Chess improvement is about making your weakest areas stronger. My usual training method is, most normally, looking at the student's games first, and then it becomes clear which aspects of his/her play deserve to be improved ASAP. When the main problem is solved, then another problem takes its place, and so on. Being people, players are all very different, so my approach is individual. It's partly based on my experience as a student in the "Botvinnik School" in the USSR of the 1980s.
The most usual/main directions of work with students are concrete opening preparation and analysis of student's games. (To a lesser extent it can be such things as general middlegame strategies, not directly connected to the student's repertoire openings, and general endgame preparation).
Not all students are willing to work on their own and I respect any attitude - though, indeed, the desire to work individually, between lessons, is very helpful to the coach and even more for the student him/herself. I can also play against students. In any case, you have to play chess regularly, otherwise no one will be able to help you to improve as a chess-player!
Languages: English, Russian or Ukrainian. For online coaching, I mostly use Skype with a
Chess.com (or Lichess) analysis board. Contact me for my rates and if you have any questions: gmi@europe.com