Badminton: New evaluation and review system to push shuttlers out of their comfort zones

PETALING JAYA: The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) will not accept below average performances and are taking stringent measures to push the players out of their comfort zones.

The BAM have introduced an evaluation and review process on the performance of the players based on transparency to motivate and keep them on their toes.

The men’s singles squad were the first to undergo the system where three players – Lee Shun Yang (22), Chia Jeng Hon (20) and Rex Hooi (20) – were dropped from the squad. The review process by national director of coaching Rexy Mainaky and national singles coach Hendrwan was based on the performance data collected throughout the year, the feedback from other coaches and also a self-evaluation and input from the players themselves.

The men’s singles department will now have elite (Grade A) and back-up (Grade B) players where they will be given a lesser number of tournaments to achieve their individual goals.

The elite players are world No. 15 Ng Tze Yong, Leong Jun Hao, Justin Hoh, Aidil Sholeh Ali Sadikin and Eogene Ewe who will play in 10 to 12 tournaments next year.

Jacky Kok, Ong Zhen Yi, Ong Ken Yon, Chua Kim Sheng and Shaqeem Eiman Shahyar are the five back-up players who will get four to six tournaments.

“This is the first time that we decided to have a transparent review where the performance data is the basis of discussion and the coaches and their players give their inputs,” said Rexy.

“We had about five meetings with the coaches and players before reaching this decision. The data collected was not just on tournament results but each player’s head-to-head records against their rivals and their winning percentage against higher ranked players.

“The review also included the attitude of the players in training and their ability to learn from the coaches.

“The players are well aware of the mechanism. They participated in self evaluation and were also asked to rank their teammates by providing the data but without revealing the name of those players.”

Shun Yang was also offered to become a full-time sparring partner to top BAM player Tze Yong and Rexy said the former has accepted the offer.

Hendrawan said that the focus of the current set-up is to help improve the performance of the players and discard the survival mentality which compromises on quality.

“The players must get used to the new approach where we don’t need to send them for too many tournaments to achieve their objective of winning. It will be lesser tournaments and the focus will be on quality,” said Hendrawan.

“Many players are hardworking and excellent but are unable to perform well in tournaments. But they can be very useful in helping their teammates.

“Shun Yang has a positive attitude in training. He has been supportive in Tze Yong’s training and we have offered him to become a full-time sparring partner.”

Rexy also added that there will be no red tape between the elite and back-up squads as promotion and demotion can be done periodically and doesn’t depend on annual review.

“The Grade B players can gain promotion to Grade A in a matter of months if they can win three or four tournaments. Nothing is fixed,” added Rexy.