John:
I don't have a "horse" in this race, other than being a fan of any material that deals with the human mind -- the inner workings. I'm going to purchase my copy of The Talent Code today, based on yours and others' reviews of it.
Concerning Geno-marketing-machino, if I recall correctly (Lou, correct me if I'm wrong), not only Lou, but many people -- including myself -- got on Geno about his parasitic, opportunistic, loaded-bait marketing on these forums, without (at the time) having purchase either a club membership or a banner ad. Geno's since purchased a club membership, but no banner ad, and still engages in the parasitic marketing. For example, in a thread about, oh, let's say, stroke mechanics, he'll come in there with how "the eyes have to be in the correct place" and proceed to shamelessly plug his product. In a thread about cues, he'll come in there and say how the "eyes have to be in the correct place" to use that cue, with same shameless marketing. In a thread about how so-and-so matches up with so-and-so, he'll come in there and find a way to shoehorn how the "eyes have to be in the correct place" for so-and-so to beat so-and-so. You get the idea. It has nothing to do with Geno's playing ability related to his teaching ability, but rather his marketing practices. Completely separate problem from what Lou's getting at with instructors who've "never been there" (playing ability-/accomplishment-wise).
Personally, I'm on the fence about the instructors-who've-never-been-there issue. While an instructor who *has* been there will make me sit up in my chair and take notice, it's not a mandatory thing for me. I do believe in coaches, who may not be able to execute to the same level as the person they're coaching, but are EXCELLENT analysts, and are able to offer alternatives to the player, that the player him/herself might never have thought of. It's that "you can't see yourself from within yourself" thing -- outside eyes have tremendous value. I'm a firm believer in that. And I believe so are the European players, many of which have such coaches, and attribute much of their consistent success to having a coach.
Anyway, that's my scrappy lint-covered $0.02 (that I dug out of my pocket) on this issue.
-Sean
This is correct, about Geno. I mean, look at the front page right now -- last time I looked there were two threads and this after a third one got pulled, not to mention all the plugs in various other threads. It's insane. (I also spent an hour with him in St. Louis and found some of what he told me hard to swallow.)
I also agree with Sean on how sometimes, just another pair of eyes telling you what they're seeing can be of immense value. But I think this is that coaching vs instruction thing agin.
Lou Figueroa