In reply to john arran:
John
You're quite obviously wrong to assert that the ancient English tradition of Amateurism still has any traction in sport today. Football, golf, tennis, just to name three sports, are beladen with managers, coaches, and trainers, and nobody manifests the slightest chagrin at the situation.
Sadly for people who want to live off climbing such functions offer thin pickings in our sport. The reasons are pretty obvious – when a [match-based] sport becomes big business offering ridiculous rewards to the top participants, any potential competitive advantage can mean serious money for the professional. The amateur will want to win the match too, and maybe a little training/coaching will help.
But there's not much money in climbing, and except for competitions it isn't match-based, is it? Outside the elite, climbers do it mainly for the experience, learning informally from each other, their own introspections, possibly books, and any competitiveness is largely with themselves. Doesn't buying expertise start to give the experience a calculating edge?