The value of professional instruction

The primary benefit of professional instruction (ie instructor makes his/her living at it), is that to be successful the instructor has to be able to not only introduce the skills, but develop activities that address each individuals learning style. The more you teach skills the better you can become at identifying and correcting mistakes in technique before they become embedded. I have met paddlers with great personal paddling skills that had trouble sharing them because they did not have good teaching skills. Great instructors measure their success by their students success.