New lease of life for Chong Wei By LEE CHONG WEI They have the same surname in Chinese – former national badminton coach Li Mao and men’s singles shuttler Lee Chong Wei – and they shared a father-son relationship. So after Li Mao’s sudden departure, Chong Wei was devastated and almost quit. He tells StarSports’ RAJES PAUL why he’s back with renewed motivation ahead of the All-England. HONESTLY, the pressure as the country’s top player was getting to me. The expectation was getting greater and then, my coach Li Mao left. I was demoralised and lost the zeal to play. I was seriously thinking of giving up. I had a good draw during the last year’s World Championships (in Madrid) and the Asian Games (in Doha) but I lost. (Chong Wei lost to Bao Chunlai of China in the quarter-finals of the world meet and Indonesian Taufik Hidayat in the Asiad semi-finals). Then, there were disappointments at the Malaysian and Korean Opens this year. I was feeling down. Li Mao’s departure was also a big loss to me. He came back to Malaysia on Feb 20 to pack his things and fortunately I met up with him and we talked for three hours. I spoke my mind and told him that I could not go on playing. But he persuaded me to stay on. In fact, he said that I could call on him anytime if I needed some advice. He has been a very caring coach. I remember, at the last world meet, he was to share a room with me. Wanting to give me a good rest all by myself in the room, he went into coach (Wong) Tat Meng’s room and slept on the floor. He had always wanted the best for me and yet I let him down (in Madrid). Some even questioned his reason for giving up his room for me. Being a foreigner here, he was lonely. He did not have Internet access in his room (at the National Sports Council) to chat with his family although he had requested for one many times. Li Mao said that he was happy to go to South Korea as the singles chief coach because he has a free hand in choosing his players. If he spots a talented player in the club, he can take him under his wings immediately without any objection. It is certainly a different system for him here. (Currently, the Badminton Association of Malaysia have a three tier set-up. A player will have to go through the system – from Bukit Jalil Sports School to national back-up team before getting a promotion into the national team.) But of course, the offer from the Korean BA was also good for him. After talking to Li Mao, I have decided not to dwell on the past anymore. In fact, Li Mao believes I will continue to improve under Tat Meng. I think the whole singles department has been down for a while. We can get better if all the singles players work together. I just hope that the other singles players will give their full cooperation to Tat Meng. Recently, some players were turning up late for training. This should not be the attitude. For now, (Mohd) Hafiz (Hashim) and I are the country’s top two men’s singles players. And we are determined to bring back the cheers. I will be competing in the All-England (starting on Tuesday at Birmingham) and fortunately, I am injury free. Last year, I went into the All-England as the Swiss Open champion and I was carrying an ankle injury. I lost in the semi-finals. This time, I can only promise to give my best. The pressure to perform will always be there. Players like (Wong) Choong Hann and (Lee) Wan Wah have gone through harsh situations before but they are still going strong. There are NSC’s psychologists that I can turn to if I have problems dealing with the high expectations from the NSC, BAM, the media and public. For now, my mind is clear on what I want to achieve. All I need is some good results to boost my confidence
I read this from Malaysia Star Sport too. Very pitiful about how thing turned out fro Li Mao in Malaysia, I thought he would do well and made Malaysia MS very competitive but only LCW benefited from his coaching. There are many things BAM need to learn from Li Mao departure, structure of current system in bringing up talented young MS player may not work. Hafiz need to have more sparring sessions with national team, ... As for Li Mau, I hope he can bring up more young Korean players while he is in Korea. Good luck on both Lee/Li.
yes. I alway see BAM 2nd to pbsi in term of poor management (withiin asia. In canada, we don't have any management, good or bad LOL). I dun blame li mao for looking after himself. It seem li mao has a soft spot for lcw, and if li mao was better treated and have better authority under BAM, he surely would stay.
even if BAM had ill treated Li Mao or had delayed the renewal of his contract, he would have stayed if LCW was to perform up to his expectations. So the main factor is still LCW's performance that had let him down, tats why LCW felt so bad about Li Mao leaving BAM, even had the thought of quitting.....
LCW is a very low-profile player, there is always up & down to be a national player and to tolerate with so much rumours & comments. Eventhough before Li Mao leaving, he should make a clarification and also true reason behind, as a professional himself. I dont agree to condemm a player when a coach is leaving. A coach should be generous and wise enough to handle the situation, and not by giving a surprise and question mark to everybody in the first place. Single players not only depends on coaching but also player himself. Therefore, there wont be much changes even he has left. I personally will support player like LCW no matter his good or his bad time ! ! He is one of many great players who has maintained his commitment to the national team, no matter wat people said ! !
Noone is condeming LCW...... Noone has said that the goods of LCW is only from Li Mao and he wont be performing in the future anymore...... Noone has said that LCW is not to be supported anymore after his dropping performance and has been letting the supporters down lately....... Noone has said that he didnt act responsibly or fully committed to the MAS team....... ***JUST someone saying that Li Mao left MAS mainly because of LCW was not performing.
Rexy might probably quit too like what he had said in despair (even cried) when the doubles are not performing in the team event of Asiad, luckily KKK/TBH made it up to him in the individual event. It is very disappointing when the coach put a mountain of effort into the player and the player is consistently not performing as he should have.
lol, all i can say is...... very good for Li Mao making sure for his career is stable and I do find things with BAM is too screwed up, seems like they do not appreciate a good coach and to have a tendency to keep him in BAM but when there's other single coaches like Misbun in there, I would see that internal politics like "cucuk jarum" (back stabing) from the back is inevitable.
LCW is one of 3 or 4 players in the world who can take on LD and the CHN's arsenal, consistently taking LD for 3-game affair. Even Li Miao, in one previous thread, said he felt "heart pain" to see LCW train so hard. I admire LCW's humble personality and I consider him an over-achiever and he has performed as best as he can do. Name any current and past MAS player who ever beaten LD...there is none.
What do we expect from BAM, a bunch of idiot screwing and farting around...Patronizing and politiking is what BAM does best, Misbun should long fired and yet he is still there, that amaze me...given any other organization, Misbun is fired long ago.
hahahha.......great post. Just exchange Misbun with Kim Her. MAS wil b in the chart of AE in a few years time.
yeah, LCW has the gist to beat LD.....but he is not an over-achiever until he continuously beat LD like beating BCL in the past because i believe he can do much better than that. I have big hopes on him. He should b able to make it if he is mentally well prepared.....
Dude, u serious think that LM will forsake LCW just because of that? A player is normal to hv up and downs, LM is professional enough to know that.
Well, every coach definitely hope that his players can perform well and all his hard work appreciate by the country and assocation.Well, the fact thay Li Mao has left can never be change so we no need to say who is fault because this is already too late.I have to admit that Bam should have a better management which benefit to the coaches as well as the player.I do hope this incident will let the BAM learnt something.Finally, hope LCW can bounce back and good luck to him as he is one of the great player and i think he can do it.
That'd be good, seeing as Li Mao is a good coach. I just hope Tat Meng is able to emulate Li Mao's coaching style and quality in the meantime
i seriously DUN doubt that.. hehehe i think he'll be back here to coach Mas but maybe with the consideration whether LCW will still be around cuz he seems to fond LCW a lot... DADDY and his BOY BOY i guess.... dun get to see that anywhere else... kinda.. touching :crying::crying::crying:
Dude, do you know that Li Mao has a reputation of creating world champion or wanted to have that kind of reputation? He promised BAM and wanted MAS to have one when he came here. You have to know that he was on a par with rexy, but last year's tourneys and the first 2 SS tournaments were still seeing LCW and KBH going nowhere (not promising), but KKK/TBH and other MD were booming and kicking world champion's ass, these had caused him to look very bad (comparison of 2 foreign coach, since Rexy came to BAM later than he was, and he had the seniority in this coaching business than rexy). LCW had brought bad names to Li Mao's reputation by his performance lately, and he couldnt take that. Thats why Li Mao waited until the end of 2nd SS before announcing his moves, to see whether his player was improving. Yes, all players have ups and downs. but a real world champion will have to be more consistent than that (unless there are injuries). There are 2 possibilities: 1- LCW dont have the substance to be a world champion. 2- LCW have it but have not been performing for sometime already. ***Both of this possibilities may also result in Li Mao's leaving. I just hope that it's the latter so that LCW will have a come back at the top spot and shakes LD world ranking again. It is true, if you know LCW personally then u would know.
LiMao has already said that its nth to do with LCW, its mainly due to BAM's inefficient management. I dont see LCW is that horrible until LM didnt even want to stay with him at least after WC2007. LCW has brought much fame to LM, but if he simply forsake LCW just because of his so-so performance lately, i would lost all my respect for that man already. Btw do u know LCW personally?
