wow, that is very bad
Taiwan is a coaches haven then.
With thousands of kids at elementary school age that want 1 on 1 training.
A coach can easily make USD1500+ a month from the 1st year coaching (coaching hours + extra 1 on 1s).
Avg salary is around USD1900 (starting salary for many university graduates is about USD1000) so an entry level coaching salary of 1500~2000 is consider very good for many.
I know coaches that make USD3000 ~ 4000.
Only issue is, how many has the energy to coach till retirement age (say 65 years old).
Chuang years ago would get a base salary from his main employer at around 6000~7000 usd a month to work as a table tennis player. I would image Lin and Cheng is the same,
I would say out of the 3 main corporates who employ TT players as employees (with same perks as normal employees), there is easily around 30 to maybe 50 players in Taiwan that earns above the avg salary and that is just from 1 source of income.
Coaches above the average... hundreds. how many hundred, that i am not sure.
I'm far from an authority on this..... But here is how I see it in the UK.
It's worth initially pointing out..... The participation of Table Tennis is very low, with a tiny number of dedicated facilities, and even the "best" facilities often being a shared space....
*Most* counties will have at least one venue that offers junior coaching (considering there are only 48 counties in the UK, and some counties might not have any facility..... You can see just how tough it is).
I would say the *vast majority* of the people who run the coaching sessions are *UNPAID* or at best, will receive a very small contribution from the club.
The people running these sessions are often associated with the club anyway (as a player, committee member and so on).
There will then be a small number of people who earn some money from 1 to 1 coaching - But it won't be their job, and they might make a few hundred each month at very best.
The next step are the very good coaches who perhaps get employed by somewhere with funding to be able to coach full time - At this point, we are talking about potential future pro players.
Finally, you have some of the top national players who will also coach on the side - But again.... The coaching is often not full time, and you are more likely going to need to go to Europe just to get by on a modest salary......
So effectively, in the UK...... If you want to make a *decent* living - As a world ranked sportsperson should make..... You would need to be number 1 or 2 in the UK, and even then..... It's probably only a few small years of a decent wage.
It's really quite an unattractive proposition to kids looking at sports...... Why would you play Table Tennis (in the UK), when you have Football, Rugby, Tennis, Cricket that are infinitely more accessible, are readily viewable on TV and have the prospect of earning future riches!
