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BGonline.org Forums
Backgammon Learning Center Expands Big Time!
Posted By: Phil Simborg
Date: Friday, 24 April 2015, at 2:46 a.m.
Approximately 10 years ago Perry Gartner and I formed TheBakgammonLearningCenter.com to teach backgammon to players of all levels all over the world via the internet. It quickly took off and we had more students than we could handle. I had so many students that I retired from Real Estate and consulting and became a full-time teacher, often teaching 5 or 6 hours a day! So we brought on two Giants with excellent teaching skills: Stick and John O’Hagan, to help. David Rockwell was added to advise on lesson plans and lesson material.
Together we have developed a most comprehensive approach and terrific materials and teaching aids--much or our material is so new and state-of-the art you won’t find it in books or articles. The effectiveness of our teaching methods has been clearly demonstrated by the successes of our students in both the Open and Intermediate divisions in major tournaments all over the world, as well as private money play. We have had over 300 students from 25 countries.
The demand for lessons for advanced/beginners has been quite high--these players know the basics but not what it takes to compete in tournaments or against seasoned players. To meet this demand, we recently added Tuvya Felt to specialize in teaching lower-level players. Generally these players are not willing to pay the $60-$100 fees of the BGLC teachers, and Tuvya offers lessons for $30 per hour.
There has also be great demand for teachers in languages other than English and French (Stick speaks French fluently), so three more teachers have been added: Tobias Hellwag (German), Fernando Neumark (Spanish) and David Presser (Hebrew). These three teachers are highly skilled and accomplished players, but also have been carefully trained and accredited by BGLC and have all of the tools and materials, plus their own impressive backgammon knowledge and skills. And they are prepared to work with both advanced/beginners and higher level players and price their lessons accordingly.
The BGLC plans to continue to expand as demand dictates but also will be adding more teachers in other languages. The response from Advanced/beginner at the lower priced lessons has been so great we will be adding one or two more teachers soon just to serve that market.
Perry: “Offering great lessons at lower prices to advanced/beginners, we believe will help grow the backgammon community and is important to the success of tournament backgammon in the future. We know that the more people invest in learning the game the more likely they will continue playing for many years."
Tuvya: “More than anything else, we teach beginners and advanced/beginners that the game is fun, and the more they learn they better they play and the more they will enjoy it.”
Phil: "We not only teach how to play backgammon, but we teach how to learn and improve on your own. A good teacher teaches himself out of a job."
For more information about BGLC go to www.thebackgammonlearningcenter.com.
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