KUALA LUMPUR: There is no doubt that Shah Firdaus Sahrom has what it takes to become a world-beater in track cycling.
Inconsistency, however, has been an issue for Shah and to overcome this national track cycling head coach John Beasley is taking a slightly different approach to extract the best performances out of the Muar-born rider.
"Physically, Shah is one of the best riders on the circuit. It is just that he does not have the same (self) belief that Datuk Azizulhasni Awang does," said Beasley when met recently.
"It is my job to continue to help him and what I can say is that he is getting better on that side of things.
"I have known Shah since he was a kid and he is very different. He responds differently to different things.
"I have had to learn how best to communicate with him. You have to remember that I am a really old man to this generation of athletes and it has taken a long time to earn that trust.
"But we have a very good bond now and we can tell each other anything and it doesn't get taken personally.
"Sometimes the feedback we give each other hurts but unless we are brutally honest, we cannot help each other.
"When we got back from Glasgow (world championships) we sat down and put all our cards on the table. We had the conversation we needed to have.
"I asked him if he is prepared to do what it takes to get him on the podium at the Hangzhou Asian Games (Sept 23-Oct 8) and he said yes.
"We have started to do things (training regime) we have never done before and I asked him not to question why we are doing all this. He just has to know that this is all to help him move forward."
Despite suffering a heavy crash during the Asian Cycling Championships (ACC) keirin semi-finals in Nilai, Shah was able to recover and clinch a bronze in the final (June).
His performances at the Glasgow World Championships last month were, however, below par. He clocked 9.9 seconds flat in the individual sprint qualifying before losing to Aussie Matthew Richardson in the first round. He did not make it past the first round repechage in the keirin.
"Shah is very much a confident (dependent) rider and you could see at the world championships he wasn't confident.
"His 200m (qualifying) time means a lot to him and when it didn't go so well (9.9s) his confidence dropped. Shah can usually do 9.7s or lower all day.
"When I saw his body language, I already knew what result I was going to get.
"To be fair to him, his run-up to the world championships wasn't ideal, he got pretty banged up after two heavy crashes at the Hong Kong Track Cup and the Asian championships.
"But the good thing is that physically, he is not too far off right now and he knows what he needs to do to turn it around at the Asian Games."
The 27-year-old will ride alongside Azizulhasni, 35, in the men's individual sprint and keirin at the Asian Games.
Shah won his first individual event medal (keirin bronze) in a major multi-sport competition at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games last year.