KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 28 — After an inconsistent performance throughout the year, the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) has decided to streamline its coaching structure immediately, with the 2022 Thomas Cup finals in May set as a major target.
BAM Coaching and Training (C&T) Committee chairman Datuk Kenny Goh said under the new layout, there will be only two departments — singles elite and doubles elite — for a lean and robust set-up within the national badminton governing body.
BAM coaching director Wong Choong Hann is set to serve as the singles coaching director heading singles coaches, elite shuttlers as well as back-up players, while newly appointed deputy coaching director Rexy Mainaky has been minted as coaching director for the doubles department.
Currently, each of the five departments — men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles — has its own head coaches and coaches reporting to Choong Hann, which the C&T felt were “too many levels” to go through.
“We heard reports from head coaches on tournaments held in the past few months, especially in Europe and Bali. We made this decision after a thorough SWOT analysis, to know our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats from world badminton.
“Previously, we had too many levels. The coaches go to the head coach, then he goes to coaching directors. But now, these two coaching directors will look at the entire structure, and they will plan and decide who to coach whom, conduct review on coaches and players,” he said in a press conference at the Akademi Badminton Malaysia (ABM) here, after chairing a virtual C&T meeting today.
Kenny, who is also BAM secretary-general, said with the new arrangement, the coaching directors will be more focused on their respective departments, and when there is a problem, they can look into it directly for a quicker solution.
“We don’t change for the sake of changing. We have done SWOT analysis; we have looked at the challenges ahead of us and felt that this restructuring will help us to achieve our objectives … No guarantees (to be successful), but we want to make this change because no change might even make it worse.
“We will also have more communications between each department after this. For example, when Choong Hann felt the singles players need to have sparring sessions with doubles, we can look into it for the benefit of the national team,” he added.
Kenny, who agreed the national team could have fared better this year, said 2022 will be a challenging year with the SEA Games, Thomas and Uber Cup finals, Birmingham Commonwealth Games and Hangzhou Asian Games in line to serve as milestones for BAM’s Project 24 goal, whose ultimate aim is winning the country’s maiden gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
He said one of the major milestones for 2022 will be the Thomas Cup, at which the association hopes the national team will perform well after it had set the final target.
Kenny also announced that the annual year-end performance review has been postponed until January, after Rexy, who only reported for duty on December 1, requested for time to evaluate the players and coaches.
He said everyone from the management, coaching director, coaches and players should be accountable and responsible for the outcome, and didn’t rule out the possibility that some heads will roll after the review. — Bernama
