September 2019 - 26

The 2NT Yips

The many conventional faces of 2NT can be anxiety-producing
BY SUSAN MORSE

ccording to the International
Olympic Committee, bridge is
a sport. Ever since the World
Bridge Federation moved its headquarters to the Olympic City in Switzerland, East-West players all over the
world have been hoisting themselves
out of their folding chairs and tottering
to the next table with an unmistakable
spring to their step. Who says boards
get younger, players get older?
This new status comes with responsibility, and we are definitely up to it.
Athletes live and breathe their sport,
and so do we. They train vigorously,
and so do we. They relentlessly seek
new means of improving their performance, and so do we. They watch their
diets, and so do ... never mind. The
point is, we're athletes too, right? For
sure, we are mental athletes, and I'd
bet my favorite convention card holder
that in a contest of mental skills, Steve
Robinson would beat Roger Federer

26 Bridge Bulletin September 2019

any day of the week.
As I see it, the only real mental challenge we bridge players share with the
Federers of this world is the yips.
According to Google, the yips is the
loss of fine motor skills, without apparent explanation, in one of a number of
different sports, usually golf. Athletes
affected by the yips sometimes recover
their ability, sometimes compensate by
changing technique, or may be forced
to abandon their sport at the highest
level.
With golfers, yips turn up when
they're putting. I have a friend, a decent
golfer, who tried putting left-handed
to break himself of debilitating yips.
He still struggles. Some golfers putt
with eyes closed, or apply nail polish to
their grips, or get their caddies to poke
them in the cheek (true - found it in
The New Yorker). Generally assumed
to be an organic disease of the brain,
it is not exactly clear whether the yips

are anxiety-related or simply a cause of
anxiety.
I have yips. Always have. It may
or may not be a disease in my brain,
but it's definitely somewhere on the
anxiety spectrum. My yips are all about
2NT. Just the thought of that bid hitting the table makes me want to hoist
myself out of my folding chair and
totter promptly and springily to the
snacks.
Everything was fine when I was
playing kitchen bridge in the safety of
my home. A 2NT opener meant 20-21
high-card points, balanced. I could
even handle partner's 2NT response
when I opened a minor (11-12 points,
no fit, balanced, bing-bang-boom).
The trouble began when I asked Alison
Shoemaker to take me to a duplicate
game, and she suggested I study two
systems simultaneously: Jacoby 2NT,
and the responses to partner's bid of
2NT over my weak-two openers. I
wasn't experienced enough to discern
the soul of these systems yet. Why on
earth would I stick my neck out and bid
some useless feature on the three level
when I'm weak? (Duh, because partner
has a monster hand and is trying to find
game.)
Once you understand why a convention is useful, you know its soul. Then
it's a million times easier to remember
to actually use it, not to mention what
the heck you are supposed to do when
it comes up. All I knew when I started
duplicate with Al was that whatever I
opened, if she bid 2NT, I was yipping.
It was such a relief when I got over
it - even when curve balls came, like
when Steve Becker reprimanded me
for not Alerting the responses in the
Jacoby 2NT system. (Not everyone
knows that, but directors will tell you
Steve is absolutely right.)

September 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of September 2019