Am I correct in remembering that you are a low-level skater who doesn't take lessons, Query?
Yes. I can't afford it right now, and the coach I like best teaches a few hours away, which adds to the cost. I would like to take lessons again. Upon occasion, I sign up for group lessons (e.g., ice dance clinics).
I did take lessons, groups and privates, for about 10 years, from several coaches. I never took more than one lesson from someone who couldn't show as well as tell, and eventually dropped a coach who could show very well but was frustrating for me because he didn't describe things very well (maybe because English was his second language?). At peak, when I had two coaches, I practiced 20 hours/week, before and after work.
My not being a great skater has nothing to do with my former coaches, one of whom has produced Olympic competitors. I didn't start anything serious athletically until I was about 30, and started skating when I was almost 40. It is hard to become a good athlete in middle age, especially if you have flexibility limits.
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Mishin and Lussi both had a basis for coaching:
Mishin was a Soviet National Champion pairs skater and won a World Silver medal - see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Mishin
Lussi may not have competed, but had been a very good athlete and took figure skating lessons from a top professional with the specific goal of becoming a world class coach - see what someone else just quoted
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Lussi
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When I volunteered to help at a local rink, I came to realize that most of the kids were largely unable to connect words with actions. Below the middle teens or so, they were pretty much monkey-see monkey-do learners. I honestly don't see how a non-skating coach could teach them anything.
On the other hand, some of the best teachers of beginners I have seen weren't even as good skaters as me, but were school teachers. Clearly teaching is a skill which is not completely correlated with athletic ability. But they were teaching within their own ability levels.
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But let me ask you folks a question: All other things being equal, given a choice between a coach who can show and tell, and a coach who can do only one, who would you choose for yourself?