how can you be sure ur coach is who he says he is and how can you be sure he actually knows what he's talking about.

Do some background research?

Ask for references?

These things should be easy to attain and should likely be provided by any decent coach, unless you're his first student and he's a complete unknown, in which case you might want to look around for someone else.

As Jim said, just ask the coach, ask his references, look at his success in both coaching and playing. If he has videos or posts strategy, that is (in my mind) the best way to really the actual value. Even if you're not a very experienced player, you can at least get a decent idea from strategy posting and videos if the guy is any good (just give things like references and stats a little more weight if you don't know enough to judge solely based on videos and strat posting).

And never feel pressured or "this could be the only guy with the magic pill for me." It's not like that at all, poker is no secret you need to learn to win. You need to practice a lot, and finding some competent help to guide you can be quite valuable along the way.

Most importantly, if something doesn't feel right, look right, etc. just get away.

are there actually pros on this site that i would have even heard of or what?
and how would u even know if the person is who he actually says he is?

Brad Booth posts here sometimes.

In all seriousness, there are plenty of pros, some known and some unknown.

If you read the forums regularly or search around on an account that claims they are a pro, it's pretty easy to tell if it's a joke or an actual pro.

Plenty of online pros and live pros, names from small low stakes regular pros to Daniel Negreanu have posted on the forums before (in DN's case I don't think he does anymore, got into it with an administrator, though it was mostly just him in threads about him, which you still get his tweets and blogs posted on 2p2 anyways).

There's too many to make a list, but the owner of PokerStars once posted on 2p2 (under the radar for like 8 years until a former employee moved to FTP outed the sn here), that Bellagio thief posted on 2p2, some killer in Thailand, maybe also that South American killer guy, Tony G, owners of major poker businesses and much much more.

I would highly recommend that you look out for the feedback a coach receives from his students. Even the player with the highest win rate in your type of game may be a terrible coach because he is no idea of teaching and a player with a mediocore winrate maybe a much better coach because the only reason he is loseing money are his tilt issues.

There are tons of coaches on here and other training sites and there are also plenty of big winners that know the game. It is important that the winner also knows how to relate to a student and help them with THEIR specific game. It is not a one size fits all game when helping people get better. It also depends how much you want to spend for the info and knowledge you are going to get. If you are a beginner or playing live 1/2 there is no need to pay Balugawhale $1000/hr because the info he presents will not be applicable (for the most part although he could still teach you to crush) since he plays way higher and the games play so differently.

I never really liked this thought process. Although it is all over 2+2. It seems like a pretty dangerous thing to say "oh he is really good but he just tilts bad". Then every mediocre player can just use that as an excuse and you can't really prove them otherwise, every bad play they make can just be a result of tilt. Also just looking at a guys bb/100 winrate is not the best idea because a guy making 12bb/100 2 tabling is making less $/hr then a guy with 4bb/100 20 tabling. And the guy 20 tabling has a better idea of the regs and plays that make $$ and the ones that don't because he builds up a huge sample size in the current game conditions much faster then the 2 tabler.

A mediocre player PAYING another mediocre player to teach just because he is good at "teaching" seems like horrible logic. I would pick the big winner that is not a "good teacher" all day and just make sure I prepare very good/specific questions. It may be tougher to grasp some concepts but at least you can be sure the advice you are being given is solid. How do you know what advice the mediocre player turned coach is giving you is good and which piece of advice is the reason he is mediocre?

I post here too.