The effectiveness of the process of the physical education of students largely depends on the teacher of physical education, one’s competence, pedagogical skills, personal qualities, managerial capacity, and so on. The article is devoted to the study of psychological and pedagogical characteristics of a teacher in the process of physical education of students. The study was conducted in 2012-2022. 1323 students (528 males and 795 females) took part in the research. A survey of students was used to study their assessment of physical education teachers. The study of the relationship between students and teachers in the process of physical education showed that the relationship of respect is prevailing – 72.5 %, the relationship of familiarity is quite common – 13.6 %, despondency accounts for 10.4 %, there are also cases of advances (3.0 %) and flattery – 0.5%. It was found that 59.6 % of students prefer friendly relations with the teacher when the teacher is in the role of senior, a smaller proportion of students (30.9 %) prefer friendly relations and only 7.5 % prefer formal and 2.0 % – strict and inaccessible in physical and health-improving classes. The effectiveness of the impact on students depends largely on the authority of the teacher, one’s characterological, personal qualities, and managerial capacity, among which the most important are professionalism, pedagogical skill, experience, outlook, honesty, justice, patience, appearance, endurance.