Why coaching when there are videos?

[reemas]

youre right. i'm looking for more serious poker friends, more than a coach. all my friends play for fun / socially. i'm able to break even with cash game/tournament combos, but i think youre advice is great.

[DJ Sensei]

Private coaching is, of course, the most efficient and effective way to improve your game, because it targets your issues most specifically. However, it may not be the most cost-efficient, especially to those players grinding it up from the bottom. Sure a coach will improve your skills at .10/.25nl or .50/1 limit, but you shouldn't have to pay too much for it, and there are many other ways to learn about beating those games. Books, videos, and of course the forums here are all quite relevant and solid ways to improve low-stakes play. As you move up in stakes, those resources decrease in availability or become more questionable in content, and thus the most trustworthy and dependable learning will come from somebody who has been there before you, and knows how to beat the game like barry bonds knows how to hit a baseball. And you won't even need steroids!

The most important thing for any student of the game is that he puts in the hours to really work on his skills. Even with the help of the best private coaches money can buy, your improvement will be measured by the efforts you put into it yourself.

[KRANTZ]

compare poker coaching to personal training for a second. videos will not motivate you to put in work and set goals. an active mentor will. videos are also generalized to be seen and understood by a vast number of viewers; personal coaching is tailored specifically to you (at least as far as the really good coaches).

poker is a very emotional game - it taxes us all mentally. having a coach on hand to vent to, or to keep an objective eye on your play through upswings (you're running hot or playing great?) and downswings (you're running bad or playing horribly?) is invaluable and well worth the cost of long-term sessions solely for that.

do you need a poker coach to succeed? absolutely not. but you need to be motivated, diligent, consistent and always, always, always possessing a strong mental toughness.

a good coach can help you with all of this.

*if anyone has any specific questions about this, feel free to PM me.

[Joe Tall]

[ QUOTE ]
youre right. i'm looking for more serious poker friends, more than a coach. all my friends play for fun / socially. i'm able to break even with cash game/tournament combos, but i think youre advice is great.

[/ QUOTE ]

Coaches are exactly what you went through in your education, teachers. You can buy books, DVDs, watch presentations, videos, but do you think you would have been able to learn what you have learned in life without your school teachers?

I know I couldn't have.