Thundertoss Joins Infinity Seven as Coach

I'll answer with some quick points since I get it a lot. Obviously it's a valid question since most people think that the only way to learn is to play and hence another reason why there aren't many coaches.

First of all, my understanding is much higher than what my ladder ranking is going to show. That holds true for quiet a few people. Take day9 for instance who has made it known that when he had time to commit to playing he had multiple gm accounts. Now that he doesn't have time to play it would take him a while to get there.
Your ability to play is you matching your mechanics with your game knowledge and decision making. The reflection of that ability is your ladder ranking/ tournament performances. However it is important to note that if you don't have much time to ladder or time to focus on laddering (aka only have free time when you're already tired or something) your rank won't really be a true rank. Without a large enough sample set (aka lots of games) its hard to say where someone really belongs. That's why someone like MC can place into platinum (homestory cup). Obviously for him he can quickly continue to win and reach a higher MMR but he's also a player first. That means he's trained his mechanics as well as his knowledge. Someone in my position has sacrificed part of that. I am not a player first. My knowledge is derived from analyzing a large sample set. Think of it as trading mechanics for broader knowledge.
The other important part of this is the idea that you can't learn without playing. That's not true for this. While it is true that watching NBA games isn't going to make you good at 3 pointers or allow you to dunk it doesn't mean that someone who watches games rather than playing is a bad coach. In fact most nba coaches will just watch games, study players, and can't dunk. Obviously I can elaborate on this but the point is that you don't have to be able to dunk to coach basketball. I'm using my knowledge to help coach, not my mechanics.

2nd analogy: Before anybody becomes a surgeon, they study a long, long time from books. Books that describe where are the organs are and how they function. What medicines affect what. They can tell you where to cut for a surgery but they won't keep your hand steady. I am that book.
You might make arguments like "Well I bet you can't write that book without actually doing a surgery", but that would be wrong. Yes the surgery has to be done but no one surgeon who has spent the time to be the very best (and therefore qualified to write a section) can write the entire book. To write the book you get a writer, you have him take down everything from those qualified experts, and you put it all together. The Top 200 KOTH, GSL, and the countless games I've observed, analyzed and casted, are me (the writer) putting together all the knowledge in one place (my mind/ the book). And thus, despite my lack of ladder games and therefore non gm account, I am still completely qualified to help even the very top echelon of players improve.

So I guess that wasn't as short as I thought it would be but I could certainly explain more.

TL:DR - I've scarified mechanics and ladder time for learning/analyzing time. I learn from watching the best. Someone like day9 still has a very strong understanding of the game even if he doesn't have time to play it at the level of his knowledge. While most sub-gm rated players would not be qualified for this position, most have not spent the time LEARNING the game that I have. Even Code-S players improve by going back and WATCHING their games with help from coaches like Cella (not code S). Obviously they can't JUST watch because SC is not chess it has a physical/mechanics component as well.

^afterthought. Think of it like chess. You don't need to move the pieces to understand/be good. SC is more because its real time and has mechanics, but as I am not a player I don't need mechanics.( you can't really teach speed anyhow...)

Hope that answers your question. I know a lot of other people were probably wondering the same thing. And don't worry it's not insulting to me. There's very little way of you knowing my qualifications unless you've gotten coached by me or have talked to the players I've helped.