaying Bridge, can you briefly
explain some of the basics ofthe game and why it's so
engaging?
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Sure.
So Bridge is a two-part gameand I think that's one thing
that can be confusing to people.
You have to break down into twoparts.
The first section is called theauction, where you and your
partner are communicating andthe opponents are communicating
about what resources you havefor the second part of the game.
(03:07):
And the second part of the gameis the play, and the play at
its core is a trick taking game.
So in other words, everybodyplays a card, highest card wins.
That's one trick.
Turn it over, play a secondround.
Everyone plays a card, highestcard wins.
It's a standard deck.
There's no jokers, there's nocards removed or added, so
there's 52 cards.
(03:27):
There's four people, everyonegets 13 cards, so there's 13
tricks.
So Bridge is a two-stage gamethe auction and the play.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Okay, great.
So how does Bridge challengethe brain to contribute to
cognitive health?
Since people, if they'reinterested in learning bridge as
another option for you, knowsome mental stimulation, can you
talk a little bit about howbridge might help them with that
?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Absolutely.
So I'm going to.
I'm going to preface mycomments or my my you know my
experience with the statementI'm not a medical professional.
I do not have any credentialsin that area.
I just have a lifetime ofbridge and also research,
reading other people's researchon the topic.
(04:17):
Bridge has been shown todecrease cognitive decline by up
to 75%.
That particular study, Ibelieve, was from Harvard.
There's also been a Scottishpsychiatry group or psychology
group that has done a lot ofstudies.
There's been longitudinalstudies that have shown that not
only can it decrease theincidence of cognitive decline
(04:41):
but it can also prevent, retardor mitigate ongoing cognitive
decline.
So that's the outside researchthat I'm aware of and that I've
read and I've talked to peopleabout.
In terms of my own personalexperience, both teaching and
playing Bridge is challenging onseveral different areas.
(05:05):
So the first is language.
Bridge requires you to speakwith your partner in a very
specific, very information-denselanguage.
In Bridge you only have 38calls or bids to make and
there's 55 trillion possiblehands that you're trying to
(05:25):
describe.
So the information languagethat you're speaking has to be
incredibly dense and rich.
Also, bridge in our daily life.
There's not a lot ofconsequences to misspeaking.
If I go into the grocery storeand say, you know, I'd like a
pound of beef, and I meant Ionly need a half pound of beef,
(05:48):
there's not a consequence tothat misspeak, whereas in bridge
, if you misspeak when you'recommunicating with your partner,
you end up having a disaster.
There's an immediate negativeenforcement, just as there's a
positive reinforcement.
When you have a goodconversation with your partner,
there's a positive reinforcement.
When you have a goodconversation with your partner,
there is a positivereinforcement.
(06:08):
So it drives specificity oflanguage in a way that normal
life doesn't.
So that's the first skill islanguage, and I think that's
really important because it'sbeen shown in all parts of life,
from you know, childhooddevelopment to later in life,
(06:29):
that having language be anactive part of your life is good
for mental health and cognitivehealth.
The play playing a hand ofbridge or defending a hand of
bridge if you're the opponentsis about solving puzzles.
(06:51):
It's about solving a series ofpuzzles and they can be arranged
in different timing sections.
So, in other words, you mightsee the same puzzle you saw
before, but now you have tofigure out where in the hand, at
what time you're going to do it.
So that's another skill, andthen this is both a meta skill
(07:13):
outside of the game and withinthe game.
There's also the fact that youhave to be constantly thinking
about your partner.
You also have to think aboutthe opponents a little bit.
(07:40):
I think especially at beginningand intermediate levels that's a
little bit less prevalent than,say, at the expert levels, but
you need to be thinking aboutyour partner.
You need say I say I'm going towash the dishes and I don't.
Okay, my wife's irritated.
She should be.
I made a commitment I didn'tfollow through.
There's no real consequence.
There should be, but thereprobably isn't.
Anticipate your partner'sproblems and solve them and
(08:07):
listen to them again.
There's an immediate negativeconsequence or an immediate
positive consequence.
So learning, solving puzzlesand social interaction are baked
into bridge and you can'tsucceed without developing those
and utilizing those.
And so those are three aspectsof you know, using your brain,
(08:28):
that are extremely heightenedwhen you play the game of bridge
.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Oh, that's great, Because one of the questions I
was going to follow up with wasone of the things that a lot of
people with Parkinson's haveissue or troubles with is
executive function, where theycan maybe only remember one or
two things at a time, orplanning and organizing, and
also memory.
I know I get frustrated with mymemory and so I'm assuming
bridge can help address some ofthose, because I'm sure that the
(08:56):
memory's involved, there's somestrategy involved, but I'm sure
there's a lot of organizationand planning as you're playing
the game.
Some of the things that canhelp benefit people with
Parkinson's.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Yes, absolutely.
I think, to start with memory,bridge is, at its core, a memory
exercise.
When I first started playing, Icould barely remember what was
played on the previous trick,what was played on the previous
trick.
And then, as again, if youdon't, if you don't remember
something, if I forget to buytortilla chips at the grocery
(09:30):
store, you'll notice.
All of my analogies are me notshowing up for my wife properly.
I try, I try, I try to be agood husband, but sometimes I
forget the tortilla chips at thegrocery store.
There's again, there's a minorconsequence.
There's like oh, shoot, shoot,she's very kind and patient, so
she's not going to yell at me.
Bridge will crush you.
If you don't remember something, bridge is going to just give
(09:59):
you a smack.
Played, or remembering thelanguage of the system meant
that I, you know.
My lack of that meant that wewere not as successful as we
eventually became Now, if youlike.
For instance, I played bridgewith a student on an online
tournament a couple of days ago.
(10:20):
If you asked me about thosehands, I could tell you every
bid and every card played inorder over 18 hands, and that
seems like a party trick, butit's really not.
It's just a simple fact of.
For the last 30 years I've beenworking very, very hard on my
memory and when I was a kid andI don't know what it was like
(10:42):
for you, but when I was a kid Iwas always told you get a
certain amount of brain cells.
When your brain stops growing,they start dying off and
eventually you end up with adead brain and you're dead.
It was an extremely depressingoutlook.
Thanks childhood teachers.
But they've shown that'sactually not true at all.
They've shown that's actuallynot true at all.
Probably the most famousexample of this for me is the
(11:06):
London cab driver test, which iscalled the knowledge is
extremely complicated.
I think it takes like two orthree years for a typical cab
driver to study it and pass it,and they studied their brains.
And London cab drivers have alarger hippocampus which is, you
know, my memory is by mass, bymass.
(11:29):
They're not.
They're not measuring it by,like a test or, like you know,
turnover flashcards.
They're literally justmeasuring the amount of brain
matter that London cab drivershave in that area and they grew
it.
So, just like you want biggerbiceps, you go to the gym and
you do bicep curls.
If you want a stronger memory.
You work on your memory andwhat I love about Bridge is
(11:55):
Bridge will sneak in skilldevelopment on you, like you're
playing a game, you're havingfun, you're either throwing
cards or you're clicking buttonson the screen and you don't
know that you're working outyour brain.
I turned around, I was 20 whenSamantha and I met and I turned
around I was 40.
And all of a sudden, I had thiscrazy memory that I didn't set
(12:22):
out to have an insane memory, Ijust needed it to be good at a
game that I loved.
So, yeah, so memory focusthat's one thing that we really
focus on with students isstripping things down for them.
I think that, regardless ofyour age or your circumstances,
I think when we try to take onmore than is appropriate for the
moment, take on more than isappropriate for the moment, I
(12:45):
think we're going to fail.
So, for me, I'm always seekingways to tell my students okay,
here's the two things I want youto think about, two.
Right, and getting in the habitof I'm not going to think about
six things, I'm going to thinkabout two things allows us to
develop that focus on those twothings.
(13:06):
So, yeah, so, memory and focus.
Bridge requires it, but it'sfun.
So you know it's not the same,as you know, sitting down and
trying to memorize the phonebook or something.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Well, I mean that's a good point, that to focus on
just one or two things, becauseI, you know, I've had
Parkinson's for 15 years and Iknow that things that I used to
be able to do I can't rememberas many things.
Like you know, just going tothe grocery store my wife will
say, aren't you going to make alist?
No, I've got it and it's only.
You know three to five thingsand I get up there and I can
remember the first two and thenI'm mean, that's a great point.
(13:38):
And I did want to ask you youmentioned that you teach.
You know you've been teachingbridge.
Do you have any personalstories where you might've had
somebody with, whether it's adisability or whether you've
just seen them blossom in termsof their cognitive function from
where they started?
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Yeah, I would say over the course of my career
teaching thousands of peoplethat I've seen, I've always seen
focus and memory improve.
There's always a beneficialaspect to bridge.
The most extreme example ofthis, which is unique, and I had
a student who reached out I hada person reach out to me and
(14:25):
say I would like you andSamantha to teach me and my wife
to play bridge and I said okay,great, he wanted both of us to
attend, which was fine.
That's a bit unusual for usUsually-person lessons.
Now we're 100% virtual, exceptfor tournaments and things like
(14:47):
that.
But we drove to their very nicehome and his wife was not fully
mentally present.
She was resetting every one ortwo minutes.
She would setting every one ortwo minutes.
(15:09):
She would who are these people?
Why are they here?
He'd explain they're here toteach us bridge.
She was unhappy about this andthen, one or two minutes later,
she'd ask the same questionagain.
She would say who are thesepeople?
And Samantha and I were teaching.
We're doing our best.
This is obviously a verychallenging situation.
(15:30):
Our approach to this is toteach no different than we would
teach anyone else.
Repeated, we repeat the concept.
If the student needs a conceptrepeated.
We repeat the concept when thestudent is ready to move on, we
move on.
(15:50):
Right, the student sets thepace.
And I think that's reallyimportant as a teacher is to
always let the student set thepace.
They might not think of it inthose terms, but that's what
should be happening.
So we reach about a half an hourinto the lesson and we take a
little break and he takes usaside and said I just want to
let you know that my wife isactually a high level tournament
(16:12):
bridge player and about sixmonths ago she had a stroke, and
a severe one, and basically hercognitive function was almost
completely destroyed.
And Samantha said oh okay, weunderstand Definitely something.
I wish she would have warned mecoming in.
(16:32):
I could understand why hedidn't.
So we sat back down andprobably about 15 or 20 minutes
later, samantha and I put a handon the table a lesson hand on
the table and she picks it upand all of a sudden she was a
completely different human being, just flashed into a different
(16:54):
personality.
She said she had the auctionvery quickly and then the dummy
came down and she laid her handsdown, which is called a claim
You're allowed to do this.
And she said I'm going to dothis, this and this.
And I said, okay, great.
And she says this hand's soeasy, this is so boring.
I'm like, okay, great.
(17:15):
And then she told us a storyabout a hand she played at a
bridge tournament 20 years agoor 20 years previous, and
Samantha and I were in shock.
We didn't.
I mean, we'd never experiencedsomething like this before.
We'd never seen something likethis before.
And about a minute later shewent back to who are these
(17:36):
people?
Why are they here, not knowinghow to play bridge?
He fired us very gently at theend of that lesson.
He said he couldn't handle itemotionally that his wife of 50
years was not the person thatshe was and she couldn't do the
things she used to do.
And there have been studiesthat have shown that if you can
(18:03):
somehow access parts of yourbrain that you've previously had
, you can actually rebuildneural pathways.
So unfortunately, I didn't getto see what would have happened
if we kept coming.
I definitely had plans forbringing extremely complicated
hands out of high-level bridgebooks to throw at her when she
(18:24):
was having these moments ofconnection.
So that's the most extremeexample I have and again, I'm
not a medical professional, soI'm not saying this will work
for you or anybody else, but Iam saying that I've seen bridge
help improve memory and focus inevery student I've ever had, in
myself, in my wife so, and you,and scientific studies back
(18:47):
that up.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Well, that's great.
Now the other part of one of thethings with Parkinson's is
people can become sociallyisolated because with their
motor symptoms they've gottremors or they're having
difficulty walking and they'reembarrassed to go out in public
and then pretty soon they startdropping out of a lot of social
activities that they're involvedin.
It sounds like Bridge is anopportunity for people to get
(19:11):
together with others, and maybeit's through one of the
Parkinson's support groups,because a lot of people go to
monthly Parkinson's supportgroups and maybe that's an
opportunity for them to start,you know, having maybe forming
(19:33):
some bridge teams there toreally help to improve the
social interaction among thesupport group members and
especially caregivers as well,because caregivers are a lot of
times, are burdened and stressedbecause they spend so much time
taking care of the patient withParkinson's that they don't
have a lot of time forthemselves, the patient with
Parkinson's, that they don'thave a lot of time for
themselves.
And maybe Bridge might be in aspart of the support group and
outlet for them to get together,have fun and benefit themselves
at the same time.
(19:53):
So that's just something I wasthinking through as you were
talking, and then have you seenin your experience where Bridge
has helped create sense ofcommunities in other areas.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Yeah, absolutely so.
I want to address first of allhow accessible bridge is.
So there's two ways to playbridge in person, which I love.
I would definitely say that,whether it's a bridge club or a
community group or just fourfriends who get together and
play bridge, you know there'sthe country clubs I've gone to
(20:30):
teach lessons in, there's cardrooms where people play bridge.
Community centers frequentlyhave some sort of bridge option
available.
So that's definitely a greatway to experience bridge and get
some social connection.
If you're facing challenges ormaybe you just don't want to go
(20:51):
out to a group, maybe you'remore of a homebody and you want
to cuddle with your dogs.
Speaking for myself, there's awebsite called BridgeBasecom,
b-a-s-e, so BridgeBasecom andit's completely free.
I don't have an affiliate linkand it's completely free.
(21:32):
I don't have an affiliate link.
So if you sign up, the onlyreal way to spend money on there
is by entering certifiedtournaments by the ACBL, and
also I think they have someother sort of things that you
can purchase, like lesson packsand things like that.
But essentially it's free andyou can create an account and
you can sign up and you can playBridge 24-7 for free.
You can play with a partner.
You know you can just have thecomputer, give you a random
table, whatever.
So Bridge is extremelyaccessible and it's also
extremely budget-friendly.
I don't think there's anybody inthis world right now who isn't
trying to stretch theirentertainment dollar, to stretch
(21:52):
their time dollar.
I know that when Samantha and Iplay for fun, we can play for
three hours and have spentnothing except what it costs for
our electricity and ourinternet and we're already
paying that anyway, right.
So that's great.
It's a free way to spend somereally enjoyable quality time
For me.
I get to spend it with my wife,which is amazing.
(22:14):
But I want to speak to thecaregivers.
If you're listening to thispodcast and you're a caregiver
or you're supporting someonewith Parkinson's, I want to say
that bridge is amazing in a lotof ways.
So there's two different waysyou can approach it.
You can learn bridge and be thepartner of your person that
you're caring for, if that'ssomething that you are
(22:35):
interested in and enjoy for themto have quality time where your
workload, your caregiver load,is extremely minimal.
I took care of my grandmother.
(23:01):
My grandmother was thestrongest person I've ever known
.
She was diagnosed withpancreatic cancer and so for the
last six months of her life shelived with me and my family and
we took care of her.
And as things got bad and myfamily and we took care of her
and as things got bad, it was ahospice situation and all that
Caregiver fatigue is reallydangerous for the caregiver and
any way that you can find tocontinue to give quality care in
(23:24):
a way that is good for thecaregiver I think is so critical
because then it becomessustainable.
So if you have somebody whofalls in love with Bridge,
samantha and I were not good atBridge for several years.
We played with our friends andwe were terrible and just bad at
Bridge and then I actuallyfractured my leg on a national
(23:46):
tour of Romeo and Juliet and Ibasically couldn't walk for six
months and I had to, I had to.
I basically couldn't walk forsix months and Samantha had to
take care of me.
You know I could get around thehouse and stuff like that, but
like couldn't work.
Could you know, just basicallygo to rehab and sit at my
computer and at that time therewas the first, you know, bridge
website that I was aware of andI could play bridge eight hours
(24:07):
a day, eight to 10 hours a day,and, boy, it made a huge
difference in my life andtherefore it made a huge
difference in her life, becausethat was eight to ten hours of
my day where she didn't have toworry.
You know, okay, well, he's justsitting around depressed or
watching tv or getting sad orwhatever.
So I'm not saying that you knowsomeone, there's going to be a
(24:30):
few people out there who trybridge.
You're gonna going to like, ohyeah, I love this game.
I play eight to 10 hours a day.
I'm not saying that's going tohappen for you, but I am saying,
even if it's just an hour, evenif it's just a half an hour,
where someone is like having funand enjoying themselves and you
can have a cup of tea or, youknow, catch up on your emails or
whatever, bridge is amazingthat way.
(24:51):
And if it's a community, ifyou're, if, if you know, if your
community is building it, thenthen that that community becomes
more robust in terms ofactivities.
And now again, you know thatyou're, the person you're
supporting is having an amazingtime.
I mean, if you play in atournament, a session of bridge
is like three hours, so that'stime.
I mean, if you play in atournament, a session of bridge
is like three hours, so that's,that's three hours where they're
(25:12):
having an amazing quality oflife and your workload is
minimized.
I love bridge for that reason,one of the many reasons I love
bridge.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Oh, great, yeah, my neighbor Marlene.
She's 85.
They've been playing bridgewith a group of four or five or
I think there's maybe eight ofthem, but it's dwindled down
over the years because a coupleof them have passed away, but 50
years.
So every Tuesday they either gonext door to her house or
they're at one of the otherperson's house and they spend
three and four hours playingbridge and you know they make
(25:44):
you know different snacks foreach other, but they really
enjoy it.
So it's, it sounds like bridgeis a great way to help support
your emotional well-being aswell and it can give whether
it's the person with Parkinson'sor whether it's the caregiver.
It's kind of a win-win for bothgroups.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
So can you tell us a little bit about how, if someone
wanted to get started inplaying bridge Because most
people they might be listeningand thinking, well, this sounds
great, and so anything that theycan do to improve their
(26:34):
communication and project theirspeech, that's going to help as
well.
So it sounds like there's a lotof benefits.
But then people may be sittinglistening and saying, well,
that's great, but I have no ideahow to get started or where to
get started, and is it a hardgame?
Is it something that's going tobe really hard for me to learn
and I'm just going to getfrustrated and quit.
(26:54):
So maybe you can speak a littlebit to that.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Yeah, that that was the big problem when Samantha
and I started to learn, you know, back in early 90s, was there
was no internet to speak of.
I didn't have an email accountyet, I didn't have a cell phone
yet.
So, grab some bridge books fromthe library and they were like
hieroglyphics to me because theywere all designed for, you know
, intermediate or advancedplayers.
So I would say the steps are.
(27:21):
To me, the steps are very, veryclear, which is step one just
learn the rules.
Just learn the rules, so don'tworry about being good, don Just
learn the rules.
So don't worry about being good, don't worry about a lot of
people want to bridge intostrategy pretty quickly.
You can do that a little bit,but just focus on.
Well, how do I actually playthis game?
Just mechanically, what do I donext?
(27:43):
And according to the rules,okay, I make a bid.
Okay, the auction is over.
Okay, I knew the auction wasover because I understand the
rules.
Okay, now how do we play thehand?
Okay, great, that's done.
And in order to do that,samantha has a.
She actually has two videos.
One is learn bridge in twominutes and two seconds, I think
(28:06):
, or 22 seconds, and the otherone is learn bridge in 10
minutes.
It's just her going over therules.
Okay, once you do that, you'regoing to want a base some.
Learn some basic language.
It's just like learning Frenchor you know, or Swahili.
You're going to want to learnsome basic words so you can have
some simple sentences with youand your partner, and then
you're going to want to learnsome basic play techniques.
(28:26):
Now, there's lots of ways to dothat.
I would say for the for bridge,for bridge, for the bidding um,
you can get samantha's book.
It's available on amazon.
You can come to our website, uh, which you know we have over.
I think we have over 400 hoursof videos now.
So from everything from I'venever played before to getting
(28:50):
into more intermediate topics.
We have a YouTube channel.
There's plenty of other YouTubechannel people out there.
You could check with your localbridge club and see if they have
free lessons.
There's lots of bridge teachersout there.
So I would say that when youget started, give yourself some
sort of resource.
That's not just I'm just goingto figure this out, I'm just
(29:12):
going to stare down the barrelof bridge and figure it out on
my own Right.
Learn the mechanics so you knowhow the rules work.
Focus on that until youunderstand it.
And then very simple biddingsystem and learn a couple of
things about the play.
Once you have all that in place, you'll be on your way.
You'll have the foundation laidand you can start building and
(29:34):
building, and building.
You can take it as far as youwant and that's how we structure
.
Our lessons is we.
You know, samantha is all about.
Our specialty for the last 25years has been people who've
never touched a deck of cardsbefore, like that's who we want
to talk to.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Yeah, and I think that's probably most of this
audience that they're.
They're just, they just want todo it.
They want to do it for fun,they want to do it to help help
with their cognitive functionand social interaction.
They don't want to be, you know, experts going to global
tournaments and and things likethat.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Yeah.
So people always ask me well,what, what do I need to know to
to play bridge?
If you know, they say good orthey make some sort of
result-based comment To me ifyou know six topics in the
bidding, so if you know sixtopics of language, you're going
(30:25):
to be able to deal with 95% ofthe hands that come up.
And if you know six techniquesin the play play of the hand
you're going to be able tohandle hands for the most part.
So it's not like you have tolearn.
You know, samantha and I'ssystem notes are something like
300 pages.
You don't have to know that,right?
There's a reason why Samantha'sbooks on bidding there's two
books on bidding and they coverthose six topics, right?
So it's not you have to learn.
(30:49):
So it's not.
It's not you have to learn theencyclopedia.
It is that you, I think.
If you do it, I think, if youstructure it correctly, right,
you just focus on how do I playthis game and what is some, what
is a simple way to bid andwhat's a simple way to play,
then then the game is availableto you, right?
You don't, you don't need morethan that.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Well, it's really like with any game.
I mean, if you think about it,one of the first things you do
when you get a new game is youopen the box and you, okay, how
do I play?
And you have to look at therules and you've explained to
everybody so they understand.
And so what I'm hearing you sayis that just understand what
the rules are and then gettogether with a couple people
and then practice.
(31:30):
It's worth anything.
You know, because when I turned54, after I had Parkinson's, I
said I'd really like to learnhow to play guitar, and you know
I have to break it down intosmall steps, but it's.
But you also have to beconsistent with it.
You know consistency,persistence, and you know, and
I'm I'm hearing the same thingwith bridge.
(31:51):
I mean, if you want to have funand at least understand and get
good at it, you have to do iton a, you know, a fairly
consistent basis.
You can't do it once and thenyou know, nine months from now,
because you're not going toremember, but maybe that comes,
maybe people get into doing aweekly bridge.
You know bridge club with theirfriends.
Absolutely, you know.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Bridge Club with their friends.
So Absolutely, I mean, even ifyou just watch a video once a
month, you know five minutevideo or 10 minute video in the
morning, you know.
Just keep your brain in thatmodality.
By the way, there's something Iforgot to mention about the
accessibility of Bridge, becauseafter we talked in preparation
for this lovely conversationwe're having, I thought a lot
about the physical aspects ofphysical challenges of people
(32:33):
who are working with thosedisabilities.
How can I make bridgeaccessible to them?
I actually filmed a video we'regoing to upload it to YouTube on
how to play bridge usingnothing but your voice.
So if you can't use a mouse, ifyou can't use a keyboard, you
can literally just use in.
On the Mac it's called voicecontrol and on the PC, which I
(32:54):
don't have, I believe it'scalled voice activation.
But you can literally call outthese numbers and it'll do the
same as mouse clicks.
So if you think I can't playBridge because I can't really
use a mouse, that well, stop byour YouTube channel.
Look for my face talking abouthow to play bridge with just
your voice.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
We can put a link in the podcast description.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Great.
As soon as I have a link for it, I'll send it to you.
Yeah, absolutely Great.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
But yeah, I know that's one of the things that we
talked about, because withParkinson's, a lot of times,
whether it's cell phones or amouse, when you have tremors,
it's hard to control the mouseor even sometimes hold cards.
So maybe people they don't wantto go out because of the
tremors.
So is there a way for them?
If they can't because ofphysical limitations, is there a
(33:46):
way that they could do bridgeonline and or maybe just do it
online every day, just so thatthey can continue to work on
their cognitive function?
Is there a?
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Yeah, so bridgebasecom for online.
I recommend that 100%.
There's other sites out there,but Bridgebase is the best it
long period of time and theywould make card holders.
When I first started playing inLA, there was a gentleman who
(34:24):
was severely just dealing with alot of physical challenges.
He couldn't even really holdhis cards at all, so he had a
box with the sides so no onecould see it and literally all
of his cards would be sort offace up in a pile and then he
would be able to pick one outand put it on the table.
(34:45):
If you can't pull out thebidding cards, because there's
specific cards for bidding, youcan vocalize your bids.
So Bridge is extremelyaccessible, regardless of your
challenges.
And, by the way, I would loveto make an offer to anyone
listening to this podcast, whichis if you have a specific
(35:07):
challenge and you think youcan't learn bridge because of
that challenge, please email meor Samantha we're very easy
Brian at the bridge teachers dotcom, or Samantha at the bridge
teachers dot com and let us, letus know.
Hey, I can't play bridges andthis is why I I want the
challenge of being able to helpyou play bridge, regardless of
(35:28):
your situation, regardless of ofwhat you're facing.
I've had people tell me they'retoo stupid to learn to play
bridge, to which my point is ifyou think I'm smart, you have
not met me my, my wife is thesmart one.
You're not too stupid to playbridge, it's just.
You just need someone to guideyou and we would love to help.
So that's not something wecharge for.
(35:52):
You shoot me an email and Iwill be like, hey, how do we
solve this for you so you canenjoy this game that I love?
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Yeah, that's great, because you know I think it's
with anything A lot of times wewould run into a challenge and
we think, oh, I can't overcomethis challenge.
But there's always ways, if you.
You know, instead of looking atit as this, let's say it's a,
there's a big rock in my path.
Well, okay, how can I chip awayat that rock to get to where I
need to go?
Or how can I get over?
(36:18):
So there's always a way.
And get back to my example withlearning to play guitar.
I know, when I first startedlearning some of the open chords
and trying to learn the C chord, I had to really stretch my
fingers and I don't have thebest dexterity, and a lot of
people say, well, I can't playguitar because my hands are too
small.
But what I learned is it's Icall it the three Ps, it's
(36:39):
perseverance, patience, and Ijust blanked out on the other
one Patience, perseverance.
I'll think of it then, but aslong as you, you know, continue
to at least chip away and workat it, then break it down into
the smallest steps possible andthen continue to add on.
So once you've mastered thatthe initial thing that you've
(37:01):
broken it down into then add apiece on, add a piece on.
So like if I'm learning a newsong, I start with one measure
and then, once I get the measuredown, then I add another
measure and then pretty soonyou're building on that and the
next thing you know it's likewow, I can play the song.
And then it gives you a senseof satisfaction If I just grab a
piece of sheet music and I lookat it and I say to myself there
(37:21):
is no way I'm going to be ableto play this.
But then when you break it downor you hear a guitar solo and
you think, well, I'm never goingto be able to do that.
And then next thing you know,if you break it down measure by
measure, and next thing you knowit's like wow, I can play
ACDC's Shook Me All night longsolo.
So I think that's important toyour point about people saying
I'm not smart enough, or youknow, because we can always come
(37:44):
up with an excuse as to why wecan't do something.
But I think if we're willing tocommit to it, then you know we
can do it.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
Absolutely, absolutely.
This is, you know, I haven'tjust taught bridge, I've studied
.
I haven't just taught bridge ofstudied, you know, skill
acquisition I'm obsessed withlike, how do we learn?
Why do we learn some thingsmore successfully than others?
And you know, one thing thatI'm really big on is not being
result based.
Right, if you put in fiveminutes on bridge or five
(38:17):
minutes on guitar, you weresuccessful.
Right, because you put in, youput in effort.
If you and I think that whenyou can get away from this idea
of well, how well did I do inthose five minutes, and you can
just be like I did the thing, Imean my family, we say I did the
thing Right, exactly, and thatjust means we, we showed up and
(38:40):
we put in the work you know, Ithink, when you, when you keep
doing that over and over, youshow up, you put in the work,
yeah, because they say it'sgoing, yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
Oh, that, with anything, it's if you, even if
you do it for 10 minutes, that'sbetter 10 minutes every day, 10
to 15 minutes, versus doing itfor 30 minutes once a week.
And so, as you mentioned, it'sjust showing up and that's how
you're going to learn and makeprogress.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
Absolutely.
There's an amazing book calledAtomic Habits which I absolutely
am obsessed with.
I have given away probably 20copies of it to people, and this
is exactly what it talks aboutis, when you do something, even
if you do it for five minutes,you're building the habit of
doing it and then it justbecomes part of your routine,
and I think that's so important.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
Yeah, one of the things I talk about in some of
my other podcasts isneuroplasticity, and people
think what?
is that it's essentiallybuilding new neural pathways.
When you're learning a newskill, it's building that quote
muscle memory, and in this case,with Bridge, it's the brain
memory where you're helping tobuild your memory, your
(39:52):
organization and planningstrategic thinking.
All those can be, from what I'mhearing, because now you kind
of got me excited about learninghow to play bridge.
So my neighbors always ask me,do you play bridge?
And I said no, I don't.
You know cause.
I had a lot of other thingsgoing on, but I it sounds like
something that is fun and I canlearn.
But because I, based on all thethings we've talked about, it's
(40:15):
there's so many benefits thatcan help me in in maintaining my
cognitive function.
You know cause.
That's something I worry abouttoo, because my mom has dementia
and so you know as as much as Ican do to help myself with
mental challenges, mentalstimulation games, and it sounds
like bridge is a perfectopportunity to do that.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Yeah, I think so.
I I've.
I've played games since I,since I was, uh, I one.
Some of my earliest memoriesare playing games with my
grandmother, and I love games.
Bridge to me is so rich,there's so much to it and at the
same time there's a familiarity, right, I think.
I think that's the best sort ofexperience is when something is
(40:58):
familiar but still has newthings to discover to it,
because then we're grounded andat the same time, we're getting
to explore, and that's what Ilove about bridge all right,
well, can can you tell me alittle bit about the your uh
websites?
Speaker 1 (41:12):
they're the bridge teacherscom, and so people, can
people go on there and learn toplay and then, or just go on and
play with other people, I don'tknow.
Can you explain a little bitabout how?
Speaker 2 (41:23):
yeah, that's.
That's a great, great question.
So our website is essentially avideo library of all of
samantha's teachings.
She's adding to it all the time.
So, like I know, today she's,I'm gonna be like what are you
doing today?
She's, I'm going to be likewhat are you doing today?
She's like I'm editing videos,so, and and she.
So.
These are two, essentially, ifyou've never played bridge
(41:46):
before you come to our website,it's a subscription service.
We do have free videos in frontof the paywall, but, yes, you
pay us a monthly fee, minimalmonthly fee, and then you have
access to all the videos on thewebsite and we start at the
beginning.
You've never played bridgebefore.
Here's lesson one, and you justgo for as long as you want.
(42:08):
I personally, we keep thevideos to you know, eight to 15
minutes.
If Samantha goes over 15minutes, she splits it into
multiple parts.
I would say, one lesson a dayat the most, at the most, two
lessons a week, something likethat.
One lesson a week, if that'swhat you, what you say.
But I would not try and drinkthe ocean in in one month or
(42:33):
whatever.
Right, but I would not that youcould do that, I think, if you
did 40.
If you did 40 hours a week onsam's videos, you'd still need
about 13 weeks right now.
So definitely take your timewith it, because the lessons are
there to help you learn, andthen I think you should be
playing as much as you can, evenwhile you're learning, if you
(42:54):
don't want to embarrass yourself.
Bridgebase has robots I thinkthat's $3 for a week of playing
with robots.
So, again, budget-friendly.
So that's our website.
Then also, samantha and I doteach privately.
We teach up to.
I don't really like to teachmore than four people.
I'll teach five.
I definitely won't teach six ata time.
(43:16):
I don't like the lack ofattention when six people are in
.
I can't give enough peoplevalue for their time and my time
.
But that's not required for ourwebsite.
That's something that would bean additional add-on, something
if you decide.
Well, I really want to try that.
But yeah, so our website isbasically essentially a video
(43:38):
library.
If you want to play bridge, wedon't do that.
That's bridgebasecom.
I can't even imagine the amountof coding that goes into their
site.
But again, bridgebasecom isfree.
When we teach, we teach onBridgebase.
So we go on.
We create a teaching table, weupload our lesson hands.
(43:59):
I love Bridgebase.
I don't understand.
They're doing just amazing workand I'm so grateful to them.
But anyway, so you don't playon our site, you just learn on
our site and BridgeBasecom toplay.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
Okay, and then you also have a YouTube channel.
You said we do.
Speaker 2 (44:15):
We do have a YouTube channel.
Samantha posts there.
What she tends to post on theYouTube channel is real life
examples.
So in other words, she playedwith a student or she was
usually not playing with me,usually it's with a student and
something came up, some aspectof bridge came up and she'll do
a little video on it.
And those are all free.
(44:35):
Youtube is free and we're notreally much on social media.
I mean, we do do announcementson facebook and things like that
.
We haven't gotten to tiktok yet, but yeah, so youtube is free
channel.
Stop by, leave us a comment.
Speaker 1 (44:48):
You know, let us know what you think well, as we kind
of wrap up, is there any?
What one thing would you liketo leave with the?
The audience?
Audience is something that youthink is important about Bridge,
and maybe it doesn't have to beone thing.
Speaker 2 (45:07):
No, I just have one thing, which is, if you are the
type of person who is going toenjoy Bridge, you're going to
love Bridge.
You're going to love Bridge.
Now, everybody's different.
You know, I have a friend who'swho's actually pretty good at
bridge and doesn't care for it.
She'd rather be out, you know,taking photographs, like
(45:28):
photography, or right.
So.
So I'm not saying thateverybody listening is going to
enjoy bridge.
I, I don't think that's true.
But if you don't try it, if youdon't think that's true, but if
you don't try it, if you don't,I would say, invest two months
of trying it really and behonest with yourself.
I really tried this and and ifyou, at the end of two months
(45:50):
you'll know.
And also, at the end of twomonths, if you like it, you're
going to be like oh yeah, no,this is for me, this is for me
and it really is a wonderfulgame and it's a game that you
can play all the time, forever.
I mean, I've played bridge allover the world.
I've I've been walking byrandom storefronts in the
(46:11):
country.
I've never been before andfound a bridge club and all of a
sudden I'm five minutes later.
I'm playing bridge with peopleI've never met.
Bridge is is amazing, anamazing, amazing game.
Give it a shot, try it.
If you're having problems,email us, let us know.
Like hey, this isn't workingfor me or I don't understand
something.
Reach out to us, but don't robyourself of something that might
(46:34):
be really amazing for you.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
Yeah, I know I'm the type of person I love solving
puzzles and learning new things.
Yeah, I'm definitely going tolook into it, just because,
especially everything we talkedabout, with all the cognitive
benefits and the socialinteraction, and I mean I love
talking to people.
So, if I get to the point whereI understand the game and, like
you said, you're traveling andit's a rainy day and you say to
(46:58):
yourself, what am I going to do?
And you happen to find, hey,there's a local bridge club and
you can get down and playbridges as a way to mentally
stimulate yourself but also meetnew people, because you never
know who you run into and whoyou're going to make new friends
with and what you're going tolearn from other people.
I'm always one of these.
I love talking to other peoplebecause I like to hear people's
(47:18):
life story and because I thinkwe can always learn from each
other.
So I think bridge would allowus to do that.
But I really appreciate youtaking the time to to share
today and if you can get me theyour website and your YouTube,
I'll put that in the podcastdescription and yeah, and then
we can.
That way people want to contactyou.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
They can find that, find it there, and then we can
that way, if people want tocontact you, they can find it
there.
That's amazing.
Yeah, I'll get that over to youright away, and I want to thank
you for the opportunity to comeon and talk, obviously, about a
game I love.
But beyond that, I want tothank you for challenging me,
because I had thought aboutissues that people are facing in
(47:59):
terms of playing bridge, butnot to this level before.
So, really, as you said,meeting new people opened my
mind, opened my perspective, andit really gave me a lot of food
for thought about how I canhelp people bring bridge into
their lives.
So I want to thank you for that.
Speaker 1 (48:16):
Well, that's great.
I'm glad I could help, but it'snice to give people a different
perspective and, and you know,one of the things I know that we
talked about was how, inimproving social interaction,
and a lot of people, like wementioned, go go to support
groups and that's a great way,for we talked about earlier in
the podcast but whether it's theperson with Parkinson's or the
caregiver, but you know, there'ssupport groups all over the
(48:39):
country with people withParkinson's and it's a great
opportunity to expand Ambridgeand have people learn a fun and
challenging card game.
Speaker 2 (48:49):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (48:53):
Well, thanks again.
If new things come up, pleasecontact us and we'll have you
back on.
Speaker 2 (49:00):
That'd be great, and I would love for you to stay in
touch with me about your bridgejourney.
Absolutely, I would love tohear your experience because you
know, obviously we're alwaysseeking to improve our product
right, how can we make thewebsite better, more accessible,
how can we help peopleunderstand it?
(49:21):
You know that kind of thing.
So, and also, I just want tohear if you love the game Like I
want to hear your.
I want to hear your firstsuccess story.
I want to hear your firstdisaster story.
I've got some goods.
I've got some great disasterstories for Samantha and I.
I'm both back in the early daysand recently, so we can start
swapping bridge war stories.
It'll be great.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
All right, I'll do what my my, my one former
manager used to say just give methe really really.
So I'll tell you how it reallygoes the really really.
I like that, don't sugarcoat,it Just give me the really,
really, as he used to say.
Speaker 2 (49:52):
So I love that.
I love that.
That's fantastic, all right.
Speaker 1 (49:55):
Thanks again and uh tell everybody I want you to
stay healthy and stay strong andlive your best life.
So thanks again and we'll seeeverybody soon.
Thanks, take care.
Thank you, bye.
Hello and welcome to Live Parkinson's Live an
Exceptional Life the podcastdedicated to helping you live a
great quality of life throughstrategies, stories and science.
I'm your host, chrisKustenbader, and I've been
living with Parkinson's for 15years.
Thanks for joining me today.
Today we have a special guest,brian from thebridgeteacherscom,
and we're going to talk alittle bit about how Bridge for
(00:24):
Parkinson's can help boost brainhealth through card play.
One of the things that wealways talk about on the podcast
is that we need to make surethat we're maintaining or trying
to improve our cognitivefunction through mental
stimulation, whether it's cardgames, board games, crossword
puzzles, sudoku, whatever ithappens to be.
I'm fortunate to have brianfrom thebridgeteacherscom today
(00:47):
to talk a little bit about howbridge can help us with our
cognitive function.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
So welcome, brian oh, it's amazing to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Thank you so much can you tell me a little bit about
yourself and how you becameinterested in playing bridge or
how you became a bridge player?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
sure.
Sure, I was working at astudent union back when I was a
very young man and thisbeautiful young lady came into
my store.
She lived in a dorm across thestreet and we became friends for
about a year and then we'dknown each other for a year and
I asked her out on a date andshe said sure, I'll go on a date
with you as long as you learnto play bridge first.
(01:26):
And she had parents who'd beenplaying social bridge, kitchen
table bridge pretty much herentire life, but they never
taught her the rules of the game.
And then, right before she leftfor college, they taught her
the rules of the game.
And bridge is a partnershipgame and she didn't have a
partner, so she needed someoneto play with.
(01:49):
And I remember thinking, well,okay, how hard can that be?
And I really wanted to go outon a date with this lady.
So I said, okay, sure, I'lllearn to play Bridge.
And that's how I got started.
And 33 years later that younglady is my wife.
(02:12):
She's been my bridge partnerthe entire time.
Probably the main part ofthebridgeteacherscom she does
all the video recordings of thelessons and things like that and
I'm more behind the scenes typeof infrastructure.
But yeah, we still play Bridgeto this day and we're married
(02:33):
and happily together.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Nice Well, can you tell for listeners, myself
included, unfamiliar withplaying Bridge, can you briefly
explain some of the basics ofthe game and why it's so
engaging?
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Sure.
So Bridge is a two-part gameand I think that's one thing
that can be confusing to people.
You have to break down into twoparts.
The first section is called theauction, where you and your
partner are communicating andthe opponents are communicating
about what resources you havefor the second part of the game.
(03:07):
And the second part of the gameis the play, and the play at
its core is a trick taking game.
So in other words, everybodyplays a card, highest card wins.
That's one trick.
Turn it over, play a secondround.
Everyone plays a card, highestcard wins.
It's a standard deck.
There's no jokers, there's nocards removed or added, so
there's 52 cards.
(03:27):
There's four people, everyonegets 13 cards, so there's 13
tricks.
So Bridge is a two-stage gamethe auction and the play.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Okay, great.
So how does Bridge challengethe brain to contribute to
cognitive health?
Since people, if they'reinterested in learning bridge as
another option for you, knowsome mental stimulation, can you
talk a little bit about howbridge might help them with that
?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Absolutely.
So I'm going to.
I'm going to preface mycomments or my my you know my
experience with the statementI'm not a medical professional.
I do not have any credentialsin that area.
I just have a lifetime ofbridge and also research,
reading other people's researchon the topic.
(04:17):
Bridge has been shown todecrease cognitive decline by up
to 75%.
That particular study, Ibelieve, was from Harvard.
There's also been a Scottishpsychiatry group or psychology
group that has done a lot ofstudies.
There's been longitudinalstudies that have shown that not
only can it decrease theincidence of cognitive decline
(04:41):
but it can also prevent, retardor mitigate ongoing cognitive
decline.
So that's the outside researchthat I'm aware of and that I've
read and I've talked to peopleabout.
In terms of my own personalexperience, both teaching and
playing Bridge is challenging onseveral different areas.
(05:05):
So the first is language.
Bridge requires you to speakwith your partner in a very
specific, very information-denselanguage.
In Bridge you only have 38calls or bids to make and
there's 55 trillion possiblehands that you're trying to
(05:25):
describe.
So the information languagethat you're speaking has to be
incredibly dense and rich.
Also, bridge in our daily life.
There's not a lot ofconsequences to misspeaking.
If I go into the grocery storeand say, you know, I'd like a
pound of beef, and I meant Ionly need a half pound of beef,
(05:48):
there's not a consequence tothat misspeak, whereas in bridge
, if you misspeak when you'recommunicating with your partner,
you end up having a disaster.
There's an immediate negativeenforcement, just as there's a
positive reinforcement.
When you have a goodconversation with your partner,
there's a positive reinforcement.
When you have a goodconversation with your partner,
there is a positivereinforcement.
(06:08):
So it drives specificity oflanguage in a way that normal
life doesn't.
So that's the first skill islanguage, and I think that's
really important because it'sbeen shown in all parts of life,
from you know, childhooddevelopment to later in life,
(06:29):
that having language be anactive part of your life is good
for mental health and cognitivehealth.
The play playing a hand ofbridge or defending a hand of
bridge if you're the opponentsis about solving puzzles.
(06:51):
It's about solving a series ofpuzzles and they can be arranged
in different timing sections.
So, in other words, you mightsee the same puzzle you saw
before, but now you have tofigure out where in the hand, at
what time you're going to do it.
So that's another skill, andthen this is both a meta skill
(07:13):
outside of the game and withinthe game.
There's also the fact that youhave to be constantly thinking
about your partner.
You also have to think aboutthe opponents a little bit.
(07:40):
I think especially at beginningand intermediate levels that's a
little bit less prevalent than,say, at the expert levels, but
you need to be thinking aboutyour partner.
You need say I say I'm going towash the dishes and I don't.
Okay, my wife's irritated.
She should be.
I made a commitment I didn'tfollow through.
There's no real consequence.
There should be, but thereprobably isn't.
Anticipate your partner'sproblems and solve them and
(08:07):
listen to them again.
There's an immediate negativeconsequence or an immediate
positive consequence.
So learning, solving puzzlesand social interaction are baked
into bridge and you can'tsucceed without developing those
and utilizing those.
And so those are three aspectsof you know, using your brain,
(08:28):
that are extremely heightenedwhen you play the game of bridge
.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Oh, that's great, Because one of the questions I
was going to follow up with wasone of the things that a lot of
people with Parkinson's haveissue or troubles with is
executive function, where theycan maybe only remember one or
two things at a time, orplanning and organizing, and
also memory.
I know I get frustrated with mymemory and so I'm assuming
bridge can help address some ofthose, because I'm sure that the
(08:56):
memory's involved, there's somestrategy involved, but I'm sure
there's a lot of organizationand planning as you're playing
the game.
Some of the things that canhelp benefit people with
Parkinson's.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Yes, absolutely.
I think, to start with memory,bridge is, at its core, a memory
exercise.
When I first started playing, Icould barely remember what was
played on the previous trick,what was played on the previous
trick.
And then, as again, if youdon't, if you don't remember
something, if I forget to buytortilla chips at the grocery
(09:30):
store, you'll notice.
All of my analogies are me notshowing up for my wife properly.
I try, I try, I try to be agood husband, but sometimes I
forget the tortilla chips at thegrocery store.
There's again, there's a minorconsequence.
There's like oh, shoot, shoot,she's very kind and patient, so
she's not going to yell at me.
Bridge will crush you.
If you don't remember something, bridge is going to just give
(09:59):
you a smack.
Played, or remembering thelanguage of the system meant
that I, you know.
My lack of that meant that wewere not as successful as we
eventually became Now, if youlike.
For instance, I played bridgewith a student on an online
tournament a couple of days ago.
(10:20):
If you asked me about thosehands, I could tell you every
bid and every card played inorder over 18 hands, and that
seems like a party trick, butit's really not.
It's just a simple fact of.
For the last 30 years I've beenworking very, very hard on my
memory and when I was a kid andI don't know what it was like
(10:42):
for you, but when I was a kid Iwas always told you get a
certain amount of brain cells.
When your brain stops growing,they start dying off and
eventually you end up with adead brain and you're dead.
It was an extremely depressingoutlook.
Thanks childhood teachers.
But they've shown that'sactually not true at all.
They've shown that's actuallynot true at all.
Probably the most famousexample of this for me is the
(11:06):
London cab driver test, which iscalled the knowledge is
extremely complicated.
I think it takes like two orthree years for a typical cab
driver to study it and pass it,and they studied their brains.
And London cab drivers have alarger hippocampus which is, you
know, my memory is by mass, bymass.
(11:29):
They're not.
They're not measuring it by,like a test or, like you know,
turnover flashcards.
They're literally justmeasuring the amount of brain
matter that London cab drivershave in that area and they grew
it.
So, just like you want biggerbiceps, you go to the gym and
you do bicep curls.
If you want a stronger memory.
You work on your memory andwhat I love about Bridge is
(11:55):
Bridge will sneak in skilldevelopment on you, like you're
playing a game, you're havingfun, you're either throwing
cards or you're clicking buttonson the screen and you don't
know that you're working outyour brain.
I turned around, I was 20 whenSamantha and I met and I turned
around I was 40.
And all of a sudden, I had thiscrazy memory that I didn't set
(12:22):
out to have an insane memory, Ijust needed it to be good at a
game that I loved.
So, yeah, so memory focusthat's one thing that we really
focus on with students isstripping things down for them.
I think that, regardless ofyour age or your circumstances,
I think when we try to take onmore than is appropriate for the
moment, take on more than isappropriate for the moment, I
(12:45):
think we're going to fail.
So, for me, I'm always seekingways to tell my students okay,
here's the two things I want youto think about, two.
Right, and getting in the habitof I'm not going to think about
six things, I'm going to thinkabout two things allows us to
develop that focus on those twothings.
(13:06):
So, yeah, so, memory and focus.
Bridge requires it, but it'sfun.
So you know it's not the same,as you know, sitting down and
trying to memorize the phonebook or something.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Well, I mean that's a good point, that to focus on
just one or two things, becauseI, you know, I've had
Parkinson's for 15 years and Iknow that things that I used to
be able to do I can't rememberas many things.
Like you know, just going tothe grocery store my wife will
say, aren't you going to make alist?
No, I've got it and it's only.
You know three to five thingsand I get up there and I can
remember the first two and thenI'm mean, that's a great point.
(13:38):
And I did want to ask you youmentioned that you teach.
You know you've been teachingbridge.
Do you have any personalstories where you might've had
somebody with, whether it's adisability or whether you've
just seen them blossom in termsof their cognitive function from
where they started?
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Yeah, I would say over the course of my career
teaching thousands of peoplethat I've seen, I've always seen
focus and memory improve.
There's always a beneficialaspect to bridge.
The most extreme example ofthis, which is unique, and I had
a student who reached out I hada person reach out to me and
(14:25):
say I would like you andSamantha to teach me and my wife
to play bridge and I said okay,great, he wanted both of us to
attend, which was fine.
That's a bit unusual for usUsually-person lessons.
Now we're 100% virtual, exceptfor tournaments and things like
(14:47):
that.
But we drove to their very nicehome and his wife was not fully
mentally present.
She was resetting every one ortwo minutes.
She would setting every one ortwo minutes.
(15:09):
She would who are these people?
Why are they here?
He'd explain they're here toteach us bridge.
She was unhappy about this andthen, one or two minutes later,
she'd ask the same questionagain.
She would say who are thesepeople?
And Samantha and I were teaching.
We're doing our best.
This is obviously a verychallenging situation.
(15:30):
Our approach to this is toteach no different than we would
teach anyone else.
Repeated, we repeat the concept.
If the student needs a conceptrepeated.
We repeat the concept when thestudent is ready to move on, we
move on.
(15:50):
Right, the student sets thepace.
And I think that's reallyimportant as a teacher is to
always let the student set thepace.
They might not think of it inthose terms, but that's what
should be happening.
So we reach about a half an hourinto the lesson and we take a
little break and he takes usaside and said I just want to
let you know that my wife isactually a high level tournament
(16:12):
bridge player and about sixmonths ago she had a stroke, and
a severe one, and basically hercognitive function was almost
completely destroyed.
And Samantha said oh okay, weunderstand Definitely something.
I wish she would have warned mecoming in.
(16:32):
I could understand why hedidn't.
So we sat back down andprobably about 15 or 20 minutes
later, samantha and I put a handon the table a lesson hand on
the table and she picks it upand all of a sudden she was a
completely different human being, just flashed into a different
(16:54):
personality.
She said she had the auctionvery quickly and then the dummy
came down and she laid her handsdown, which is called a claim
You're allowed to do this.
And she said I'm going to dothis, this and this.
And I said, okay, great.
And she says this hand's soeasy, this is so boring.
I'm like, okay, great.
(17:15):
And then she told us a storyabout a hand she played at a
bridge tournament 20 years agoor 20 years previous, and
Samantha and I were in shock.
We didn't.
I mean, we'd never experiencedsomething like this before.
We'd never seen something likethis before.
And about a minute later shewent back to who are these
(17:36):
people?
Why are they here, not knowinghow to play bridge?
He fired us very gently at theend of that lesson.
He said he couldn't handle itemotionally that his wife of 50
years was not the person thatshe was and she couldn't do the
things she used to do.
And there have been studiesthat have shown that if you can
(18:03):
somehow access parts of yourbrain that you've previously had
, you can actually rebuildneural pathways.
So unfortunately, I didn't getto see what would have happened
if we kept coming.
I definitely had plans forbringing extremely complicated
hands out of high-level bridgebooks to throw at her when she
(18:24):
was having these moments ofconnection.
So that's the most extremeexample I have and again, I'm
not a medical professional, soI'm not saying this will work
for you or anybody else, but Iam saying that I've seen bridge
help improve memory and focus inevery student I've ever had, in
myself, in my wife so, and you,and scientific studies back
(18:47):
that up.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Well, that's great.
Now the other part of one of thethings with Parkinson's is
people can become sociallyisolated because with their
motor symptoms they've gottremors or they're having
difficulty walking and they'reembarrassed to go out in public
and then pretty soon they startdropping out of a lot of social
activities that they're involvedin.
It sounds like Bridge is anopportunity for people to get
(19:11):
together with others, and maybeit's through one of the
Parkinson's support groups,because a lot of people go to
monthly Parkinson's supportgroups and maybe that's an
opportunity for them to start,you know, having maybe forming
(19:33):
some bridge teams there toreally help to improve the
social interaction among thesupport group members and
especially caregivers as well,because caregivers are a lot of
times, are burdened and stressedbecause they spend so much time
taking care of the patient withParkinson's that they don't
have a lot of time forthemselves, the patient with
Parkinson's, that they don'thave a lot of time for
themselves.
And maybe Bridge might be in aspart of the support group and
outlet for them to get together,have fun and benefit themselves
at the same time.
(19:53):
So that's just something I wasthinking through as you were
talking, and then have you seenin your experience where Bridge
has helped create sense ofcommunities in other areas.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Yeah, absolutely so.
I want to address first of allhow accessible bridge is.
So there's two ways to playbridge in person, which I love.
I would definitely say that,whether it's a bridge club or a
community group or just fourfriends who get together and
play bridge, you know there'sthe country clubs I've gone to
(20:30):
teach lessons in, there's cardrooms where people play bridge.
Community centers frequentlyhave some sort of bridge option
available.
So that's definitely a greatway to experience bridge and get
some social connection.
If you're facing challenges ormaybe you just don't want to go
(20:51):
out to a group, maybe you'remore of a homebody and you want
to cuddle with your dogs.
Speaking for myself, there's awebsite called BridgeBasecom,
b-a-s-e, so BridgeBasecom andit's completely free.
I don't have an affiliate linkand it's completely free.
(21:32):
I don't have an affiliate link.
So if you sign up, the onlyreal way to spend money on there
is by entering certifiedtournaments by the ACBL, and
also I think they have someother sort of things that you
can purchase, like lesson packsand things like that.
But essentially it's free andyou can create an account and
you can sign up and you can playBridge 24-7 for free.
You can play with a partner.
You know you can just have thecomputer, give you a random
table, whatever.
So Bridge is extremelyaccessible and it's also
extremely budget-friendly.
I don't think there's anybody inthis world right now who isn't
trying to stretch theirentertainment dollar, to stretch
(21:52):
their time dollar.
I know that when Samantha and Iplay for fun, we can play for
three hours and have spentnothing except what it costs for
our electricity and ourinternet and we're already
paying that anyway, right.
So that's great.
It's a free way to spend somereally enjoyable quality time
For me.
I get to spend it with my wife,which is amazing.
(22:14):
But I want to speak to thecaregivers.
If you're listening to thispodcast and you're a caregiver
or you're supporting someonewith Parkinson's, I want to say
that bridge is amazing in a lotof ways.
So there's two different waysyou can approach it.
You can learn bridge and be thepartner of your person that
you're caring for, if that'ssomething that you are
(22:35):
interested in and enjoy for themto have quality time where your
workload, your caregiver load,is extremely minimal.
I took care of my grandmother.
(23:01):
My grandmother was thestrongest person I've ever known
.
She was diagnosed withpancreatic cancer and so for the
last six months of her life shelived with me and my family and
we took care of her.
And as things got bad and myfamily and we took care of her
and as things got bad, it was ahospice situation and all that
Caregiver fatigue is reallydangerous for the caregiver and
any way that you can find tocontinue to give quality care in
(23:24):
a way that is good for thecaregiver I think is so critical
because then it becomessustainable.
So if you have somebody whofalls in love with Bridge,
samantha and I were not good atBridge for several years.
We played with our friends andwe were terrible and just bad at
Bridge and then I actuallyfractured my leg on a national
(23:46):
tour of Romeo and Juliet and Ibasically couldn't walk for six
months and I had to, I had to.
I basically couldn't walk forsix months and Samantha had to
take care of me.
You know I could get around thehouse and stuff like that, but
like couldn't work.
Could you know, just basicallygo to rehab and sit at my
computer and at that time therewas the first, you know, bridge
website that I was aware of andI could play bridge eight hours
(24:07):
a day, eight to 10 hours a day,and, boy, it made a huge
difference in my life andtherefore it made a huge
difference in her life, becausethat was eight to ten hours of
my day where she didn't have toworry.
You know, okay, well, he's justsitting around depressed or
watching tv or getting sad orwhatever.
So I'm not saying that you knowsomeone, there's going to be a
(24:30):
few people out there who trybridge.
You're gonna going to like, ohyeah, I love this game.
I play eight to 10 hours a day.
I'm not saying that's going tohappen for you, but I am saying,
even if it's just an hour, evenif it's just a half an hour,
where someone is like having funand enjoying themselves and you
can have a cup of tea or, youknow, catch up on your emails or
whatever, bridge is amazingthat way.
(24:51):
And if it's a community, ifyou're, if, if you know, if your
community is building it, thenthen that that community becomes
more robust in terms ofactivities.
And now again, you know thatyou're, the person you're
supporting is having an amazingtime.
I mean, if you play in atournament, a session of bridge
is like three hours, so that'stime.
I mean, if you play in atournament, a session of bridge
is like three hours, so that's,that's three hours where they're
(25:12):
having an amazing quality oflife and your workload is
minimized.
I love bridge for that reason,one of the many reasons I love
bridge.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Oh, great, yeah, my neighbor Marlene.
She's 85.
They've been playing bridgewith a group of four or five or
I think there's maybe eight ofthem, but it's dwindled down
over the years because a coupleof them have passed away, but 50
years.
So every Tuesday they either gonext door to her house or
they're at one of the otherperson's house and they spend
three and four hours playingbridge and you know they make
(25:44):
you know different snacks foreach other, but they really
enjoy it.
So it's, it sounds like bridgeis a great way to help support
your emotional well-being aswell and it can give whether
it's the person with Parkinson'sor whether it's the caregiver.
It's kind of a win-win for bothgroups.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
So can you tell us a little bit about how, if someone
wanted to get started inplaying bridge Because most
people they might be listeningand thinking, well, this sounds
great, and so anything that theycan do to improve their
(26:34):
communication and project theirspeech, that's going to help as
well.
So it sounds like there's a lotof benefits.
But then people may be sittinglistening and saying, well,
that's great, but I have no ideahow to get started or where to
get started, and is it a hardgame?
Is it something that's going tobe really hard for me to learn
and I'm just going to getfrustrated and quit.
(26:54):
So maybe you can speak a littlebit to that.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Yeah, that that was the big problem when Samantha
and I started to learn, you know, back in early 90s, was there
was no internet to speak of.
I didn't have an email accountyet, I didn't have a cell phone
yet.
So, grab some bridge books fromthe library and they were like
hieroglyphics to me because theywere all designed for, you know
, intermediate or advancedplayers.
So I would say the steps are.
(27:21):
To me, the steps are very, veryclear, which is step one just
learn the rules.
Just learn the rules, so don'tworry about being good, don Just
learn the rules.
So don't worry about being good, don't worry about a lot of
people want to bridge intostrategy pretty quickly.
You can do that a little bit,but just focus on.
Well, how do I actually playthis game?
Just mechanically, what do I donext?
(27:43):
And according to the rules,okay, I make a bid.
Okay, the auction is over.
Okay, I knew the auction wasover because I understand the
rules.
Okay, now how do we play thehand?
Okay, great, that's done.
And in order to do that,samantha has a.
She actually has two videos.
One is learn bridge in twominutes and two seconds, I think
(28:06):
, or 22 seconds, and the otherone is learn bridge in 10
minutes.
It's just her going over therules.
Okay, once you do that, you'regoing to want a base some.
Learn some basic language.
It's just like learning Frenchor you know, or Swahili.
You're going to want to learnsome basic words so you can have
some simple sentences with youand your partner, and then
you're going to want to learnsome basic play techniques.
(28:26):
Now, there's lots of ways to dothat.
I would say for the for bridge,for bridge, for the bidding um,
you can get samantha's book.
It's available on amazon.
You can come to our website, uh, which you know we have over.
I think we have over 400 hoursof videos now.
So from everything from I'venever played before to getting
(28:50):
into more intermediate topics.
We have a YouTube channel.
There's plenty of other YouTubechannel people out there.
You could check with your localbridge club and see if they have
free lessons.
There's lots of bridge teachersout there.
So I would say that when youget started, give yourself some
sort of resource.
That's not just I'm just goingto figure this out, I'm just
(29:12):
going to stare down the barrelof bridge and figure it out on
my own Right.
Learn the mechanics so you knowhow the rules work.
Focus on that until youunderstand it.
And then very simple biddingsystem and learn a couple of
things about the play.
Once you have all that in place, you'll be on your way.
You'll have the foundation laidand you can start building and
(29:34):
building, and building.
You can take it as far as youwant and that's how we structure
.
Our lessons is we.
You know, samantha is all about.
Our specialty for the last 25years has been people who've
never touched a deck of cardsbefore, like that's who we want
to talk to.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Yeah, and I think that's probably most of this
audience that they're.
They're just, they just want todo it.
They want to do it for fun,they want to do it to help help
with their cognitive functionand social interaction.
They don't want to be, you know, experts going to global
tournaments and and things likethat.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Yeah.
So people always ask me well,what, what do I need to know to
to play bridge?
If you know, they say good orthey make some sort of
result-based comment To me ifyou know six topics in the
bidding, so if you know sixtopics of language, you're going
(30:25):
to be able to deal with 95% ofthe hands that come up.
And if you know six techniquesin the play play of the hand
you're going to be able tohandle hands for the most part.
So it's not like you have tolearn.
You know, samantha and I'ssystem notes are something like
300 pages.
You don't have to know that,right?
There's a reason why Samantha'sbooks on bidding there's two
books on bidding and they coverthose six topics, right?
So it's not you have to learn.
(30:49):
So it's not.
It's not you have to learn theencyclopedia.
It is that you, I think.
If you do it, I think, if youstructure it correctly, right,
you just focus on how do I playthis game and what is some, what
is a simple way to bid andwhat's a simple way to play,
then then the game is availableto you, right?
You don't, you don't need morethan that.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Well, it's really like with any game.
I mean, if you think about it,one of the first things you do
when you get a new game is youopen the box and you, okay, how
do I play?
And you have to look at therules and you've explained to
everybody so they understand.
And so what I'm hearing you sayis that just understand what
the rules are and then gettogether with a couple people
and then practice.
(31:30):
It's worth anything.
You know, because when I turned54, after I had Parkinson's, I
said I'd really like to learnhow to play guitar, and you know
I have to break it down intosmall steps, but it's.
But you also have to beconsistent with it.
You know consistency,persistence, and you know, and
I'm I'm hearing the same thingwith bridge.
(31:51):
I mean, if you want to have funand at least understand and get
good at it, you have to do iton a, you know, a fairly
consistent basis.
You can't do it once and thenyou know, nine months from now,
because you're not going toremember, but maybe that comes,
maybe people get into doing aweekly bridge.
You know bridge club with theirfriends.
Absolutely, you know.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Bridge Club with their friends.
So Absolutely, I mean, even ifyou just watch a video once a
month, you know five minutevideo or 10 minute video in the
morning, you know.
Just keep your brain in thatmodality.
By the way, there's something Iforgot to mention about the
accessibility of Bridge, becauseafter we talked in preparation
for this lovely conversationwe're having, I thought a lot
about the physical aspects ofphysical challenges of people
(32:33):
who are working with thosedisabilities.
How can I make bridgeaccessible to them?
I actually filmed a video we'regoing to upload it to YouTube on
how to play bridge usingnothing but your voice.
So if you can't use a mouse, ifyou can't use a keyboard, you
can literally just use in.
On the Mac it's called voicecontrol and on the PC, which I
(32:54):
don't have, I believe it'scalled voice activation.
But you can literally call outthese numbers and it'll do the
same as mouse clicks.
So if you think I can't playBridge because I can't really
use a mouse, that well, stop byour YouTube channel.
Look for my face talking abouthow to play bridge with just
your voice.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
We can put a link in the podcast description.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Great.
As soon as I have a link for it, I'll send it to you.
Yeah, absolutely Great.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
But yeah, I know that's one of the things that we
talked about, because withParkinson's, a lot of times,
whether it's cell phones or amouse, when you have tremors,
it's hard to control the mouseor even sometimes hold cards.
So maybe people they don't wantto go out because of the
tremors.
So is there a way for them?
If they can't because ofphysical limitations, is there a
(33:46):
way that they could do bridgeonline and or maybe just do it
online every day, just so thatthey can continue to work on
their cognitive function?
Is there a?
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Yeah, so bridgebasecom for online.
I recommend that 100%.
There's other sites out there,but Bridgebase is the best it
long period of time and theywould make card holders.
When I first started playing inLA, there was a gentleman who
(34:24):
was severely just dealing with alot of physical challenges.
He couldn't even really holdhis cards at all, so he had a
box with the sides so no onecould see it and literally all
of his cards would be sort offace up in a pile and then he
would be able to pick one outand put it on the table.
(34:45):
If you can't pull out thebidding cards, because there's
specific cards for bidding, youcan vocalize your bids.
So Bridge is extremelyaccessible, regardless of your
challenges.
And, by the way, I would loveto make an offer to anyone
listening to this podcast, whichis if you have a specific
(35:07):
challenge and you think youcan't learn bridge because of
that challenge, please email meor Samantha we're very easy
Brian at the bridge teachers dotcom, or Samantha at the bridge
teachers dot com and let us, letus know.
Hey, I can't play bridges andthis is why I I want the
challenge of being able to helpyou play bridge, regardless of
(35:28):
your situation, regardless of ofwhat you're facing.
I've had people tell me they'retoo stupid to learn to play
bridge, to which my point is ifyou think I'm smart, you have
not met me my, my wife is thesmart one.
You're not too stupid to playbridge, it's just.
You just need someone to guideyou and we would love to help.
So that's not something wecharge for.
(35:52):
You shoot me an email and Iwill be like, hey, how do we
solve this for you so you canenjoy this game that I love?
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Yeah, that's great, because you know I think it's
with anything A lot of times wewould run into a challenge and
we think, oh, I can't overcomethis challenge.
But there's always ways, if you.
You know, instead of looking atit as this, let's say it's a,
there's a big rock in my path.
Well, okay, how can I chip awayat that rock to get to where I
need to go?
Or how can I get over?
(36:18):
So there's always a way.
And get back to my example withlearning to play guitar.
I know, when I first startedlearning some of the open chords
and trying to learn the C chord, I had to really stretch my
fingers and I don't have thebest dexterity, and a lot of
people say, well, I can't playguitar because my hands are too
small.
But what I learned is it's Icall it the three Ps, it's
(36:39):
perseverance, patience, and Ijust blanked out on the other
one Patience, perseverance.
I'll think of it then, but aslong as you, you know, continue
to at least chip away and workat it, then break it down into
the smallest steps possible andthen continue to add on.
So once you've mastered thatthe initial thing that you've
(37:01):
broken it down into then add apiece on, add a piece on.
So like if I'm learning a newsong, I start with one measure
and then, once I get the measuredown, then I add another
measure and then pretty soonyou're building on that and the
next thing you know it's likewow, I can play the song.
And then it gives you a senseof satisfaction If I just grab a
piece of sheet music and I lookat it and I say to myself there
(37:21):
is no way I'm going to be ableto play this.
But then when you break it downor you hear a guitar solo and
you think, well, I'm never goingto be able to do that.
And then next thing you know,if you break it down measure by
measure, and next thing you knowit's like wow, I can play
ACDC's Shook Me All night longsolo.
So I think that's important toyour point about people saying
I'm not smart enough, or youknow, because we can always come
(37:44):
up with an excuse as to why wecan't do something.
But I think if we're willing tocommit to it, then you know we
can do it.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
Absolutely, absolutely.
This is, you know, I haven'tjust taught bridge, I've studied
.
I haven't just taught bridge ofstudied, you know, skill
acquisition I'm obsessed withlike, how do we learn?
Why do we learn some thingsmore successfully than others?
And you know, one thing thatI'm really big on is not being
result based.
Right, if you put in fiveminutes on bridge or five
(38:17):
minutes on guitar, you weresuccessful.
Right, because you put in, youput in effort.
If you and I think that whenyou can get away from this idea
of well, how well did I do inthose five minutes, and you can
just be like I did the thing, Imean my family, we say I did the
thing Right, exactly, and thatjust means we, we showed up and
(38:40):
we put in the work you know, Ithink, when you, when you keep
doing that over and over, youshow up, you put in the work,
yeah, because they say it'sgoing, yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
Oh, that, with anything, it's if you, even if
you do it for 10 minutes, that'sbetter 10 minutes every day, 10
to 15 minutes, versus doing itfor 30 minutes once a week.
And so, as you mentioned, it'sjust showing up and that's how
you're going to learn and makeprogress.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
Absolutely.
There's an amazing book calledAtomic Habits which I absolutely
am obsessed with.
I have given away probably 20copies of it to people, and this
is exactly what it talks aboutis, when you do something, even
if you do it for five minutes,you're building the habit of
doing it and then it justbecomes part of your routine,
and I think that's so important.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
Yeah, one of the things I talk about in some of
my other podcasts isneuroplasticity, and people
think what?
is that it's essentiallybuilding new neural pathways.
When you're learning a newskill, it's building that quote
muscle memory, and in this case,with Bridge, it's the brain
memory where you're helping tobuild your memory, your
(39:52):
organization and planningstrategic thinking.
All those can be, from what I'mhearing, because now you kind
of got me excited about learninghow to play bridge.
So my neighbors always ask me,do you play bridge?
And I said no, I don't.
You know cause.
I had a lot of other thingsgoing on, but I it sounds like
something that is fun and I canlearn.
But because I, based on all thethings we've talked about, it's
(40:15):
there's so many benefits thatcan help me in in maintaining my
cognitive function.
You know cause.
That's something I worry abouttoo, because my mom has dementia
and so you know as as much as Ican do to help myself with
mental challenges, mentalstimulation games, and it sounds
like bridge is a perfectopportunity to do that.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Yeah, I think so.
I I've.
I've played games since I,since I was, uh, I one.
Some of my earliest memoriesare playing games with my
grandmother, and I love games.
Bridge to me is so rich,there's so much to it and at the
same time there's a familiarity, right, I think.
I think that's the best sort ofexperience is when something is
(40:58):
familiar but still has newthings to discover to it,
because then we're grounded andat the same time, we're getting
to explore, and that's what Ilove about bridge all right,
well, can can you tell me alittle bit about the your uh
websites?
Speaker 1 (41:12):
they're the bridge teacherscom, and so people, can
people go on there and learn toplay and then, or just go on and
play with other people, I don'tknow.
Can you explain a little bitabout how?
Speaker 2 (41:23):
yeah, that's.
That's a great, great question.
So our website is essentially avideo library of all of
samantha's teachings.
She's adding to it all the time.
So, like I know, today she's,I'm gonna be like what are you
doing today?
She's, I'm going to be likewhat are you doing today?
She's like I'm editing videos,so, and and she.
So.
These are two, essentially, ifyou've never played bridge
(41:46):
before you come to our website,it's a subscription service.
We do have free videos in frontof the paywall, but, yes, you
pay us a monthly fee, minimalmonthly fee, and then you have
access to all the videos on thewebsite and we start at the
beginning.
You've never played bridgebefore.
Here's lesson one, and you justgo for as long as you want.
(42:08):
I personally, we keep thevideos to you know, eight to 15
minutes.
If Samantha goes over 15minutes, she splits it into
multiple parts.
I would say, one lesson a dayat the most, at the most, two
lessons a week, something likethat.
One lesson a week, if that'swhat you, what you say.
But I would not try and drinkthe ocean in in one month or
(42:33):
whatever.
Right, but I would not that youcould do that, I think, if you
did 40.
If you did 40 hours a week onsam's videos, you'd still need
about 13 weeks right now.
So definitely take your timewith it, because the lessons are
there to help you learn, andthen I think you should be
playing as much as you can, evenwhile you're learning, if you
(42:54):
don't want to embarrass yourself.
Bridgebase has robots I thinkthat's $3 for a week of playing
with robots.
So, again, budget-friendly.
So that's our website.
Then also, samantha and I doteach privately.
We teach up to.
I don't really like to teachmore than four people.
I'll teach five.
I definitely won't teach six ata time.
(43:16):
I don't like the lack ofattention when six people are in
.
I can't give enough peoplevalue for their time and my time
.
But that's not required for ourwebsite.
That's something that would bean additional add-on, something
if you decide.
Well, I really want to try that.
But yeah, so our website isbasically essentially a video
(43:38):
library.
If you want to play bridge, wedon't do that.
That's bridgebasecom.
I can't even imagine the amountof coding that goes into their
site.
But again, bridgebasecom isfree.
When we teach, we teach onBridgebase.
So we go on.
We create a teaching table, weupload our lesson hands.
(43:59):
I love Bridgebase.
I don't understand.
They're doing just amazing workand I'm so grateful to them.
But anyway, so you don't playon our site, you just learn on
our site and BridgeBasecom toplay.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
Okay, and then you also have a YouTube channel.
You said we do.
Speaker 2 (44:15):
We do have a YouTube channel.
Samantha posts there.
What she tends to post on theYouTube channel is real life
examples.
So in other words, she playedwith a student or she was
usually not playing with me,usually it's with a student and
something came up, some aspectof bridge came up and she'll do
a little video on it.
And those are all free.
(44:35):
Youtube is free and we're notreally much on social media.
I mean, we do do announcementson facebook and things like that
.
We haven't gotten to tiktok yet, but yeah, so youtube is free
channel.
Stop by, leave us a comment.
Speaker 1 (44:48):
You know, let us know what you think well, as we kind
of wrap up, is there any?
What one thing would you liketo leave with the?
The audience?
Audience is something that youthink is important about Bridge,
and maybe it doesn't have to beone thing.
Speaker 2 (45:07):
No, I just have one thing, which is, if you are the
type of person who is going toenjoy Bridge, you're going to
love Bridge.
You're going to love Bridge.
Now, everybody's different.
You know, I have a friend who'swho's actually pretty good at
bridge and doesn't care for it.
She'd rather be out, you know,taking photographs, like
(45:28):
photography, or right.
So.
So I'm not saying thateverybody listening is going to
enjoy bridge.
I, I don't think that's true.
But if you don't try it, if youdon't think that's true, but if
you don't try it, if you don't,I would say, invest two months
of trying it really and behonest with yourself.
I really tried this and and ifyou, at the end of two months
(45:50):
you'll know.
And also, at the end of twomonths, if you like it, you're
going to be like oh yeah, no,this is for me, this is for me
and it really is a wonderfulgame and it's a game that you
can play all the time, forever.
I mean, I've played bridge allover the world.
I've I've been walking byrandom storefronts in the
(46:11):
country.
I've never been before andfound a bridge club and all of a
sudden I'm five minutes later.
I'm playing bridge with peopleI've never met.
Bridge is is amazing, anamazing, amazing game.
Give it a shot, try it.
If you're having problems,email us, let us know.
Like hey, this isn't workingfor me or I don't understand
something.
Reach out to us, but don't robyourself of something that might
(46:34):
be really amazing for you.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
Yeah, I know I'm the type of person I love solving
puzzles and learning new things.
Yeah, I'm definitely going tolook into it, just because,
especially everything we talkedabout, with all the cognitive
benefits and the socialinteraction, and I mean I love
talking to people.
So, if I get to the point whereI understand the game and, like
you said, you're traveling andit's a rainy day and you say to
(46:58):
yourself, what am I going to do?
And you happen to find, hey,there's a local bridge club and
you can get down and playbridges as a way to mentally
stimulate yourself but also meetnew people, because you never
know who you run into and whoyou're going to make new friends
with and what you're going tolearn from other people.
I'm always one of these.
I love talking to other peoplebecause I like to hear people's
(47:18):
life story and because I thinkwe can always learn from each
other.
So I think bridge would allowus to do that.
But I really appreciate youtaking the time to to share
today and if you can get me theyour website and your YouTube,
I'll put that in the podcastdescription and yeah, and then
we can.
That way people want to contactyou.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
They can find that, find it there, and then we can
that way, if people want tocontact you, they can find it
there.
That's amazing.
Yeah, I'll get that over to youright away, and I want to thank
you for the opportunity to comeon and talk, obviously, about a
game I love.
But beyond that, I want tothank you for challenging me,
because I had thought aboutissues that people are facing in
(47:59):
terms of playing bridge, butnot to this level before.
So, really, as you said,meeting new people opened my
mind, opened my perspective, andit really gave me a lot of food
for thought about how I canhelp people bring bridge into
their lives.
So I want to thank you for that.
Speaker 1 (48:16):
Well, that's great.
I'm glad I could help, but it'snice to give people a different
perspective and, and you know,one of the things I know that we
talked about was how, inimproving social interaction,
and a lot of people, like wementioned, go go to support
groups and that's a great way,for we talked about earlier in
the podcast but whether it's theperson with Parkinson's or the
caregiver, but you know, there'ssupport groups all over the
(48:39):
country with people withParkinson's and it's a great
opportunity to expand Ambridgeand have people learn a fun and
challenging card game.
Speaker 2 (48:49):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (48:53):
Well, thanks again.
If new things come up, pleasecontact us and we'll have you
back on.
Speaker 2 (49:00):
That'd be great, and I would love for you to stay in
touch with me about your bridgejourney.
Absolutely, I would love tohear your experience because you
know, obviously we're alwaysseeking to improve our product
right, how can we make thewebsite better, more accessible,
how can we help peopleunderstand it?
(49:21):
You know that kind of thing.
So, and also, I just want tohear if you love the game Like I
want to hear your.
I want to hear your firstsuccess story.
I want to hear your firstdisaster story.
I've got some goods.
I've got some great disasterstories for Samantha and I.
I'm both back in the early daysand recently, so we can start
swapping bridge war stories.
It'll be great.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
All right, I'll do what my my, my one former
manager used to say just give methe really really.
So I'll tell you how it reallygoes the really really.
I like that, don't sugarcoat,it Just give me the really,
really, as he used to say.
Speaker 2 (49:52):
So I love that.
I love that.
That's fantastic, all right.
Speaker 1 (49:55):
Thanks again and uh tell everybody I want you to
stay healthy and stay strong andlive your best life.
So thanks again and we'll seeeverybody soon.
Thanks, take care.
Thank you, bye.
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