A Greek philosopher living in Athens in 469 BC –  399 BC

He is often mentioned as one of the first people who worked according to a method that was similar to Coaching.  This results from the fact that he used to walk around Athens and engage random strangers in discussions.  He used two methods of carrying conversations.  The first one is called the elenctic method, which is the elimination of the interlocutors arguments by leading him to contradict himself in some way. The second is themaieutics method, which is based on asking questions in such a way, that the interlocutor himself arrives at the right conclusions.

Especially the second technique of discussion is associated with coaching by many people.

According to the modern Definition of coaching , it would be risky to call Socrates a coach, because today coaching presents a completely different form of activity and it is extremely difficult to compare it to what Socrates did and how he acted many centuries ago.