Jakarta: Indonesian badminton legend Rudy Hartono hoped Indonesian shuttlers both at the national team level and at the regional club level could develop a winning mindset to help revive Indonesia’s dominance in the men’s singles department.
“The badminton association of Indonesia (PBSI) and the local clubs have to train and make their players to compete like a champion. Nowadays, after players made it to the national team and landed huge contracts, they weren’t as passionate as before, and their work ethic quickly deteriorated after that,” said Hartono.
Rudy Hartono who won men’s singles of All England Badminton Championship as much as 8 times, with 7 consecutive titles from 1968 to 1974, suggested that the existing training programs should help players to create a winning attitude and a winning mentality.
Rudy who also won the Thomas Cup four times, acknowledged that it’s hard to find a talented badminton player. According to him, if Indonesian shuttlers wanted to bring home the 2016 Rio Olympics gold medal, they’ll have to work hard, stay focused, and be disciplined.
Therefore, he hoped the Indonesia government could prioritize and provide more support for badminton since it could be the only gold medal contributor for Indonesia in Olympics.
“It takes about 10 years for a talented badminton player to become a champion. If Indonesia want to stay consistently at the top of badminton, it needs to create a sustainable flow of talent throughout the country, and it should start from the young school level,” added Hartono.
Another prominent badminton figure in Indonesia – Justian Suhandinata, the owner of Tangkas Badminton Club, which has produced top shuttlers for Indonesia, including Icuk Sugiarto, Ricky Subagja, Rexy Mainaky and Simon Santoso, also offered his advice that in order to excel, an athlete must be hungry – hungry for success, and for results.
“Rudy Hartono had tremendous commitment, effort and dedication at practice. He was so successful because he had self-discipline, always prepare himself for competition, and had incredible will to win,” said Suhandinata.
“These days, athletes lasted for only up to two years before they were expelled from the national team,” added Suhandinata.
Suhandinata also said the core committee of PBSI must be fair and transparent in recruiting players into the national team.
“There is no correlation that players with high national rankings will do well, PBSI should also give chances to other candidates with a fair and transparent recruiting process,” said Suhandinata.
