I'm not sure if this is the right area (or should this be in the study group), but moderators/admins can move this if necessary.

Anyway, many discussions stress the importance of teaching/coaching as one way of getting stronger. I know a player who certainly is able and might also be willing to teach me for a reasonable fee, but before I approach him I'd like to know what sort of teaching is considered most effective? Some forms that come to my mind:
- playing against the teacher regularly with comments either during the game or after it
- having the teacher comment your games
- lectures of some sort (what kind?)

The teacher presumably want's to get paid based on the number of hours he puts into it (no matter what form the teaching takes), and I would naturally want most bang for my buck.

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Mostly the first two, unless the teacher notices something consistently wrong with your game. A lecture might work best then.
However, there will have to be a teacher student rapport, if either one of you isn't interested in the other's style/games, it likely won't be as good.

As for the payment, don't forget that preparation might count in the time it takes.

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My experience is that every student requires something different and being overly prescriptive from the onset is generally not always helpful.

Teaching games can be extremely useful, particularly if you treat them as open games and discuss freely ideas, considerations, moves, and feel for the direction of the game. Likewise, having your own games reviewed can be very useful as you can (normally!) remember the context of each position in the game, so discussing why a certain direction is better than another is more helpful than abstractly viewing someone else's game.

Things I consider very important for teaching if you are going to spend the money:

a) You must be able to do two-way audio + real time server games, the bang for your buck is hard without this I think.
a-ii) You must speak the same native language fluently
b) You must try to get in 3 or 4 games between each session, which are with sensible time controls, and that you have put some thought into what went wrong / could have been better in each.

I agree with Topazg. Though I think game comments are often a lot more effective than teaching games. If I get a new student I usually do a teaching game and review of that game in the first lesson to get an idea about the students level and strong and weak points. After that it depends a bit on the student and how the teaching game went.

I think the best thing to do is just try it and see how it goes. In one or two lessons you will know if you like his/her way of teaching.

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Laurens
Go school: freegame's Teaching School
Author of: The Next Move a book for 15-3kyu players.

Have to agree that the most benefit from a teacher is sometimes playing against the teacher with comments, and mostly having the teacher comment your games.

I think topazg gives a tall order with 'two-way audio'. Though it is a very nice idea, I really haven't seen anyone offer that... if you can get someone like that, kudos. An even better bang for your buck would be a 'face to face' with a teacher, this way it is more personal, and thus the teacher is more invested in your progress.




If any teacher tells you that it means they are trying to rip you off. The amount of time they require to prepare for class is their problem, so there is no reason you have to pay for that. Expect to pay for the time you are taught, as the saying goes 'time is money'.

Thank you for all the comments. WRT audio & language, I was thinking face-to-face with a person speaking the same native language as me.

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skype

Interesting attitude.

One could see a teacher preparing a lesson e.g. by going through previous games in order to get a feel for how the student plays and spot some recurring errors as "their problem" as you write, or one could see it as the teacher actually wanting to be able to give the best advice.

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For what it is worth, my sessions are charged for 3 hours (though it's a session rate not an hourly rate, and often end up between 2:30 and 4:00 long), and normally have 30 minutes prep and one hour write up time sort of included. Charging an hourly rate seems awkward, as I don't really know how much time I'll spend, so I feel a fixed rate for the evening lets everyone know where they stand, and I keep going until I think it's done well enough. It's worked out ok so far.

Also, I was thinking of Skype for two way audio - It's what I do for all of mine, and it works perfectly.



That's the best of all possible options. If you have this, the only question remains is teaching quality. If it is high, and he is at least 4 or 5 stones stronger than you are, then it's pretty much the perfect setup

His teaching quality is high (I know), and he is a lot stronger than I am. Now I only have to present the idea to him and hope he is willing to do it (at an affordable price)

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I know what you mean by two way audio, be it Teamspeak, Ventrilo, Skype... you are the first I see to actually offer such a thing... maybe most teachers don't, so that they don't alienate players that are not native speakers and might be shy about it, or maybe they just don't feel like bothering with extra tech stuff. All the teachers I have seen either offer one way audio (KGS), or just typing both ways. I think audio lessons on KGS are quite good, and I know that Yilun Yang does the typing version; from what I hear from his students, him typing isn't a problem, he types very fast plus the price is very reasonable. As long as you can type decently fast this form of communication is sufficient.

What I mean by 'tall order' is that I just haven't seen anyone else offer it. It sure is useful though.