Wednesday, November 26, 2008

A Competitive Advantage



(Photo of running coach Gilbert Tuhabonye by Jeff Campbell)

I hired a semi-active International Master to coach me and I'll be "seeing" him for two hours every other week. The sessions will be on ICC for $22/hour. I like his approach, he speaks excellent English, and has good references. We've discussed my goals and he looked at my five most recent games, off-the-clock. We officially begin December 4th.

At first I tried to hire local, but our FM wanted $75/hr and our NM wanted $35/hr. Besides that, they also only teach online unless you pay extra.

Coaching is expensive, but it should help me improve faster.

7 comments:

tanch said...

Best of luck and I hope your meeting with him will turn into a fruitful one.

Can't wait to hear more.

Do keep us posted on how it turns out.

From the patzer said...

Dont forget to post how the coaching is going so now and then. Will be intresting reading.

References doesn't say must, if it doesn't click with you in person then it will not say he's a bad coach but just the fact that he isn't suitable for you.

But I hope you and this master will have a splendid time and that you learn much although 2 hours every 14 days isn't much. Hopefully he gives you many many many homework.

Anonymous said...

I think an experienced eye can see your problems right away, so can help you to restructure your training in the most optimal way. It can be the right choice of the openings, defining your style of play, etc.
I hope it works out, please keep us informed.

Blue Devil Knight said...

Nobody in any discipline reaches expert level without a lot of formal mentoring.

Smart move.

I hope you let us know how it goes.

transformation said...

getting back here and about. read all your recent post, especially this and the last--man!

i like what i hear. you will have great success, i feel.

i dont know if i can make it valley forge in summer is it?--but greatly wish to.

warmest, dk

likesforests said...

tanc, rolling pawn - thanks, will let you know how it goes. :)

chesstiger - I hope so. I know a good coach who doesn't click can be counter-productive. Dvoretsky, for example, is not for everyone.

bdk - Yeah, that seemed to be one of the conclusions of that survey we talked about--while it's possible to excel without a coach, most people who make it far do in fact have a coach helping them. I feel now I am at least at a level where a coach will say more than, "Go study some tactics" so maybe it will be worthwhile.

dk, I hope you will make it to the World Open next year and some USCF tourneys in the meantime. I am doing what I can to improve.

Anonymous said...

he speaks excellent English

Win.