Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian badminton superstar Lee Chong Wei had recently warned his juniors that they would need to step up their games in training under the new Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) men’s singles head coach Misbun Sidek.
Those players were getting a little sample of Sidek’s rigorous workout routine on Tuesday, and while the trainings were not overly complicated, they were surprisingly challenging to a lot of BAM players.
Sidek started his day at the Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM), Bukit Kiara at 6.40am on Tuesday. Although his current position in BAM is considered to be at the same level as BAM’s Technical Director Morten Frost Hansen, Sidek has preferred hands-on approach in his coaching programs, including sparring personally with the players. Sidek was assisted by three other assistant coaches including Hendrawan, Indra Widjaja and Sairul Amar Ayob
“My training programs still pretty much the same. I cannot make a drastic change to the program immediately. I am going to talk to some of these players’ previous coaches and to ask for their opinions,” said Sidek.
Sidek also stressed that the players must always communicate with the coaches to receive appropriate feedbacks on their strengths and weaknesses.
“If the players do not ask for coaches’ comments, they would not know areas in need of improvement,” added Sidek.
The World No. 64 player Soong Joo Ven told reporters although it was his first session of training with Misbun Sidek, it has been very intense.
“No doubt that Misbun’s held a more stringent training standard, I’ve already benefited a lot from the work he has done with the players in one day,” said Soong.
Meanwhile, Sidek also stressed that he would only work for one ‘boss’ in BAM, which is BAM’s President Datuk Seri Mohamad Norza Zakaria as he started working as the men’s singles coach.
“I’m more comfortable working for only one boss in BAM. Our goal is to improve and to achieve success. Getting too many opinions are sometimes confusing instead of helpful,” added Sidek.
