BAM wants in-house psychologist to strengthen players’ mental endurance

KUALA LUMPUR – The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) are hoping to bring in a psychologist in a bid to beef up its players’ mental strength while playing under intense pressure on the court.

BAM high-performance director Dr Tim Jones said it is essential to add one in-house psychologist as he or she can help to deal with 80 senior players as well as complement the current specialist from the National Sports Institute (NSI) that they currently engage.

“Definitely in my plan to have one (psychologist) but I need to get the budget approved first.

“Although we currently use a psychologist from NSI, for me I would like to bolster that because we have a lot of players, so I think it’ll be good to have another one to help,” he told reporters after a meeting with the National Sports Council (NSC) today.

Recently, BAM doubles coaching director, Rexy Mainaky urged the men’s doubles players to shake off the “syndrome” of losing in the semi-finals and finals of a tournament.

Puzzled at the peculiar streak, Rexy noted that the national representatives, especially the number one doubles pair of Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik were capable of beating top players in the early stages of competition, but often bottomed out when they reached the semi-finals.

Jones also opined that one psychologist was enough in BAM as long as he or she can fit in and be able to communicate well with the players.

On another development, Jones confirmed that the newly-appointed women’s singles coach James Chua will start training the players next week following the departure of former head coach, Indra Wijaya, who is currently coaching Malaysia’s top men’s singles ace, Lee Zii Jia, who is an independent professional shuttler.

In the meantime, Jones informed that they are currently in the final phase of completing the hiring process for a new doubles coach to fill the vacancies of men’s doubles coach Flandy Limpele and mixed doubles coach, Paulus Firman.

“We can assure whoever we pick will be a good pick for us and definitely help us to deliver medals when it comes to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris,” he added.

On  April 1, Flandy made a shocking decision to leave BAM when he did not renew his contract after two years while a month later, Paulus resigned to spend time with his family.

Meanwhile, BAM secretary-general Datuk Kenny Goh said they will continue the tradition of sending the junior squad to represent the country in the upcoming 2023 SEA Games in Cambodia, slated to be held from May 5 to 16.

Asked whether BAM intend to field the players who had played in the last SEA Games in Hanoi, Vietnam, last May, Kenny said he will leave it to Jones, Rexy and BAM singles coaching director, Wong Choong Hann on the matter as the Games might clash with the 2023 Sudirman Cup in Suzhou, China. – Bernama, July 18, 2022