Work, Train & Teach Sports during your Gap Year Abroad
Coaching and playing sports abroad can be part of a great gap year. Travelling abroad does not mean that you have to stop playing the sports that you love - you can play or coach sports abroad for a fun and active gap year. A sporting placement abroad can seriously boost your personal development - showing your commitment, teamwork and leadership skills to prospective employers Loads of companies offer you the chance to live, play train and coach sports all over the world. Whether your chosen sport is football, cricket, rugby, netball, tennis, sailing or even polo you can use your skills to enrich the lives of others by becoming a volunteer coach or use your time to improve your own skills for a career in your chosen sport. So whether you want to use your football skills to become a coach teaching children in South Africa, go sea kayaking in Australia, experience the challenge of playing rugby in New Zealand or learn how to sail, or try diving in Thailand, this page will help you find your perfect sporting gap year!
Sports Abroad
Flying Fish
At Flying Fish you can become a Yachtmaster, conquer the ski slopes, surf Sydney's best breaks or win at windsurfing. Learn the basics of sailing, dive the Barrier Reef or crew on a superyacht.
Find out more Visit their website
BUNAC
Established work and travel organisation since 1962 – offering work, summer camp and volunteer projects across America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Asia and South America.
Find Out More Visit their website
The Leap
Winner Best Gap Year Company (Sunday Times) Volunteering, summer gap, horse and internships in Africa, South America and Asia. All programmes contain our unique mix of projects, locations and challenges.
Find out more Visit their website
More About Working in Sport Abroad
When we say a sporting gap year we don’t mean a year spent going to European football matches, or watching the World Cup! Sport can be a fantastic part of a gap year, giving you skills, confidence and qualifications that will always be useful to you.
Every imaginable activity is on offer – from extreme sports like bungee-jumping and sky-diving to more traditional pursuits such as cricket, rugby and football. Many travellers will include these sports on their already jam-packed itineraries, but these activities can now form the basis of your ultimate year out!
What can I do?
A number of companies offer the chance to live, train and play sport across Europe, becoming fully-fledged members of their designated clubs for a full season and combining a passion for sport with exciting, independent travel opportunities. They offer placements playing all kinds of sports, including cricket, hockey, rugby, netball and football, in clubs all over the continent.
What’s in it for me?
A sporting placement can seriously boost your personal development - your CV will look highly attractive to any future potential employers, with a sports placement that demonstrates great commitment, team-work and leadership skills combined with a structured gap year that takes confidence, independence and self motivation, ensuring you get the advantage in any career path you choose to take. Developing your game, having loads of fun and making loads of new friends are just some of the things you can expect to love about a year away playing sport.
Why should I do it?
Well, first of all, if you’re good at sports, you want to get better at sports or you just love sport, this is a great way to spend part or all of your gap year. A sporting gap year is also valuable in a number of other ways: Help other people through sport! If you’ve got a talent for a particular sport, then maybe you’ve also got a talent for teaching other people, and for helping them to improve their quality of life through sport. You can pass on some of your knowledge and passion for sport and use it as an opportunity to genuinely help people in other areas of their lives – helping them to build confidence, improve their English or just to stay healthy and happy. And if you really put the effort in, you’ll also come out of the experience with new skills and new self-confidence of your own.
Including sport in your gap year is a great way to have fun, do something you really enjoy, help other people and even improve your own skills. It can give you confidence and new qualifications that can change your life. Just ask yourself this – if you’re a good footballer, why spend your time doing a rubbish job when you could be earning money teaching other people to play better? Use your talents and get formal recognition for them so that you can ultimately make some money out of them – and help other people in the process.
Whether you’re into rugby, football, or cricket, winter sports like skiing and snowboarding, or water sports like scuba diving, if you reckon you’ve got skills that you could share with other people, then use your gap year to get professional recognition for them. If you’re at a very basic level or a complete novice, many sporty gap years focus on playing rather than coaching.
