International coaches march into primary and middle schools in Beijing
The first time Jeff Young attended the Physical Education (PE) class at a local primary school in Beijing, he was stunned by something he never met before - 50 smiling children to be guided.
Young, 36, who comes from the U.S., had intensive soccer coaching experiences with children across Europe after he spent years in the Netherlands acquiring the trainer instructor license of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).
"In Europe, the sizes of training classes are much smaller," said Young. "But there are more similarities than differences between Chinese children and their European counterparts."
For the past five months, Young, the football supervisor at Sports 8, a start-up venture specializing in promoting grassroots soccer in China, has been working with international coaches, mostly from the Netherlands, in bringing the Dutch youth soccer system to China. Globally, the Dutch soccer system is well-known for producing an abundant number of soccer stars including Wesley Sneijder, No. 10 of the Dutch national soccer team, and one of the co-founders of Sport 8.
Young is not alone among the international soccer coaches flocking to China to develop their profession, amid China's soccer fever. In October, five football coaches from Argentina, invited by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education, have been dispatched to local elementary and middle schools to help train children and guide PE teachers.
The reform of PE education
For the past few decades, soccer training for youth was the work of the country's sports authorities. That changed in 2014, when the Ministry of Education took it over. The campaign of promoting soccer among youth was kicked off after adding soccer into the PE curriculum at primary and secondary schools. In addition, the ministry brought over foreign soccer coaches, adopted foreign training systems, and sent Chinese PE teachers for further study overseas.
"I love that what we are doing is important in China, to build the enthusiasm for soccer among the kids. We are pushing it heavily," said Young.
In June, Young decided to take the opportunity to go to China after noticing a piece of news featuring Sneijder and Chinese football, which aired on a Dutch TV station. He went on to Twitter and Facebook and found the job recruiting information posted by Sneijder. Young, who was about to conclude his contract with a school in Latvia, flew to Amsterdam for the job interview, and eventually became one the six foreign coaches on a long-term contract arriving in China. Other coaches came from Germany and the Netherlands.
Young's team focuses on developing children's passion and creativity in soccer, guiding the students to their own discovery of soccer. "It's not like you reproduce what I tell you to do. It's more like you produce your own work based on your understanding of the game."
Bai Qiang, co-founder and CEO of Sport 8, says that China is in great need of foreign soccer coaches for children because "Chinese soccer is too poor to have any credibility. The students, parents and PE teachers can't do anything about it but choose to believe in foreign coaches."
"We found that on a lot of occasions, children were inactive and lazy in the PE class taught by Chinese teachers but they can be more intrigued and proactive when a foreign coach comes," said Bai. "When the coaches feel they are greatly respected and appreciated by students and parents, they do better. They have more passion in teaching than a lot of Chinese coaches."
Meanwhile, soccer coaches in schools are very important because they are not only teaching a sport program but act as a role model for children. "For example, while some of the Chinese PE teachers would be late, smoke or punish children on the playground, foreign teachers are more professional. The package of guidance a good foreign coach can offer is not only about soccer skills, but also the overall qualities of their own behaviors."
Taking jobs away?
When Chinese soccer teacher Che Ji, 34, was informed by a colleague that the primary school he works for would have a visiting foreign soccer teacher in November, he was stricken by complex sentiments.
Che was skeptical about how the foreign coaches could help raise the soccer ability of children at the primary school level, given the fact that foreign coaches in the countries' professional soccer league don't work out very well.
"The background of some foreign coaches [in schools] is quite common. They can acquire the international soccer coaching certificate because they speak English while a lot Chinese teachers can't," he said.
