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GoLeafs
Joined: 16 Apr 2003
Posts: 26
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 Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2003 6:33 am Post subject: Coaching Sports in Japan |
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| I am currently in Japan teaching English but would like to find a job coaching water polo at the high school or university level. Does anyone know of any schools that may be looking for a coach? Any info is welcomed; I've had a hard time even finding schools that have a water polo team. Thanks. |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2003 12:33 pm Post subject: |
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| I've never even heard of water polo in Japan, but that's besides the point. What I can offer you is this. From my experience, foreigners do not get the coaching jobs. Japanese do. Foreigners get assistant jobs only. That experience holds for other sports (football, hockey, etc.). Best of luck. |
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GoLeafs
Joined: 16 Apr 2003
Posts: 26
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| Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2003 3:20 pm Post subject: |
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I know there is water polo here because I was just at a university that had an outdoor pool with some polo nets on the deck. Granted, they were grown over with weeds.
I don't have a problem with an assistant position. I was sort of thinking that any coaching job at a university or high school could be easily supplemented with a teaching position.
I'm hoping that with the wealth of knowledge on this site, someone will have some info for me. |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2003 9:35 pm Post subject: |
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| I was sort of thinking that any coaching job at a university or high school could be easily supplemented with a teaching position. |
My information comes from people I work with right now (at a high school) and from someone who I helped dig into hockey coaching (and came up relatively empty-handed).
What you may have to do is look in reverse order. That is, find the teaching job first, then get on as an assistant coach. However, from my experience, there are a couple of large caveats. (Note: these fit only the situation where I work, and if others have different situations, please post them.)
1. You get assistant coaching jobs only if you are a full-time teacher. That means grinding through the day with 15-17 classes a week plus about one major meeting every day.
2. In my HS, most sports clubs practice 6-7 days a week. Sometimes they even practice after a game! And, you will be expected to show up for practically every practice session, no matter if you have a social or private life (my colleague is married with kids and has to invoke the ire of the head coach just to take time off, even to attend the birth of his kids).
3. Unless you have good command of Japanese, you will have a difficult time instructing your students, let alone communicating with your boss, the head coach. This relates not only to giving students their commands, but in learning of the schedules, which frequently change.
4. The head coach is God. No matter how much experience you may have had, what he says, goes.
5. The pay for coaching as a FT English teacher is pitiful. I will have to double check, but I think my co-worker gets a mere 10,000 yen per month on top of his teaching salary. So, obviously, he is paid for teaching, not for coaching.
6. You will have little say in anything no matter how important it is. Our school practices football on a gravel field. Getting this changed is impossible, even though students wind up with scrapes and bruises daily. My colleague has run into severe obstacles in buying equipment, too, including having his latest requisition canceled at the last minute just because a bureaucrat decided "we don't need it" (even though it had run all the way up the chain of command flawlessly to that point, and even though it was a vital piece of equipment).
7. Coaching is not a tenure position. Teaching can be. Even some Japanese coaches where I work are teetering on the brink of losing their jobs after 3 years just because that's all they do, and after 3 years of it, their contracts are over unless they find classes to teach. |
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GoLeafs
Joined: 16 Apr 2003
Posts: 26
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| Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2003 1:47 pm Post subject: |
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| Thanks for the info Glenski, even though it doesn't sound too promising. I am going to keep posting for a bit to keep this post somewhere near the beginning of the Japan forum. Hopefully, someone else will have some more info. |
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cabbagehead
Joined: 22 Sep 2003
Posts: 46
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2003 2:21 pm Post subject: |
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Another fact to add to Glenski's tale of woe: a lot of sports practice takes place before school starts. I have a jr high student who regularly gets to school at 6am to practice football for an hour or so before regular school.
Do you really want to do this? Wouldn't you just be happy volunteering? |
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homersimpson
Joined: 14 Feb 2003
Posts: 569
Location: Kagoshima
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| Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2003 12:14 am Post subject: |
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| Glenski is correct regarding coaching positions. Unless you land a gig at a private school, you will not be the head coach. As someone who is currently acting as an assistant coach, let me comment on some of the previous posts. First of all, you can pretty much rule out any free time. We practice 6 days a week (and recently, due to the team's improvement, it's been 7 days). The only exceptions come during summer vacation (although practice games are often arranged on the weekends), school trips, festival practices (sports festival was last weekend), etc. Once you commit, you will be expected to attend everything, from meetings to games, practices to club-related social gatherings. It is an ENORMOUS commitment of time and energy. One caveat, how strict things are absolutely depends on the sport (baseball being by far the most intense, i.e. military-like) and the coach. Keep in mind, the Japanese head coaches often have the club thrust upon them. "Sano-sensei you are doing tennis this year." "But, I played basketball for the Japanese Olympic Team." "Sorry, we already have a basketball coach." Seems outlandish, I know, but my point is, if a coach has no particular knowledge or interest in a sport, it can make things a bit looser in terms of the intensity. But, don't count on that. More often than not, it will be time-intensive, and you must be careful not to get burned out. |
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Gordon
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 5309
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2003 12:18 am Post subject: |
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So Homer why do you do it?
What sport are you coaching? |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2003 12:38 am Post subject: |
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Regarding salaries, my co-worker informs me that at our (private) HS, he is not paid anything more than me (a non-coach) for his assistant coaching of the football team. However, he gets some money from the parents, twice a year, but only as they see fit. Last year his schedule was so busy with classes and had little time to help coach that the head coach told the parents not to pay him anything. This year, he is getting about 100,000 yen from them, total for the whole year.
Otherwise, he makes exactly what I do as a FT teacher.
I'll also confirm what homer wrote about schedules. My colleague is out on the field every day 6-7 days a week. That is usually 4:00 to 6:00, sometimes later, Monday through Friday, and it is often for 4-5 hours on Saturday and Sunday. It's insane because the bodies don't have a chance to heal, and the team certainly doesn't get any better. In fact, they probably suffer in their performance more than improve. On top of that, they play American football on a gravel field !!
As for whether foreigners can be head coaches or not, my colleague says it's unlikely but not impossible. We'll know how unlikely next year when our head coach is gone and the school has to decide whether to elevate my colleague's status or hire a new Japanese head coach.
Also, at my school there are not sports coaches who do only coaching. They all teach some classes. (The only club coach that does not teach any classes is the brass band coach.) |
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homersimpson
Joined: 14 Feb 2003
Posts: 569
Location: Kagoshima
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| Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2003 12:45 am Post subject: |
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| So Homer why do you do it? |
The million dollar question(s)! Well, at first I did it to get some exercise for my lazy butt. I do enjoy the interaction with the kids outside of a classroom setting. They are far less inhibited and actually speak as much English, if not more, on the playing field as in the classroom. It can be a very rewarding experience, but as I cautioned, you must guard against burnout. After a year and a half straight (not missing a single practice, meeting, game, etc.) I took three weeks off over the summer break. Had to in order to recharge the batteries.
| Quote: |
| What sport are you coaching? |
Girls' sb.
Glenski is right about the teaching schedule as well. I failed to mention that because I assumed it was implied. But I have a regular teaching schedule as well. |
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april
Joined: 07 May 2003
Posts: 83
Location: Australia
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| Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2003 2:06 am Post subject: |
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At the risk of revealing myself to be an idoit, what is that? Girl's basketball? Baseball? Badmitton? |
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homersimpson
Joined: 14 Feb 2003
Posts: 569
Location: Kagoshima
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| Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2003 5:17 am Post subject: |
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| Sorry, sb=softball. |
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GoLeafs
Joined: 16 Apr 2003
Posts: 26
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| Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2003 1:48 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for the info. To be honest, I am not too concerned about the money or the hours. I realize I will have to work another job to supplement coaching and it will be a huge time committment, this is no different from many coaching jobs in Canada.
My main goal is to just get in touch with some people who coach or have coached to see where there may be some possibilities. Water polo is not the most widely recognized sport and I am finding it difficult to even find people involved in it.
I have inquired at a few high schools and universities but with limited success. I know there are teams here, I just can't find them. |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2003 2:06 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| I realize I will have to work another job to supplement coaching and it will be a huge time committment, this is no different from many coaching jobs in Canada. |
Read my messages again. In my experience, you can't even get an assistant coaching job unless you are a FT teacher at the same school. We're not talking about being an assistant coach at a HS, and then teaching English in a different school. If someone knows differently, please post.
So, in Japan, it is different than in Canada. |
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ellienihon
Joined: 20 Sep 2003
Posts: 34
Location: San Diego, CA
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| Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2003 6:45 am Post subject: |
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| There's probably something I'm missing here, but I was wondering if you had looked at the JET program which has the SEA position (sports something or other) |
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