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BGonline.org Forums
one year of training.
Posted By: Strato In Response To: one year of training. (Robert Andersson)
Date: Friday, 14 September 2012, at 2:37 a.m.
Suppose you want to train as a backgammon player. One has 6-8 hours each day to spend on education and then an evaluation would be after a year. Money does not really matter that much but let's say that there is a limit of 30k $. The goal is a comprehensive knowledge of the game after the year end.
Question: Is this to become a professional backgammon tournament player? I know you say the goal is comprehensive knowledge of the game, but do you intend to play live or just be a great player within your family or circles of friends?
Six to eight hours a day is a lot, better to split that in at least two daily sessions, there is too much to absorb if it’s just one long session, and between sessions, you can absorb much more from each previous session.
Why would money be required? I don’t know where you’re based, but do you mean to travel to other countries and learn from the best players? Play in tournaments? Or do you mean you’d have a budget like that for lessons? Because, you don’t need that much money just to buy books and software.
The evaluation should not be after a year, but ongoing. If you evaluate yourself along the way you will see signs of improvement but what if somewhere along the way you took a wrong path or two, how will you know at the end of a year when and why you made mistakes - it could be hard to remember, know and correct.
How would you split time between playing and studying theory?
Books and theory are very important.
For example, you can read backgammon books but you don’t have to necessarily agree with or believe everything you read. What you want to do with a book is clearly comprehend what the book is trying to teach and examine those concepts to decide if you agree or disagree with them. I am not saying books are bad but there are some bad and outdated backgammon books out there. Also, the knowledge to be found in books is usually the opinion of one player, the author, though most often a seasoned player.
Think of it like this – if you show a tough position to (for example) five top players, they will all have different methods of evaluating a position and quite often will not agree on what the best move is. Now if those five top players all wrote (for example) a backgammon book for beginners, for the same reason, there will be certain concepts they would like teach differently – which author should you believe?
As for theory? Well, theory has a broad meaning.
On the Internet I find:
“A theory is an unproven idea or speculation.”
“Theory is a contemplative and rational type of abstract or generalizing thinking, or the results of such thinking. Depending on the context, the results might for example include generalized explanations...”
But it also says: “theory is commonly regarded as correct.”
Confusing, eh?
So what should you believe? I think some backgammon theories can be confusing and therefore should be discussed on a forum like this one, which allows you to perhaps see a consensus and come to your own conclusion of what to believe. You should also always put those theories to the test.
How do you measure success in learning?
Analyze yourself with a bot, even two or three bots to see your error rate. It is truly the best way to know how well you are playing. But play in live tournaments and play online as well, so you can see how well you fare against people - a good thing because for one you need the interaction with humans, backgammon is a game for people, you don’t always want to play a machine, plus you can learn how to play better not only from the good players but the bad players as well.
How would you advocate to learn the different parts of the game?
Every game takes a course - running game, backgammon, holding game, battle of the primes, etc. so you should create separate learning sessions that concentrate on the different types of game scenarios.
In match play, you need to become really sharp with the cube, giving and taking; it is a very powerful tool in so many ways.
About the cube: this is one reason you should always play for money, even if it is pennies with a friend or family member, because it has to hurt if you make a mistake.
For example, you’re in a game, and you know that you need at least one roll with doubles to win, otherwise you lose, and you have not rolled a double in the last 15 rolls and therefore you believe that you will most likely have a doublet coming in the next roll or two, if you get cubed and there is no money involved, you probably take because you have nothing to lose, but if it is for money, maybe you drop? Well, if you’re a good player, drop you should, whether for money or not. Emotions and superfluous speculation have nothing to do with backgammon.
Would you recommend to start a blog?
If you want to get the opinions of others, and help others, yes start a blog, but prepare well for it. Collect position problems and put them in folders under different categories that you want to learn or teach about – this will also give you a constant flow of new content to put up on the blog, because if you have to struggle to keep it vibrant, people will lose interest in your blog.
Also, by waiting a bit to start it, you will have already become a better player. Good for two reasons. One reason is that you will by then be able to partake in the discussion and keep your followers interested. Secondly, if you already have quite a bit under your belt, then you can help other, less skilful players to play better.
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