Hello all, I'm new to the site and have already spent most of my day on here! I'm just looking for a bit of info about coaching in Australia... my partner and I are moving there late next year/early 2019 for a year (to begin with at least), and will be staying in Torquay with close friends until we find a place in Melbourne. I was just wondering if anyone could help me with a few questions I have about coaching in Australia that I can compare to working in London; What are the standard coaching hours for term time coaching? Will I be able to take days off? How much can a coach expect to earn per hour for groups and individuals? Is there a lot of work for tennis coaches in the Melbourne area? And if so, English ones? To give you something to go by, I'm currently an LTA Level 4 Senior Club Coach and will hopefully have taken my Tutoring course by then as well. Apologies for the long post and all the questions, but I hope you can appreciate that I'm extremely excited by the prospect of coaching in Australia, but I need to have a good idea of what it will be like and if I'll be able to do it. Many thanks in advance for any help or advice you can give.
@Crisp Torquay is really nice, I lived there for a few years when I was a surf bum. Take your surfboard and spear fishing gear with you LOL.
In Melbourne you'll find coaches doing group lessons of around $10-$20 per person (group of 4-6, depending on the coach) for around 45-60 minutes (depending on coach again). Private lessons $40-$60 an hour (for indivduals, or semi-private (2 people)). So around ~$40AU hour in the very least. Coaches usually start around 4pm earliest because that's when kids from school finish class. (Some around 3:45pm). Depending on how many students coaches get, they can be at the courts coaching from 4pm - 9pm. 4 days a week coaching on weekdays is common. Weekends are sometimes reserved for competitions, but coaching does happen for some clubs so this is up to your boss/if you feel like working on weekends. Not sure what you mean by English coaches, but if you're referring to being able to speak fluent English then its not one of your top priorities. If you plan on coaching kids, you'll need some form of evidence like a 'Working with Children Check'. Just think of this as a certificate that qualifies you to work with the young ones.
Thank you so much for this, very useful. What I meant by English coaches was whether there is work available for coaches from the UK and if clubs will employ coaches on a Working Holiday VISA baring in mind the restrictions that go with it. I didn’t explain that very well but hopefully that made sense? Would I need a Working with Children Check from Australia? I have one in England as we need the same thing, as well as a safeguarding certificate, but I’m guessing I’d have to get the Australian approved certificates? Finally, I’m hoping my English qualifications would be recognised and transfer across to the Australian equivalent. Can I submit my current qualifications in order to know what the equivalent would be in Australia? Thanks again for the help! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Haha, a bloke from England doubting his english speaking abilities AHAHAH Of course you can get hired based on that. Seriously speaking, im not aware of the laws regarding workimg VISAs here, but i do have a friend from Japan on a student VISA and he's been coaching kids for almost 12 months now. His English qualifications are without doubt no higher than yours (would be more correct to say he's at the level where he's barely able to carry out casual conversation, so no worries in this area for you). As for whether you can submit your Working with Children's Check from the UK for Australia, I'm not sure about this one as i haven't read about it. But you can try applying and asking if they do. If they allow it, great! If not, you've only lost a few minutes of your life. TL;DR: You can work on a holiday VISA Your English ability is more than sufficient... Apply for coaching before (potentially) wasting more time on obtaining another Working with Children's Check on top of your one from the UK. Oh btw, the pay rates i listed above in my previous post are the general pay rates in Melbourne for coaching. Can't say for anywhere else in Australia.
The OP is not concerned about his level of English, but simply whether Aussie head coaches are happy to hire guys from the UK. Most of the coaching in Melbourne is done at tennis clubs. There are lots and lots of those, almost one in each suburb. A tennis club will usually have exclusive contract with a coach, so you'd need to work for one of those coaches. At my club assistant coaches come and go, pretty regularly. Mostly young guys after uni or similar. Not sure what the head coach pays their assistants, most likely not a lot. Australian small business owners are not very generous, though you may get lucky. At my club coaching is run from 4pm to 7pm Mon-Thur. No coaching at other times, unless a student requires special arrangements.
Oh dam haha. Could compromise and play at Melbourne Park if we get to that since it'd be in the centre of our locations Do you know Polette Reserve Tennis centre? That's one of the only places i know of in the eastern side other than by name EDIT: on second thought, i take that back...even melbourne park is bloody far from the blackburn area where you're located around
I've never actually been there before tbh so i don't know the rates they charge. Only looked it up but never went there cuz my mate never followed me up on it :/
Idk if eastern suburbs use the same terms, but i play at section 3 during winter, section 5 during summer for pennant for the western region competiton on saturdays (WRTA its technically called) I cant play for a month or so though because im recovering from a surgery You? (Should we resort to the USTA estimates that's overflowing on here if we cant relate hehe)
Sounds like we may be pretty close, we don't have pennant at my club but sounds like you'd be a challenging opponent. I play section 2,3 or 5 night tennis or Eastern Regions doubles, depending on the level of my weaker teammates. Fill in for various levels of singles comp every now and then, and play "friendly" matches with my friend most Sundays. I recently beat our last year's Club Champ pretty convincingly, at this year's champs. Though I was beaten by two players who hadn't participated last year. What's your injury? I've got no serious injury concern, maybe a slight case of golfer's elbow. Manageable.
Perhaps...my coach believes the standard on the eastern side for comp is significantly higher than the western suburbs, so you'd possibly crush me. Ive never beaten my club champ so congrat on your comfortable win. Had to get a hernia fixed. Doubt it was caused by tennis though. Earliest I'd be able to play is late January. Taken time off for your golfers elbow?
Hope you recover well. I'm certainly feeling the effects of tennis on various parts of my body, but hanging in there for now. This time the golfer's elbow is not yoo bad, I use the flexbar when I can be bothered, to keep strengthening the tendons and increase the blood flow. Back about 3 years ago I had a period with golfer's elbow when I ciuld hardly turn a door knob. That's when I bought some flexbars, and they were incredibly useful.
Thanks mate. Take care of yourself. I'd feel totally screwed mentally if i couldnt even turn a door knob without feeling pain. We'll follow up on this thread or PM in a couple weeks. Except idk how to PM LOL
I'd say you would get lots of work coaching tennis in Melbourne. I would get on the Tennis Australia website and click on the employment link. As far as hours, that depends on what you want to do. Some people are full time and work 6 days a week, others may prefer something part time. If you are a senior coach I would try this: Link up with a centre to do some part time work to get you started and in the meantime try and do some of your own stuff on say private house courts. This way you can earn more doing less hours overall. If you work for yourself you can charge between $70 - $100 an hour depending on the lesson. Working for someone else you would probably top out at $40. Beginner coaches usually start at $20 (I don't know anyone who only get paid $10 an hour and TA would not recommend that based on their wage guidelines). You will earn more in Melbourne's inner to Middle eastern suburbs.
