Great expectations shadow foreign coaches

Great expectations shadow foreign coaches

Moch. N. Kurniawan
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Former English soccer player Peter Withe arrived here in 2004
as a man on a mission.

After a successful stint coaching in Thailand, including
steering the national team to gold in the 1999 Southeast Asian
Games, he took over responsibilities as Indonesia prepared for
the Tiger Cup -- the most prestigious soccer tournament in the
region.

Although the team lost in the final in January to Singapore,
Withe had succeeded in lifting up the team's sagging fortunes.

"My goal in Indonesia is actually simple. It's not to win this
or that but to improve the standard of soccer in here," Withe,
53, said.

"When I look at the country and the players who played in the
past, I see great potential here."

As with other coaches brought in from abroad, the weight of
expectations is great. Withe, who is on a four-year contract with
the Indonesian Soccer Association (PSSI), said the emphasis on
achieving goals was understandable.

"The reason you have been brought in in the first place is
that you are good at your job, so you have to show that."

Foreign coaches are nothing new in the local sports community.
In the 1950s, PSSI hired the legendary Toni Pogaknik of
Yugoslavia, who coached Indonesia to the 1956 Olympic Games in
Melbourne, where the team held the mighty Soviet Union to a 0-0
draw.

South Korean Oh Il Nam has worked with the Indonesian Tae kwon
do Association (PB TI) for the last two decades, and the
Indonesian Volleyball Association (PBVSI) recently employed
Chinese coaches An Zhenghua to train its women's players and Li
Qijiang to coach the men.

In local competitions such as the Indonesian Soccer League,
the Indonesian Basketball League and the Indonesian Volleyball
League Proliga, a number of clubs have also hired foreign
coaches.

The Indonesian Bowling Association (PBI) also plans to hire an
Australian coach.

Withe, Oh, who coached his athletes to the 2004 Olympics, and
Li, whose team won the 2003 Southeast Asian Games gold, have
demonstrated success, but others came and went without making a
lasting impression.

Boxing coach Carlos Penatte Torres of Cuba failed to reach the
target of bringing home medals from the 2002 Asian Games and
women's volleyball team coach Michio Fujiwara of Japan also came
up short in her goals.

Success is not just about taking a tried-and-true template
from home and repeating it here. For however skillful or
accomplished he or she may be, a coach must deal with other
variables once on Indonesian soil, from the mundane, such as the
language barrier, to more difficult issues of dealing with an
entrenched sport systems.

Oh believes tae kwon do has improved immeasurably in the last
10 years, with Indonesians now able to hold their own against his
countrymen, the men in the sport.

There are still problems, including finding new athletes,
erratic practice schedules and lack of international competition,
and Oh said foreigners were able to help out in improving the
sport.

"Local coaches are good, but as they only work on a voluntary
basis in tae kwon do, they could not help develop tae kwon do in
Indonesia at the maximum speed," he said.

As with all expatriate workers, ultimately coaches are
supposed to be able to transfer their knowledge to local
employees. PSIS Semarang soccer coach Bambang Nurdiansyah
acknowledged that he had already learned much from observing
Withe and the national team in matches.

"But we must be sure that foreign coaches have excellent
achievements before they come to Indonesia to minimize the (risk
of) failure here."

Former world top 20 tennis player Yayuk Basuki, who worked
with Czech Jiri Waters in the early 1990s, admits there was a
rocky period of adjustment for the two.

Waters was already with Pelita Jaya club but, Yayuk said, the
other players were unreceptive to him. She asked club patron
Aburizal Bakrie if she could work exclusively with him.

"In the first six months, we always fought, because he didn't
understand our culture, but then he started to understand about
living here and about me," said Yayuk, 34.

"Eventually, he was my coach on the court, but he was a friend
and father to me off it."

She cautioned that looking abroad was not a guarantee of
sporting success, especially with the heavy cost involved in
salaries and living expenses.

"It depends, because we need to know what level we are, and
also take into account the financial aspect. Even though a player
may think they need a foreign coach, a local coach may be enough
for what they need."

Withe, perhaps from his experience in Thailand, seems to
understand that fine line in providing constructive guidance
without steamrolling over egos and discarding everything that
came before.

"As a foreign coach, you have to make sure that you are going
with the flow," he said. "You try to change things, but don't
just come in there and say, 'I want it this way'. You have to
change their outlook but also look at what's good for Indonesia."