Great expectations shadow foreign coaches on the job

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 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 best 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 the 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."