Is it worth getting a chess coach?

I Agree with Grey, but it's not only the rating gap i think. Are the lessons customized, is the coach listening to the student when deciding on future topics, and so on? If the rating gap between the student and coach is narrow it takes more precision from the coach to deliver value for money than if the gap is 1000 points. I usually ask a bunch of questions before getting started with new students to check if it's a good match for both the student & coach. / Richard

I think you can learn anything from youtube, books

If u want to be a pro, hire coach...if not use the money to buy groceries

@Muzan08 said in #13:
> I think you can learn anything from youtube, books
If that was the case, then coaches in all sports would be out of work.
Federer didn't learn to play good tennis by watching youtube on his phone.
Alex Ferguson got his teams to do ok by coaching them in person.
I'm pretty sure Tiger Woods didn't sit on the couch and look at golf books from the local library.

I often wonder how many of these people saying you don't need a coach are speaking from any first hand experience. I'm thinking unlikely.

@jjupiter6 said in #15:
> If that was the case, then coaches in all sports would be out of work.
> Federer didn't learn to play good tennis by watching youtube on his phone.
> Alex Ferguson got his teams to do ok by coaching them in person.
> I'm pretty sure Tiger Woods didn't sit on the couch and look at golf books from the local library.
>
> I often wonder how many of these people saying you don't need a coach are speaking from any first hand experience. I'm thinking unlikely.
I am not saying that getting a coach is bad, what I say is that the information that you learn by searching and hard working will be memorized better than the one that is given to you
Learning by yourself and experience and searching is better for me, however this varies from one to another

Is it worth playing chess? (:

same as books tho

@greysensei said in #11:
> Also I think there's a lot of benefit to getting a coach who's say 500 points higher than you, instead of 1000 or 1500 points higher. Because, if someone is too high rated- they may not be able to explain the basics to you. They mastered the basics to the point that they are automatic and elementary. But I think you will get a lot better communication with someone who's not too far off from where you are.

This is an argument used by tutors too. Generally the ones who can't answer the student's questions. Some experts can remember what it was like to be a beginner and they can communicate well with students at any level below theirs.

@Muzan08 said in #16:
> I am not saying that getting a coach is bad, what I say is that the information that you learn by searching and hard working will be memorized better than the one that is given to you
> Learning by yourself and experience and searching is better for me, however this varies from one to another
Searching won't teach you anything apart from searching. Passively watching a screen does not make information more memorable. Teacher here, btw.