Coaches Is it possible to make a living coaching?

[aerialriver]

I'm curious with all the posts asking for coaches the need seems great. Is it possible to make a modest living coaching? I know when I coached even with experience and being an adult not a teen I made $8 an hour and that is just not enough to survive. Plus only getting 14 hours a week. Most all of the coaches at my gym do it as a second job. So I just want to know can someone work as a coach and have food on the table?

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

You can where I live, the minimum wage is far above what you earn (close to double), even more if you are casually employed.

 

[JMD]

You bet. It just depends on where you live and the demographics. We charge almost $18 for an hour of gymnastics. We have one full time person who is only 22 making a salary of $17 an hour and we pay for her healthcare. Coaching is profession and great people are hard to find.

 

[catou]

Nobody in our club is only coaching. Our salaries aren't bad. We have a chart stating salaries according to experience and formation. I'vs been coaching since age 14, I'm now 24, I am certified level 2 in Canada and I'm paid about 15$/hour. And let's not forget that our club is a non-profit organization.

 

[GymSurvivor]

As it says, I live in KY, so not a huge gym state like say, Texas.

And the gym where I work at I make $9.50 an hour simply teaching rec and preschool classes!

 

[Deleted member D3987]

I'm curious with all the posts asking for coaches the need seems great. Is it possible to make a modest living coaching? I know when I coached even with experience and being an adult not a teen I made $8 an hour and that is just not enough to survive. Plus only getting 14 hours a week. Most all of the coaches at my gym do it as a second job. So I just want to know can someone work as a coach and have food on the table?

yes.....................................

 

[JBS]

Sure...I am a full-time coach and my wife is a part-time coach. We have 3 kids...we all eat.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Of course, I do, as do many other coaches on here. If you want to get your foot in the door for full time you need to be a versatile coach, be ready and able to coach everything. Work hard to further your coaching education, if you want to be paid more you need to show that you are worth more.

 

[coachmolly]

I know it is possible, I just haven't found that place yet! I've never made more than $9ish/hr coaching, so I get paid less to keep children safe than I would to flip burgers. And I'll just say my current pay as a HS coach is MUCH lower than that. It's frustrating because you don't even make enough to keep yourself educated on current coaching issues (congress, clinics, etc.) or even to pay for USAG membership. However, I've typically coached in college towns where the turnover is huge, so I can understand why those gyms are not totally invested in their staff, though to the detriment of their programs.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Yes, definitely possible.

It's not going to make you rich, but you can make a living.

 

[BlairBob]

If you can ever make it to the point of being a collegiate coach...totally seeing even at the bottom they probably make 55-70k/year and I've heard some of the bigger schools pay 6 digits halfway towards 7. As an assistant...well that probably doesn't pay that great but ok considering the job.

One of the biggest issues is Full Time hours. Quite often a full time schedule for a coach is still not 35-40 hours but they might get salaried at that point (and end up working a lot more than 40 hours but we all do anyways).

As a recreational coach, it's doubtful. Perhaps someone at Steve Greeley's gyms might get on by but not any standard rec gym. @ best at one rec gym, I think pay topped out around $15/hr for management. Both managers eventually aspired to moving on to other professionals because it did not pay enough long term.

At some big gyms, that are highly successful, you might get decent pay, benefits, etc.

Now keep in perspective that out there are familes that get on by making $10/hr with both partners working FT though some might have jobs on the side or other PT jobs.

In the bay area, our FT coaches made 40-48k/year. Sounds great but isn't considering North Bay cost of living. I made decent $ as a PT coach @30-35hrs a week but my 1bdr apartment@ 1100/month was killing me. It was like 50% of my salary. I really should have tried just finding a room to rent somewhere. Now, maybe if I had a partner at the time...cost of living would be a lot better but it's not so easy finding a live-in one of those.

Pretty much in club gyms, the only ones making really good money are the owners. I knew of a former Olympian, one of the greatest ever who made about $30/hr but didn't have FT hours in the Bay area. His wife was a coach as well, but just a lower level coach.

 

[gymgurl]

I'm curious with all the posts asking for coaches the need seems great. Is it possible to make a modest living coaching? I know when I coached even with experience and being an adult not a teen I made $8 an hour and that is just not enough to survive. Plus only getting 14 hours a week. Most all of the coaches at my gym do it as a second job. So I just want to know can someone work as a coach and have food on the table?

The fact that you are an adult and are experienced and are only earning $8 an hour is alarming! As a rookie coach first day on the job I started with a wage nearly double that!

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

The fact that you are an adult and are experienced and are only earning $8 an hour is alarming! As a rookie coach first day on the job I started with a wage nearly double that!

^^^^Yes. If you feel like moving and want to make money (enough to live, save and holiday) Australia would be a place to investigate.

 

[coachmolly]

The fact that you are an adult and are experienced and are only earning $8 an hour is alarming! As a rookie coach first day on the job I started with a wage nearly double that!

I've worked at 3 different clubs/programs and none of them payed much more than $8/hr. I'm not sure it's alarming, just an unfortunate fact in some areas.

 

[TXgymCOACH]

I've coached in TX and LA and haven't made more than 10/hr. That's with 8 years experience. It didn't matter whether I was a team coach or rec coach. It sucks that they don't try hard to keep coaches around because in my opinion that would make your gym just that much better. 10/ hr is just not enough for me, but everyone is different. I do wish more than anything to make a living this way, but it seems like my only option is to be a gym owner.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Keep in mind, coaching wages vary A LOT depending on where you are.

 

[gymgurl]

I've worked at 3 different clubs/programs and none of them payed much more than $8/hr. I'm not sure it's alarming, just an unfortunate fact in some areas.

Sorry Alarming was probably the wrong word, I was just surprised because some coaches hear earn upwards of $20/hr.

 

[BlairBob]

All depends on the club.

Wages at Non Profits tend to be poor IMO. Because they have low revenues to begin with. It becomes a labor of love and eating Ramen.

Then again some NPO like city gyms make decent $$. Of course if a budget cut comes, you're screwed.

Some private gyms just have cheap stingy owners. I remember how one of my bosses would often say he wished he had more money to pay us and then would show us some dumb gadget he got that was expensive or take the day off to go ski. No wonder I left there ASAP.

Well, gymgurl, that's how it is in the states. Especially with rec coaches. Which can be dumb considering rec coaches are often what keep numbers and revenues high in a gym. Sometimes the rec coaches are the most inexperienced but yet they are responsible for keeping numbers high. Especially when most gyms have at most 200 kids in the Team programs (from developmental to competitive) yet might have 5x that in rec/kinder. Rec/kinder also pays way more per hour than team.

For instance team kid doing 20hrs/week for a tuition of $400/month. They are paying $5/hr. 8 team kids per coach. $40/hr and you pay the coach $10-20/hr.

Rec kid pays 1 hour a week, for 50-60$. That's $12.50-15.00/hr. High level rec maybe pays 6hrs/week for $150/month. 8 kids per coach at $12.50 and you pay the coach maybe what 1 kid is paying per hour. Even with a moderately full class like 5 kids you are making out well.

TxGym coach. Sounds like you just need to find better gyms. Which is kind of a caveat since quite often the really good gyms don't have openings while the small to medium sized gyms do. Which are more often than not struggling or not doing so well. Well enough for the owners to drive SUV's but not to pay the coaches well.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

not all owners are the same. but i understand what you are saying.

 

[gymgurl]

This thread has been a bit of an eye opener for me, I guess I've only ever lived in Australia so anything different is rather foreign. I've always been happy with my pay. Out of curiosity is there a minimum wage in America?