Hello guys,

I would like to collect some opinions about coaching

If you had a coaching in the past, what did you like? What you didn't? Was it worth it?

If you never had coaching, how do you imagine the perfect one to be?

I'm really interested in the topic, so thanks in advance for every input!

I don't want this to be a promotion/denigration thread, so please avoid naming coaches and/or Poker schools in any kind of feedback.

I've received and delivered many hours of coaching from numerous coaches and to numerous students. I have principally received MTT coaching, although I've also received coaching for cash and for mental game. Usually this has been provided as part of a staking, although some has been privately.

The main thing I'd say is that it is possible to be very good at poker, while being very poor at teaching. These are two separate and mostly unrelated skill sets (although if you are very good at learning, that is likely to give you some of the skills needed for teaching. I actually think a lot of coaches would benefit from some basic training in teaching skills. Communicating ideas coherently, analysing spots in detail, listening to students, and guiding others in how to help themselves better in terms of self-study, are some of the skills which many poker coaches lack.

Overall I think there's a tremendous variance in quality of coaching out there (both in terms of poker skill level, and teaching skill level), if a coach is cheap they are usually starting out or not very good, if they are more expensive it's not a guarantee they have both these skill sets, you should always try to speak directly with a coach on audio or video before paying for a session, and most CFP is going to be from poor coaches as well in my honest opinion.

Good luck!

To even consider someone as a coach they would have to grind around 2m hands a year. Put in over 200 hrs a month and shown they done this over 5 year period without having a losing month. Then they have the right to coach someone. THats what me and my poker friends do grind are asses off. Not chase tail, not go party, not play short tiny sessions and go on twitch and try chat with people. Our life is grinding first. And thats kind of coach your going to have to find. I don't coach. I make my living playing. That is why its so hard to find good coach. Most of these guys aren't going to coach cause they make more money playing and they don't have time to coach. They are to busy grinding. Thast the truth. There is probably less then 5% chance you can find a coach like this. I did find one but it years ago and he was retired and i basically had to harass him to death to teach me. But any coach on here I would highly doubt turn me into the player he turned me into. He was heavy volume hard working grinder. He said he would not coach me unless 12 hrs a day and over 200 hrs a month for 3 months straight. I had to do that first just get him to want to coach me and it got even harder after that. It was probably the hardest training I ever had in my life. So that kind of coaching you need. I think someone like gordon would teach you the proper mindset for poker. I never had coaching from him but i have played against some of his students and i respect their game.

^^ This is not accurate. There are plenty of coaches with proven results, who choose to coach part-time on top of their grind. They would of course usually set their hourly coaching rate higher than their expected hourly grinding.

IMO the best coaching is not entirely based around going through hand histories, I feel this is a default coaching foRmat but it is not very valuable unless the coach is also spending time on structural concepts

Those structural insights are generally more valuable then going into very specific hand history scenarios. For example: figuring out how different boards affect your distribution OTF, and how to utilize your distribution OTF so that you can balance OTT/OTR

Something I feel is really important is that a student should spend time working on their game and building up groups of questions to ask your coach when you skype them or email them etc. the student should come prepared with questions

Also the coach should ask questions to the student and ask them to explain their thought process

The coaching sessions should also cover the timeline of the hand chronologically: pre, flop, turn, river. Jumping to river scenarios without covering the progression of the hand isn’t very helpful. Every street informs decisions on the next street, making the right decisions Pre sets u up for the right decisions OTF, OTF ranges affect decisions OTT etc

That's definitely not the sort of coach I would want.