Hello,
I am playing BG since 10 months. I like this game, and with my logical and mathematical hobbies, i have managed to get 2200 on BG Galaxy.
I am wondering if i should work with coach or tutor. I am doing a lot alone, but maybe its a big worthy to consider getting help.
Anyone has an advice about this ? Who should i choose ? I am ready to pay a little bit money.

Coaches and tutors can be good but expensive. You might want to start off by reading good books, as well as practicing against Extreme Gammon.

I’ve done about 10 hours of lessons with one of the Backgammon Learning Center coaches. It’s very efficient in terms of improvement/hour, but very inefficient in terms of improvement/$. (You can spend $100/hr on lessons, or $50 or less on a book that can take many dozens of hours to master).

It’s been worth it but IMO it should only be a small part of your learning efforts (<10%?). I see it as a way to direct your self study and determine what you need to focus on.

Also keep in mind the big picture of what you want to get out of backgammon. Are you doing it because you enjoy it, because you want to win money in cash games, win money from tournaments, ABT points, etc. If you’re taking lessons to try to make more money in your $10 chouette, it’s going to take a long time for $100/hr lessons to pay for themselves.

Thank you both.
Well i live in France, there are no opportunities to make chouette. My goals are to be competitive and a the best player i can, because i like the processus of improvement and i guess i have potential for this game, i dont expect at all to make money.

" I see it as a way to direct your self study and determine what you need to focus on. "
That's exactly why i was considering. Also different ideas to "think out the box" and get out of my comfort zone in term of training ,thinking process, ressources. Maybe later i will typically ask to a strong player this :" OK i dont want to pay too much, is it possible to get 5 hours lessons and that you give me the best possible ideas to improve by study myself ?"

It depends on your goals, but if they include winning at an ABT Championship tournament level I think working with a coach is essential. I was just at the Ohio ABT tourney and several people were sharing the names of their coach(s) and how valuable it is.

Look at the similar games of chess and poker (games familiar to Mr. Robertie). It is rare that GMs and IMs and many others will not use a coach, along with the many online resources, e.g., Chessable, Lichess, Chess.com, etc. — a practice that has been going on for years.

Same with poker — the very common practice of combining online sites with actual coaching sessions.

Names of great teachers include: Bill Robertie, Mary Hickey, John O’Hagan, Steve Sax, Dirk Schieman — great reviews on each, and others.

Books are great — I have most of the good ones, but many are limited to narrow topics and it is it great to complement with actual feedback that explains mistakes and rationale for right play.

My view — many opponents on other side of board have been coached, so I better also.

Do coaches generally bring their own learning philosophy or am I expected to provide direction/expectations?

Also, is their a suggested frequency/duration of lessons or is it student-specific?

I am toying with the idea but not sure yet how it all works...

It probably depends on the coach. When I coach poker I like to see play from my student before anything else so I can know where they need work. I would think that that would be even more important in BG.

Coaches also have very different playing styles and I think it can be valuable to spend time with a couple different teachers and absorb the parts of their thinking that you like. Shortly after I started playing last year I started lessons with one coach who was very big on reference positions and memorizing numbers (takepoints, gammon values, etc), and who was also very big on thinking strategically rather than tactically (i.e., he always emphasized focusing on game plan rather than counting numbers or duplication or whatever). This was partly because I was a new player but I think he approaches his own game similarly. On the other hand, the coach I’m working with now is the opposite — very tactically inclined, and he just naturally lists off how his numbers will play on the next roll as one of the first things he notices when he looks at a position. Both are valuable ways of making decisions and it’s interesting how you can make good backgammon decisions when you approach the game in very different ways.