Beneftis of a coach or club?

Benefits are many. Motivation to make your workouts. Getting out of bed when its 10 degrees to run...that sort of thing. Also, advice is good. The club should hold group workouts and you will see your biggest benefit from the push you get when you start to befriend those that are at the same level. My old club there were 4-5 of us that were very close in ability and would enjoy kicking eachother around at different workouts. All in good fun, but you will never push yourself like this alone. This also fueled me in a few races chasing eachother down on the bike and seeing your buds back 500 meters ahead makes you dig a little deeper on the run, hill climb, etc. Clubs are usually far greater benefit than detriment. One negative was the new city I moved to I joined the club and the first 6-10 people I met were 'elites', not really but they like to think so. Anyway, I left the club and met a few others that were more 'normal' and I enjoy the workouts/racing with these people.

For me a coach was beneficial starting out and when I needed someone to be accountable to when I didn't have club friends or we were chasing different goals. The swim especially helped to have a coach.

Like all things, a coach or club to get you into a proper foundation will give you the most enjoyment from the sport. I have met some of the best people in the world in my old club and we continue to meet up for races around this region, email eachother, and talk smack from hundreds of miles away.

Join, you won't regret it.

Both are hugely beneficial.  Coach will help you accomplish your goals by applying their knowledge and being an unbiased cheerleader / reality checker for you.  Club will provide workout opportunities, social opportunities, and motivation.

Our local club is awesome.  500 members, weekly s/b/r workouts, fantastic discounts from local retailers for members.  This year I've been combining one of the BT training plans with the club workouts.  Good stuff.

Like most things in life, I don't think a club is all good or all bad.  For me, I'm lucky enough to have the option to train with my wife's company's tri "team" when I choose to.  They have organized S/B/R workouts several days a week.  In general, I don't like training in a group...I'm about as fast for a 5K now as I was 31 yrs ago in HS x-country largely because I don't respond well to coaching but excel training on my own.  But it's great, for example, to have a group to do OWS with (esp. in the ocean).  I like having to option to do track workouts sometimes where someone else provides the structure and there's some peer accountability to help me push through.

On the other hand, my training plans aren't always in synch with what's on tap for a group workout and I don't like the feeling of disrupting the group by not doing the whole workout (not that that stops me, of course, if there's a distance or drill that I don't consider advisable for where I am in training).  And I've seen group workouts be places where some shaky conventional wisdom gets passed around and there's some implicit peer pressure to swallow what more experienced participants advise as gospel, even if it might be outdated or scientifically-unproven info.

I have not had a coach and I sometimes wish I would have had one as I try to get ready for my first tri.  That said, I am looking ahead to 2010 in hopes to do a 70.3. I want to have a coach for that.