TD training
I've been the TD at my club for 20 years and we need someone else should I auddenly 'drop off the perch' . . . . . . how does your club get others lined up to take on the job?
When I took over I have to teach myself how to set up a movement and manage/direct that movemnet and the score it by hand. Is that the same for everyone?
There are several parts to the job.
1 Setting up a movement.
2 Directing that movement
3 The laws and rulings over alleged infractions.
4 Scoring.
Of the above 1 is easy and 2 - Directing the movement is the first difficult hurdle to master. To do this without error you need to know the movement (a clear picture in your head of where everything is and where everything and everybody is going to move to). This IMO) is a one man/woman job; if two people were doing this job or even one person doing it with another ‘watching’ it would greatly increase the chance of error for many reason. Moving the Board and the players MUST (IMO) be the sole responsibility of that Director on that night. How, in your club, does your deputy director learn how to do this?
Comments
Thanks Gordon - I did that programme about 10 years ago and from memory it was 100% Laws and Rulings . . . . my question is to others at oter clubs what do those propsective new TD's do to get themselve up to speed with setting up and running (Directing) a movement?
The Law and Rulings are complex and a 'trainee' TD can always ask a qulaifioed player there to help with rulings.
The EBED Club TD Training courses may seem like all laws and rulings, but actually, the first of the four days are all about movements and preparation and other general aspects of running a bridge session.
If you have "qualified players to help with rulings", you might persuade them to consider TD-ing too.
I certainly recommend the EBED courses. And when you get someone through the course, set them on TD-ing at sessions where you can be available to assist, particularly at the start to get the right movement going.
It is nowadays recommended for clubs to have for their TDs a standard list of which movement to use for whatever number of tables they are likely to have. I have done about three lists for my F2F club as we have different weekly sessions aiming to play different numbers of boards.
Barrie Partridge - CTD for Bridge Club Live
I think Gordon was pointing you at Day 0, which does cover what you want.
We ask for volunteers, and mostly do the non-law stuff by shadowing. We also have good procedures and "how to" guides, which cover the specifics of our club (preferred movements, location of equipment, scoring system used, how to upload results...). We also have a 2 hour "how to use the scoring system" course.
Thansk for the helpful replies - I see that there's the option Day 1 on the EBU course but the scenario is like this . . .
Harry has been playing for 10 years and happy to help out when I'm away, and he needs to know how to run the event but there is no way he's going to go on that EBU course which ia all about learning the laws/rulings with a pass or fail exam at then end (3 people on my course dropped out before the exam). The question is how does Harry learn what he needs to know to run that club event and from what's been said here so far it looks like he'll have to get that knowledge from me. This question came up at my club a couple of years back and I created a document with the basics on running and event with diagrams and put that on our web site. That is there but what Harry also needs to know is that he must have a picture of the room/tables in his head (we play in different rooms whicheve is available) and he must know and keep track of who needs to move where and what boards need to move and where and have a plan for when the boards get mixed up . . . . all that is stuff he and all the Harrys' in the country need to know and I wondered how your Harry got that at your Club
Just to add . . . . the reason I postred this here now is because last week I had a sudden domestic issue to deal with and Harry had to step in with a few hours short notice, he got the board movemnet mixed up, pandamonium followed and the game was abandoned.
Key to answering this is: "what scoring system do you use"?
Also, Day 0 (no laws) can be done online.
ScoreBridge
Are you using travellers or some sort of tabletop device (bridgemate, bridgepal...)?
paper travellers
(we've spoken about Bridgemates and the like but only meet once a weak and we try to keep costs down)
Bridgepal is free to use - but you would need to provide the tablets.
Back to the movement:
Pre using Bridgemates we had table cards for the movements - these sit on the table and tell people where to move to, which boards to play and which pairs (i.e. pair number) should at the table in any given round. They're pretty foolproof. I know EBUScore (which you can get for free if you're an EBU club) can print them out - I;d be surprised if Scorebridge can't.
we had table cards for the movements - .
Thaks again - yes I have table cards for all but simple Mitchells - and they are simple but sometimes (because people are involved) the boards get on the wrong tables. When I am directing I insist that I and I alone move the boards to avoid error and that's what I told 'Harry' to do but . . . . .
I'm running out of ideas here!
If (like almost all duplicate bridge players) you understand that each round you play different boards against different people, then the movement cards are pretty much self explanatory. It's unusual if between them an "organiser" and the players themselves can't work it out.
You might want to consider having table cards even for Mitchell movements - at least they will tell the players that they are where they should be and playing the correct boards.
Indeed it is simple - and after last week when my commitee asked me to 'train' him I told them that it's down to him and any prospective new TD to sit down, study it, think it through, get it clear in your head and hold your concentration of the night (which is what I did / do) - I posted here to ask what other clubs did / do and it looks like that is it . . .
Thanks
York Bridge club is quite good at sending prospective TDs on the course when they're being run. There's not really a good substitute for running a few events, particularly in terms of getting the hang of the movements. I try to pass off a certain percentage of the club evenings at York Bridge Club for just this reason. Having them run a few sessions while you're there in case of an emergency isn't a bad idea.
My players frequently get reminded to check they've got the right boards and the right opponents. It's something I'd expect experienced players to do at the start of the round as a habit, just because it really does help avoid problems.
Several clubs that I am involved with have a printout of the movements in one file of the clubs preferred movements. A paper copy is held at the venue(s) and each 'director' should have a copy for familiarisation.
It should be as simple as look at the index for ? tables and go to that page which will give what boards need to be where for round 1. particularly useful if you want to start whilst any scoring system is being started.
Its a simple excel spreadsheet ..........
I have two individuals with no director training or experience who can step in and set up running a 8-12 table simple Mitchell. We did a few weeks to start with of showing them and then taking more and more of a back seat to let them learn.
I would also risk saying that if somebody always does it, nobody will ever step up and learn ?