Swim Coach Job Description

Why I became a Professional Coach

I'm most definitely doing something that I enjoy. I get up every day knowing that I'm gonna head into a day working in soccer, and that's what I love doing. That's what I think about 24 hours a day anyway. It's pretty much what I love to do. It's my passion in life, so I moved into this field when I was in my late 40s, and I've never looked back.

Requirements

If you want to be a professional soccer coach, you have to get licenses from the country that you're working in. If you want to travel and work in foreign countries, you need to have a degree so you can get the correct visa.

My Path to Coaching

So I started off as a volunteer coach, like many other moms and dads, and pretty much realized that I wanted to do this full-time when I was focusing more on that for my full-time job. After about 15 years, I got all the right qualifications, took a bunch of courses, and that's led me to the point where I am now, where I'm taking a degree for coaching as well as a UEFA B license, which will be completed in two years.

If I Could Change Anything

I would have brought into the full-time side earlier when I was younger and had a lot more energy. I would have definitely taken my licenses and looked to get opportunities abroad much earlier in my life than I did. I waited until I was in my late 40s to go full-time.

Pros and Cons

It's a very busy occupation. The game is mostly going on weekends, and you're busy every day of the week with meetings, organizing, administration, and coaching. So it's a full-on job. You've got to really love doing this kind of work.

One of the big pros of this kind of work, if you're willing to take it on, is the opportunity to live and work in other countries. I've coached in Germany, UK, Canada, and China. There are a lot of opportunities to get out there and experience different cultures and different ways the game is played all around the world.

The cons are it's a lot of work. There's not a lot of downtime. You're away from your family for periods of time — training, coaching, going on tournaments, and tours. So it's a full-on commitment. It's one of those jobs that's very exhausting, but I would rather do a 60-hour week of soccer than 60 hours of IT, which is what I used to do. I used to earn a lot more money doing that.

Tips: Getting Starting in Professional Coaching

If they want to go into this full-time, start looking at taking coaching licenses in the country you want to work in. Go and volunteer for clubs. Go and speak to clubs, universities, schools. See if you can go and volunteer your time. Start that way. Get experience. See if you can find a mentor to work with. That's what I did in my own days. And eventually, just build up as far as you can with coaching licenses. Get more exposure, more experience. It's one of those opportunities where you say yes to pretty much everything that comes along.