Badminton: Choong Hann's masterstroke?

IN the 1990s, China's coaches Han Jian and Yang Yang came to Kuala Lumpur, helping Malaysia to win the 1992 Thomas Cup. Then the great Park Joo Bong and Morten Frost also joined the BAM camp.

After the coming and going of Chinese, Korean and Danish expertise for many years, Indonesian coaches are now smashing their way here.

Flandy Limpele is the latest Indonesian coach to walk through the BAM door. He will get to work together with his countrymen, Hendrawan, Indra Wijaya and Paulus Firman.

Flandy, 46, is an Olympic medallist, having won the men's doubles bronze with Eng Hian in 2004 in Athens. He had a one year stint with the Indian national team before leaving in March.

The presence of a veritable number of Indonesian coaches here may raise eyebrows but BAM coaching director Wong Choong Hann said there is no preference for nationality of coaches.

He said it was more a coincidence that BAM have "many" Indonesian coaches and that four out of the five disciplines will be headed by Indonesians.

Under the new coaching setup, the men's singles department will be led by Hendrawan, men's doubles under Flandy, women's singles under former men's singles coach, Indra and mixed doubles under former men's doubles chief, Paulus.

It now seems that the new BAM coaching structure could well be Choong Hann's master stroke.

Since taking up the role of coaching director over a year ago, the former World No 1 believes a reshuffle is needed to take Malaysian badminton to the next level.

Choong Hann revealed that it wasn't an easy process and that it took time for him to convince all parties.

"Of course not everyone is happy with the reshuffle but we need to be objective," he said yesterday.

"As coaching director, my job is to make sure that coaches perform to their best ability, and after one year of analysing and working on the ground, I believe we are heading in the right direction with the new structure.

"It's not about promotions or demotions as most people would think, but rather challenging coaches to bring out their best for the players."

According to Choong Hann, the one-year postponement of the Tokyo Olympics due to the Covid-19 pandemic, has enabled him to rework the national coaching set-up, which includes the appointment of two new coaches, Flandy and former national men's doubles, Chan Chong Ming.

"I never had it planned that way. If you look at it, all our coaches are the same except for Flandy and Chong Ming.

"The main reason for moving these coaches around is to get them out of a stagnant position and challenging them to bring out their best.

"Take the men's and women's singles department. Tey Seu Bock has previously proven himself in the men's singles department and when he went on to lead the women's singles, he brought about change and has set a standard.

"Now we are allowing Indra to take over from where Seu Bock left and to try and bring the level up. Bear in mind that Indra is also a very experienced coach and we want to tap that potential.

"Seu Bock on the other hand can now work together again with Hendrawan to push the men's singles department further.

"The appointment of Flandi is also not a fluke move. Based on facts, we have seen the results he has brought to the Indian men's doubles squad, over the short period he took over from Tan Kim Her (who joined the Japanese national team)," added Choong Hann who urged the national players to be open in accepting input from the new coaches.

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