Gaining the Mental Edge at Bridge

An Honors eBook Art. # 978-1-77140-315-3
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$24.95
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About the Book

Winner of the 2020 IBPA Book of the Year Award. Bridge players spend countless hours working on bidding conventions and cardplay techniques, yet give little attention to the mental side of the game. Maintaining focus and concentration, dealing with nerves, and other issues are largely ignored. In this book, Kim Frazer—an Olympian, winner of gold medals at three consecutive Commonwealth Games and an Australian international bridge player—has adapted the mental techniques that brought her success in shooting and explains in easily-understood terms how to use these at the bridge table. Just like Kim’s sport of target shooting, a loss of concentration in a bridge event can cost you a win. No matter your standard and irrespective of whether your errors are caused by distractions, nerves or other non-technical factors, this book offers simple, practical techniques to improve your mental approach to the game, allowing you to enjoy your time at the bridge table even more. "I am anxious to try out these new ideas and incorporate them as part of my regular regime. I can’t wait for my next bridge game! I would just like to bar all of my regular opponents from reading this book." -- Ron Klinger

About the Author

Kim Frazer (Australia) won gold medals at three successive Commonwealth Games for target shooting. She took up bridge in 2005, and in 2018 made the Australian women’s team at her first attempt. Her articles on bridge psychology have appeared in Australian Bridge and (in France) Le Bridgeur.

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Media Reviews

October 30th, 2019
A New Bridge Magazine
It is certainly true that sports psychology is a growing field, and one increasingly used by top players and teams across a wide range of sports. I entirely agree with the author that bridge players and teams can also benefit from these methods, as a few top teams have trailblazed in recent years. So there is no doubt that the subject is one well worth dealing with. How well does the author manage it? In short, pretty well. She does a very good job of identifying the problems that bridge players suffer from. Some of them are familiar, whether from our own (or partners’ and teammates’) experience, or from some of the more humorous literature of Mollo, Simon or Bird. But some of them are far less familiar, and it is certainly helpful to have the entirety of this kind of issue brought together in one place. 
May 30th, 2020
ACBL Bulletin
Frazer has lots of advice about dealing with pressure and stepping outside your comfort zone, which she recommends.  She also shares ideas for coping with slow opponents and even pairs who seem to have your number.  Her goal is to help readers learn techniques that will allow them to arrive at the bridge table ready to play, focussed and confident.  This is the kind of book that should probably be read multiple times so that the principles sink in and become routine.  It certainly would be worth your time.
April 7th, 2020
Phillip Alder
Winners in any activity tend not only to outplay their opponents, but also to be better prepared mentally. If you would like to toughen up, read "Gaining the Mental Edge at Bridge" by Kim Frazer She covers the subject well, in particular stressing that it is a good idea to play two or three deals before competing in any event. Tennis players, for example, always warm up before a match. How many bridge players do that? Almost none.
April 7th, 2020
ABTA Quarterly
As a player who regularly struggles with performance anxiety and associated mistakes, this reader has already benefited from many of the suggestions.

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Award/accolades

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IBPA Bridge Book of the Year

The International Bridge Press Association makes an annual award based on the votes of its member journalists...