What makes a good coach?

Someone who knows how to communicate with ME.

 

This is about as open ended a question as you can ask. I would start at the bottom, which could be doing D.E.'s with qualified instructors. You can learn so much, both in your driving skills, but also in teaching/coaching techniques. I have driven with dozen's of "instructors" and actually instruct myself, but the range of skills is vast. I have also driven at Skip Barber schools with professional coaches. Perhaps the best coach I ever had, although very limited, was David Donahoe, at least watching and learning from his driving techniques.

But, saying all of this, there is no question in my mind that, if you are serious, I would hire a professional coach, one that does it for a living and one that can adjust his or her goals to be in synch with what you are trying to accomplish. There is so much more to improving your lap times than just the data, although, without data, you will be very limited.

Good luck.

Rob

 

Someone with a natural feel for not only a car but one who can easily adapt to a track.
My opinion of course.

Not imho but it may help.

Someone is either born with a natural feel and can easily and quickly adapt to that chassis and a particular track or one can get coached and become a very consistent driver but imo that is all they will ever be. I will never get the opportunity to prove my natural talent in competition but I know I have "it" and have been told by many that I do.

In summary a driving coach can help most but not all.

 

In my opinion: The most important feature of a coach is that the coach be able to communicate with the driver (being coached). For me this was not a particularly fast driver, but a driver who completely understood the physics of a race car traversing a road at the limit of traction. Few drivers would want to be coached in such a fasion. But for me it was perfect.

 

You want to find a coach who has been professionally educated and trained in the art and science of instruction. The best of these programs are run by the U.S. government, since it has the most resources and can devote the most time to teaching the requisite skills. It also has the best screening programs, since there is no profit motive (i.e., graduates did not just buy their diplomas, they had to earn them). There are, of course, other programs that produce instructors.

The difference between 'education' and 'instruction' is an important distinction. A professionally-trained 'instructor' (e.g., flight instructor) being preferred over a professionally-trained 'educator' (e.g., high school teacher). Not to say the educator does not understand the science of instruction, but the instructor has learned and practiced the art of instructing a physical skill.

Someone who is an expert in instruction AND education, and is also educated in the science of vehicles, is better still. Academics is still a key part of driver education, and a well-rounded coach should know and be able to teach all the academic components of driver education.

 

^^THIS^^

 

Agreed 110%.