Contrarily to your former post, I absolutely agree with this remark. In fact it is an opinion you hardly ever see. It seems to be widely (and wrongly) agreed upon, that firstly you have to get your technique right and than build up volume. From my own experience I know that this is not true. I have (and still do, but less) always struggled with my breath, and had during swimming mostly one idea in my head: "when can I finally stop this session, hang on the wall and get my breath back" such that I could not focus on any technique. I kind of gave up and only swum maybe 2-3 times a week with 1500m or 2500m per session.
Since last year (after 13 years of "swimming": yes also with coaches) I started another regime: I swim more, and started with 40*50 as a session and at the moment I do 60*50-ies, with a 1000m additional with pullbuoy to make it 4000 in a session. It costed some time to get used to it, but at the moment it is getting a normal workout and since I'm getting stronger, I can now have more focus on the technique.

This made me laugh on a Monday morning. Thank you.

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[what Yoda said about trying]

This is great! Thanks.

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[what Yoda said about trying]

Yeah, I tried two marathon coaches, and they both agreed - in their own separate ways - that I was un-coachable, because I did NOT listen to them

Example:

Saturday

Rand: I ran 7 miles, when I was supposed to take the day off
Coach: What'dya do that for?
R: It was nice out
C: Oh, okay. Take tomorrow off then
R: I'll try

Sunday

R: I ran 8 instead of 6, well, instead of taking the day off
C: You ran 7 yesterday, no?
R: Yep
C: Are you trying to hurt yourself? LOL
R: No, I don't think so
C: How do you feel?
R: Pretty good
C: How's the hamstring?
R: Yeah, I think I figured that out! It's from the way I was stretching while hanging laundry on the line. I made some adjustments, and it's fine.
C: You got a step-ladder? LOL You're going to take tomorrow off, right?
R: I'll try
C: ~sigh~

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

You might be "self-directed," but it isn't coaching. If you don't agree with it, then you don't understand coaching. I think on this thread Alan expanded on this idea more than I did, but any experienced, qualified coach would tell you the same exact thing.

Tim

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http://www.magnoliamasters.com
http://www.snappingtortuga.com
http://www.swimeasyspeed.com

to me this feels like sounds like bad coaching/communication. if you feel good and want to run more, then why the heck not. if you needed a day off or were feeling run down then you wouldn't be adding extra miles anyway. now if you were running extra and failing your other workouts then it's time to reconsider your extra runs

There are many reasons I can think of to NOT stray from a training plan. Also there is much to be said about the value of coach athlete communications and coaches listening to an athlete "who" feels up to running/training more but there is always a voice in my head that says "wait for it...."

Coach Rob PositivePerformanceCoaching.com

I didn't read all the replies, but figured I'd put in my perspective here. Everyone's is different. I was searching ST for threads about coaching because I was just going through the process of determining if I wanted to hire a coach or not. I have been doing endurance sports for at least 10 years. I did a decent job early on with creating my own training plans and following them to make some pretty large improvements in fitness (I was sedentary beforehand, no youth sports). Ultimately, my decision came down to time.

I realized that I need help. Not specifically in training, but with having job, working spouse, kids, home, training, there were just too many demands on my time that I was not able complete all tasks within a week. I considered hiring out help; gardening, house cleaning, babysitting, to name a few. Any of those would have been an investment similar to coaching, but coaching comes with the allure of having better performances (and if I'm going to invest time into training, I want the best performance).

So, the primary reason I invented (it could be false hope) to select coaching was that I think I will gain the most use of my time with a coach for the money invested. My training will probably be much more specific, resulting in actually recovering and not feeling tired all the time, giving me more energy to play with kids and do home maintenance. I will not spend an hour or 2 on the weekend looking through my training, going over my ATP, creating my workouts, etc...I will be more confident in my scheduled training so that I don't second guess myself and spend 30-60 minutes in the morning trying to determine what I should do instead of the workout previously planned. My overall training hours might also decrease, while I still improve in fitness, giving me more time for life.

The final added benefit, as I told myself, was that I might actually devote some extra time to work if I am more efficient with training. This could lead to accomplishing slightly more, which might lead to financial benefits that I could miss out on if I am sneaking off to make-up the workout I missed before I changed my plan in the morning.

Do my own thing. I wouldn't call it self coaching, as coaching implies outside feedback.

Why? I look around at the guys on my bike team that do have one. I think it comes down to cost, if you can afford a goooood coach that really digs and looks at what you do and adjusts versus just tossing stuff at you to do.

My random worthless sample is that I'm faster, on less volume, than all my teammates on LESS volume. Some of them are a few years older than me, sure. But I can race masters now and know of plenty of dudes older than me that are much faster.

Either I'm really gifted in genetics or I halfway know what I'm doing.

I prescribe to the having more time (and energy) by paying for other household tasks like house cleaning or yardwork.

Coaching, working joes with kids may optimize the time you do have.........but you're not gaining any time off really or added time for volume, whichever you need or want.

I would say hire a coach if you don't have kids (or you do and get a "pass") and are doing something that needs careful attention..........like a build up to a full IM or full marathon. Bike? I don't really see how I could physically injure myself outside of burnout and degraded performance. Otherwise, for an average joe without a current race.........it's just all the sweetspot I can eat in a "periodic" volume strategy. Have a week for more volume.....reduce intensity. Don't? More sweetspot and a few intervals. Race time? Couple weeks out start priming the VO2 engine up a bit for a RR or a cross race. Not rocket science really.

I just sort of coach myself, but I am not as hard core about the sport as most of you guys probably are. I only train for an average of 7 hours a week with my peak weeks topping out at only 11-12 hours. I only do up to the 70.3 distance races, have only been the overall race winner once, and my highest USAT score is just a 103.5.

I have been doing the sport for 6 years. My 4th year I did have a coaching scholarship. I expected to see huge gains working with a coach but I didn't progress any faster with a coach than I did planning my own season and training. Towards the end of the coaching period I was already noticing things that I felt needed attention that the coach was not address and so I looking forward to planning my own workouts again so I could customize them to the things that I felt needed to be worked on. My first day without a coach I felt like the first day out of school at beginning of each summer. I was free from structure from an authoritative figure and free to explore and make discoveries at my own pace. With the Coach I was doing about 30% more volume that what I do on my own. Tapers for races seemed to disappear with a coach and at the end of what were supposed to be rest weeks I often felt more fatigued than I did at the beginning of the week. I had a very positive experience with my one-year coach and would recommend him to anyone but feel that with guys who are twenty something years old who have been in the sport for less than 5 years being certified coaches that as a Masters Athlete my life experience suits me just fine to be able to put together a training plan. I PR'd at every race I did my first 4-1/2 years in the sport and continue to get faster into my 6th year in the sport and even with being a gray haired guy.

A coach can teach you things but you have to do the work. You can do the work without a coach and so at the cost of coaching I will stick with being self coached.

As so many people have eluded to it comes down to a lot of things. I personally do like having the flexibility, and low pressure of being self-coached (plus its free), and as some people said it can be uneasy to completely sacrifice your schedule to a coach but that doesn't always need to be the case. As someone who coaches a team of 20 athletes I think the question is more about finding the right coach, I would personally feel coaching myself but work with a coach that I really like as they understand I know stuff too and will listen to my input. But the biggest benefit for me is if you have a busy lifestyle or just an awful week you don't need to think about writing a workout, you just go out and do it when otherwise you might not have scrapped the workout. Also just an objective 3rd opinion is really useful if you are too hard on yourself from time time like myself