Arthur Bisguier (
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Bisguier) once told me that years ago a person could become a chess master after reading just one book. It's a little harder these days, but even so, I've been fortunate enough to be a small part of the growth of six national chess masters over the 19 years or so of teaching. One of those NM's has now become an IM, and another has become a GM. However, I should disclose that I was such a small part of their growth that I am barely a footnote in their huge list of accomplishments. I was there, and I saw it all. Nice work guys. ;)
I'm still searching for a good way to express what a person should expect to gain from 19 years of coaching experience, but it seems to be different for each student. What the player needs, we go there. If you come in with an open mind, I will find the weakness in your game and help you work on it until it is gone. I have seen enough diversity in players to understand that we are all built differently and need different things to progress.
The field here is prompting me to add diplomas and best student results so.. I had 6 students gain more than 500 points on their rating in 2020, with the best performer at +700 points... I no longer track this stat, as the effort is significant. I don't work with that many students, as they tend to stick around for quite a while. My highest achieving student to date gained 1200 points during the 3 years that we worked together, and is still climbing.