Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Pelatih olahraga kami menjelaskan gerakan baru, lalu memberi kami waktu singkat untuk mencoba tanpa harus sempurna dulu. - Our sports coach explains a new movement, then gives us a short time to try it without having to be perfect yet.

In Indonesian noun phrases, the possessive pronoun (saya, kamu, dia, kami, kita, mereka, etc.) almost always comes at the very end of the noun phrase.

Structure here:

pelatih = coach
olahraga = (of) sports → specifies what kind of coach
kami = our

So pelatih olahraga kami literally is coach (of) sports our → our sports coach.

You cannot say pelatih kami olahraga. That breaks the normal order:

Head noun: pelatih
Modifiers (what kind of pelatih): olahraga
Possessor: kami

Other examples:

guru matematika saya = my math teacher
teman kantor mereka = their office friend / colleague

What is the difference between pelatih olahraga and guru olahraga?

Both relate to sports, but the nuance is different:

pelatih olahraga = sports coach
- Usually for training a team or specific skills.
- Common for clubs, teams, professional or serious training.
guru olahraga = sports teacher
- Usually a PE (physical education) teacher at school.
- Suggests a school context and a teaching role, not necessarily competitive coaching.

So:

At a school: guru olahraga is more natural.
At a sports club or team: pelatih olahraga is more natural.

What exactly does menjelaskan mean? How is it different from just jelas or from menerangkan?

jelas = clear (adjective)
- Penjelasannya sangat jelas. = The explanation is very clear.
menjelaskan = to explain, to make something clear (verb)
- From root jelas with prefix meN- and suffix -kan.
- Pattern: menjelaskan + thing explained (+ kepada + person)

Examples:

Pelatih menjelaskan gerakan baru.
= The coach explains/explained the new movement.
Pelatih menjelaskan gerakan baru kepada kami.
= The coach explains/explained the new movement to us.

menerangkan is very close in meaning to menjelaskan, both mean to explain.
Differences:

menjelaskan: the most neutral, very common in speech and writing.
menerangkan: a bit more formal or old-fashioned in everyday conversation, but still correct.

In your sentence, menjelaskan is the most natural choice.

What does gerakan mean here, and how is it different from gerak?

Root: gerak = movement (in general), motion.

gerak is more basic/abstract:
- gerak lurus = linear motion (physics)
- sensor gerak = motion sensor
gerakan (with suffix -an) usually means:
1. A specific move/action (in sports, dance, exercise, martial arts):
  - gerakan baru = a new move
  - gerakan push-up = the push-up movement
2. A movement as in social/political movement:
  - gerakan reformasi = reform movement

In your sentence, gerakan baru means a new move / new movement (exercise movement, sports move).
Using gerak baru would sound odd for this context; gerakan is the natural choice.

What does lalu do here? Is it the same as kemudian or dan kemudian?

In this sentence:

..., lalu memberi kami waktu singkat ...

lalu means then / and then / after that. It links two actions in sequence:

The coach explained the new movement.
Then he/she gave them some time to try.

Very close alternatives:

kemudian = then, afterwards
- Slightly more formal or neutral than lalu, but almost interchangeable here.
dan kemudian = and then
- Often a bit wordier; people usually just say lalu or kemudian.

You could say:

Pelatih olahraga kami menjelaskan gerakan baru, kemudian memberi kami waktu singkat...
Pelatih olahraga kami menjelaskan gerakan baru, lalu memberi kami waktu singkat...

Both are natural. Lalu is very common in spoken Indonesian.

Why is it memberi kami waktu singkat, not memberi waktu singkat kami or something with kepada?

memberi = to give (root beri).

It can take two objects:

The recipient (who gets it)
The thing that is given

The usual pattern is:

memberi + recipient + thing

So:

memberi kami waktu singkat
= give us a short time

Alternative, more explicit pattern using kepada:

memberi + thing + kepada + recipient

memberi waktu singkat kepada kami
= give a short time to us

Both are correct.
What you don’t say is memberi waktu singkat kami (without kepada). That sounds wrong in standard Indonesian, because the order without a preposition should be recipient first, then thing:

✅ memberi kami waktu singkat
✅ memberi waktu singkat kepada kami
❌ memberi waktu singkat kami (without kepada)

What’s the difference between waktu singkat and sebentar here? Could I say memberi kami sebentar?

waktu singkat = literally short time (a short period).
sebentar = a short while, for a moment.

In this context, several options are natural:

memberi kami waktu singkat
memberi kami waktu sebentar
memberi kami sebentar untuk mencoba

Subtle differences:

waktu singkat sounds a bit more noun-like and neutral.
sebentar is very common in speech, slightly more informal.

memberi kami sebentar by itself is understandable but usually we add untuk + verb or waktu:

More natural:
- memberi kami sebentar untuk mencoba
- memberi kami waktu sebentar untuk mencoba

Why do we use untuk mencoba? Could we just say memberi kami waktu singkat mencoba?

untuk before a verb often marks purpose:

untuk mencoba = to try / for trying

Pattern:

memberi ... waktu ... untuk + verb
= give ... time to do something

So:

memberi kami waktu singkat untuk mencoba
= give us a short time to try

Without untuk, waktu singkat mencoba sounds unnatural. Indonesian normally needs untuk (or another marker like agar/supaya) to connect time and the purpose action.

Other natural options:

memberi kami waktu singkat agar kami bisa mencoba
= to give us a short time so we can try
memberi kami waktu singkat supaya kami bisa mencoba
(very similar to agar, more conversational)

How should I understand tanpa harus sempurna dulu? Why use harus and dulu together?

Breakdown:

tanpa = without
harus = must / have to
sempurna = perfect
dulu = first / for now / at first

Literal idea: to try without having to be perfect first.

Nuances:

tanpa harus often softens harus:
- Instead of strict “without having to”, it feels more like “without needing to”.
dulu here does not mean in the distant past; it’s like:
- for now
- at this stage
- at first

So tanpa harus sempurna dulu implies:

You can just try; it doesn’t need to be perfect at this stage / for now.

If you remove dulu:

tanpa harus sempurna = without having to be perfect
Still OK, but it slightly loses the “for now / at first” feeling.

You could also say a bit more formally:

tanpa harus langsung sempurna = without having to be perfect immediately
tanpa harus terlalu sempurna dulu = without having to be too perfect at first

Could we say tanpa harus melakukannya dengan sempurna instead? Is there any difference?

Yes, you can say:

... untuk mencoba tanpa harus melakukannya dengan sempurna dulu.

Meaning: to try without having to do it perfectly (yet).

Differences:

tanpa harus sempurna dulu
- Shorter, more casual.
- Treats sempurna as describing the attempt/result in general.
tanpa harus melakukannya dengan sempurna (dulu)
- More explicit: melakukannya = do it.
- Slightly more formal / heavier style.

Indonesian often omits repeated objects if they’re clear from context, so the shorter tanpa harus sempurna dulu is very natural and common in speech.

Indonesian doesn’t mark tense. How do we know menjelaskan here is “explained” and not “explains” or “is explaining”?

menjelaskan itself is tenseless; it just indicates a (typically) active, ongoing/completed action.

The time reference comes from context, not verb form. In your sentence, the whole description feels like a past narrative in English, so we translate it with past tense (explained, gave).

If you want to make the past time clearer in Indonesian, you can add time words:

tadi / barusan = a short while ago / just now
- Tadi pelatih olahraga kami menjelaskan gerakan baru...
kemarin = yesterday
sudah = already (often suggests past completion)
- Pelatih olahraga kami sudah menjelaskan gerakan baru...

But in many real situations, Indonesians simply rely on context and leave menjelaskan unmarked.

Why is it kami instead of kita? What’s the nuance here?

Both mean we / us, but:

kami = we (excluding the person you’re talking to)
kita = we (including the person you’re talking to)

By saying:

Pelatih olahraga kami menjelaskan...

the speaker implies:

The coach and the group that includes the speaker,
But the listener is not part of that group (not part of the team/class).

If the listener is part of the same training group, it would be more natural to say:

Pelatih olahraga kita menjelaskan gerakan baru...
= Our coach (yours and mine) explained a new movement...

Can tanpa harus sempurna dulu go in another position in the sentence?

It needs to attach logically to mencoba (the trying), so the current position is the most natural:

... waktu singkat untuk mencoba tanpa harus sempurna dulu.

Other acceptable variations:

... waktu singkat untuk mencoba dulu tanpa harus sempurna.
(shifts dulu, but still clear)

Less natural or wrong:

... waktu singkat tanpa harus sempurna dulu untuk mencoba.
(sounds awkward; “without having to be perfect” is too far from mencoba)
... waktu singkat untuk tanpa harus sempurna dulu mencoba.
(ungrammatical; untuk should directly precede the verb it governs)

General rule: purpose phrase untuk + verb should stay together, and modifiers like tanpa harus sempurna dulu should be placed where it’s clear which verb they are modifying (here, mencoba).