KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 28 — National coaches can get to know their shuttlers better and take a more focused approach under the new structure announced by the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) today, said Rexy Mainaky.
Rexy, who will be overseeing the entire doubles department as the doubles coaching director, said the coaches will now be assigned a lower number of players, so that they have a better understanding of their charges’ needs and expectations to work towards success.
The former Olympics and world champion, who returned to BAM as deputy director of coaching on December 1 before being handed the new role today, believes the new layout will minimise problems on the coaching side.
“When the number is small, they will know very well; every angle and attitude of their players … players’ expectations on the coaches. So the report will come solid to me, and I can discuss with Coaching and Training (C&T) Committee chairman Datuk Kenny Goh on the issues.
“If a coach wants to focus on everyone, that will be difficult and no one will come out with desirable results. There will be a few doubles coaches under me and around 32 players,” he said in a press conference after the C&T virtual meeting here today.
Rexy, however, admitted that changing to the new system won’t be easy, but hoped that with the new approach and better communication, the shuttlers’ performance will improve next year.
Earlier, Kenny announced a restructuring of the coaching set-up, with coaching director Wong Choong Hann concentrating on the singles department as its coaching director and Rexy taking charge of the doubles department.
Meanwhile, Choong Hann said the change is for the better as there had been delays in the decision-making process in the previous structure where he had to oversee all the five departments — men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles — with each department having separate head coaches and coaches.
“With me focusing more on the singles, I believe we could raise the efficiency in terms of deliverance of our performance.
“With Rexy’s expertise, it is a plus point he could take care of the doubles department, where the strength is through managing and manoeuvring all the players under the doubles roof,” he said. — Bernama
