Are you thriving…or just surviving?
Welcome to a whole new world of friends.
So – you’ve emerged from the rat race and moved on. Now you have time to find an interest that expands your experience and offers friendship, fun and a new way to look at life.
Well, chances are that not too far away from you there’s a club full of people doing just that – and they’re waiting to meet you.
They want to get you playing the world’s most popular card game, Bridge. 220 million people are already playing and around 36,000 of those are regular players in Australia’s approx. 350 clubs. Many other bridge players have their own private groups, not necessarily members of the Australian Bridge Federation.
The Central Coast is well off for Clubs and our favourite is The Central Coast Bridge Club at Long Jetty on The Entrance Road. It’s a social club as much as a bridge club. It has regular lessons for beginners, improvers and intermediates and regular games for all skill levels during the week. Christmas and Melbourne Cup are just two of the special annual celebrations.
What’s different about Bridge? Karen Walker, a US bridge teacher with 50 years’ experience, explains five of the many reasons why playing bridge is, despite all the medications doctors prescribe, the best way to save your brain.
1. Bridge stimulates the brain. Research shows that regular bridge paying improves reasoning skills and both long- and short-term memory.You feel the neurons firing not only while you play but long after. Many players say that after a bridge game, they still feel mentally alert and energised, like the “high” that long distance runners experience after a race.
2. Bridge exercises both sides of your brain. Bridge is one of the few games that stimulate both left and right sides of the brain. Every time you play you improve your communication skills – logic, maths, memory, visualisation and psychology. It’s a unique kind of mental workout that can’t be duplicated by other leisure activities.
3. Bridge can improve your physical health. Research has shown that a game of bridge can even boost your immune system. By stimulating the brain cortex, bridge-playing activity produces higher numbers of the white blood cells that fight disease. Other studies have found that people who play bridge regularly are two and a half times less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.
4. Bridge is social. The game involves communication and cooperation with your partner and interaction with your opponents. There’s a special camaraderie among bridge players that develops from the social setting and the game’s emphasis on teamwork, ethics and sportsmanship.
5. Bridge is fun. Of all reasons to learn the game, the most important is that it’s just fun to play. It offers the suspense of poker, the cerebral qualities of chess and the excitement of athletic sports in a sociable setting where you’re a participant not just a spectator. Every session allows you to test yourself and experience the feeling of accomplishment when you find a successful bid.
Who else plays Bridge? Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Omar Sharif and Erle Stanley Gardner, the author and lawyer who created Perry Mason have all proclaimed the mental stimulation of bridge, Warren Buffet famously opining “Bridge is such a sensational game that I wouldn’t mind being in jail if I had three cellmates who were decent players and who were willing to keep the game going 24 hours a day”.
That’s what keeps us coming back to the bridge table.
Budget tip: A session of bridge at CCBC costs you the same as a decent cup of coffee. (And coffee doesn’t exercise your brain.)
Beginners’ Lessons: Our next series of beginners’ lessons begin on Tuesday 2nd June.
Contact: Please contact us if you have questions, would like to attend beginners’ lessons or join our club. ccbridgeclub@gmail.com
Central Coast Bridge Club – 415 The Entrance Road, Long Jetty