Originally Posted by misterwaterfall

If you're starting from scratch, a coach can really help accelerate the learning curve IMO. Do you want to win races and advance quickly? If yes I say try out a coach and see how you like it. If you don't really care about that and like doing things on your own, then you can certainly go the self coached route and find success there as well. Matt and Fudgy are two examples of people who kick ass and don't have coaches.