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Kwan Yoke Meng-No a single talent among 10,000 players? Chong Wei and Lin Dan’s standard are way too high
After the 19[SUP]th[/SUP] World Championships in London, it’s time to sit down and ponder about Malaysian badminton lack of talents rising up to the rank.
Although it is disappointing for Chong Wei to miss out on the chance to become the first World Champion in Malaysia, but it is more saddening for Malaysia not to have any player ready to take over from Lee Chong Wei’s career.
The China Press will look at the problem on Malaysia’s lack of talents in the badminton scene from another perspective in this series of “Fallen feathers; who’s the next in line for Malaysian badminton?”
Although Malaysia is a badminton powerhouse (translator: What a joke of the millennium.), Malaysia always come out short in Major tournaments. Other than Thomas cup, All England and Asia Games, Malaysia has never won an Olympic and World Championship gold medal.
Lee Chong Wei is already 29 years old. Perhaps he can still play for the 2012 Olympic game and 2013 World Championship. But what is going to happen after that?
Lacking in players to take over the baton ever since seven years ago
Who is the one who can play for Malaysia after Lee Chong Wei’s retirement? A former Thomas Cupper in 1992 and the ex-national coach, Kuan Yoke Meng, is very close to the players and coaches in the national team. He watched the dream final between Lee and Lin at the final of World Championship 2011.
The 45 years old expressed his personal views after his interview with China Press.
Yoke Meng: “In my opinion, Chong Wei’s personal character makes him lose the match. Chong Wei is a perfectionist, if Chong Wei could play some trick shots when Lin Dan was closing the gap and slow Lin Dan down, maybe the outcome will be different.”
Yoke Meng admitted the younger players lack in mental strength, which is also one of the factors why there isn’t any one raising up in the rank yet in Malaysian badminton. Yoke Meng will explain how character and attitude problem could cause Malaysia to face the crisis of not finding any younger player to raise up the rank.
State Badminton Associations to carry out their responsibilities
Kuan Yoke Meng said that the problem of lack in talents have already been around since seven years.
“However, almost all the countries across the world is facing the same kind of problem. Denmark’s Peter Gade is 35 years old and he is still playing. Who’s the next in line for Denmark? Indonesia is also facing the problem of not being able to find a good replacement for Taufik Hidayat. It is just that Malaysia’s situation is worse compared to these countries”
Kuan Yoke Meng :” Maybe the standard of Lee Chong Wei and Lin Dan is way too high, which makes it impossible to find someone to take over from them”.
BAM has been searching for solutions for years ever since they came across this problem but they could not fix it: “They only started to put in more efforts 1-2 years ago, trying hard to find more talents across the state BAs.”
Kuan Yoke Meng continued: “Actually BAM should have started the talent searching programme much earlier. They should have find and train players ever since they were young.”
“Think about it, is it hard to find a talented player out of 1000 or 10,000 players from each age group who can play in Uber or Thomas Cup?”
He continued: “Every state badminton association gets funding now, and they should have carry out their responsibilities. But only several state Bas have performed to requirement. The other state Bas have the funding, but they do not have professional coaches. As a result, the players from these states find it hard to have a systematic training.”
Continue to be humble and strive for better. Chong Wei is good, but he needs to be better
Kuan Yoke Meng take Lee Chong Wei as an example: “Chong Wei is a humble player, he knows he has a lot to improve. This is why he pays a lot of attention to what every single coach has to say and learn more techniques from them.”
Speaking about coaches, Kuan Yoke Meng said: “ In my opinion, the coaches need to improve themselves as well. You should not just be contend with what you have.
Every coach should have their own style of coaching, but they should also catch up to the latest tactics and metagame, research on the current play style and tactics and keep improving their knowledge. You can only become a good coach through that way.”
Players and coaches should communicate frequently : “I feel that the current players do not interact much with their coaches. Sometimes the coaches wanted their players to play their way, but the players could not cope and struggle to produce results in the end.”
Hendrawan, Kim Her and Cheh Chang have capabilities
Kuan Yoke Meng is grateful that out national team still have the service of Hendrawan, Tan Kim Her and Pang Cheh Chang :”They are good coaches, Thank god that national team still have them.”
Lastly Yoke Meng said the most important thing to a successful player: “Perhaps you guys feel that Chong Wei lost out in skills or luck, but a successful player usually lose out on some fine details.
These fine details could be personal character, it is very hard to notice it and change it. Chong Wei’s on court behavior make him restricted him when playing Lin Dan. Chong Wei wants to win on perfect note. Actually he could refuse to change shuttle when Lin Dan wanna change shuttles and affect his mental state but Chong Wei did not. Chong Wei wants win it perfectly. However, it is Chong Wei’s humble and willing to learn from others attitude which see him becoming one of the best players in the world!”
Attitude decide everything
Coach can be a teacher too
Kuan Yoke Meng said, coaches’ attitude is also an important in nurturing players.
He added that, coach’s responsibilities are not just teaching techniques to their chargers, the coaches should also instill some morale principles, philosophy to their players.
“To be successful players, other than having a superior technique, they also need to have the right attitude and living style to be the real World no.1.”
Humble when it comes to learning
He said, some players become arrogant once they become famous and started to be disrespectful to their coach.: “These players need to know that it is difficult to bring your game to a whole new level. Once you produced results, you need to keep a low profile, try to learn how to maintain your form and keep improving your game. You cannot afford to allow your game to stay stagnant.”
Conclusions from Kuan Yoke Meng’s interview:
- State BAs’ attitude-They got the funding and need to work harder to provide new talents for the nation
- Coaches’ attitude- Need to constantly improving themselves in polishing their technique and pass on their philosophy to their players. Communicate with their charges frequently.
- Players’ attitude- Need to be humble and express their thoughts to their coaches.
Source:
http://www.chinapress.com.my/node/244994