KUALA LUMPUR – Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) Doubles Coaching Director Rexy Mainaky urges men’s doubles players to recover from the “disease” of losing in a tournament’s semi-finals and finals.
He said the national players, especially number one doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik are able to compete and beat top players in the early stages, but often lose when they reach the semi-finals.
For example, in the Malaysian Open semi-finals yesterday, Aaron-Wooi Yik already led 18-14 in the first set against 2021 World Champion Takuro Hockey-Yugo Kobayashi, but eventually lost 21-23, 9-21.
Rexy described how the association together with the National Sports Institute (ISN) had engaged with psychological experts to strengthen the players’ mental endurance but the issue still remains.
“Our players easily feel ‘dizzy’ and experience self-panic. Aaron-Wooi Yik, for instance, were already leading, but they allowed the opponents to catch up, and when they were 1-5 behind in the second set, they seemed like they didn’t know how to play.
“How did they manage to play well in the first, second and quarter-final rounds but not in the semi-finals...I’m not sure what’s on their minds. I think this is more a mental issue, not a technical one,” he said when met by reporters.
Yesterday’s defeat saw Aaron-Wooi Yik, who is also the Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze medalist, still longing to clinch their inaugural Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour title.
The only title (excluding team events) the duo has won so far is the 2019 SEA Games gold medal in the Philippines.
Other than that, they came close to winning six World Tours including the All England 2019 and Thailand Open 2020, where they lost in the finals.
Meanwhile, the other national doubles pair Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani’s country seemed out of ideas on how to overcome Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia in another semi-final action.
The pair lost 14-21, 12-21 to the world’s seventh-ranked doubles.
Commenting on his charges’ performance, Rexy said they should be more focused on reading the game and the opponent’s movements in the court, besides quickly changing their style of play to find techniques to overcome the opponent.
“When the opponent is playing near the net, they keep playing the shuttle there; when the opponent can return smashes easily, they still smash the shuttle there as if they run out of ideas.
“They should’ve been smarter by rapidly changing the shuttlecock’s direction or play dropshots,” he said. – Bernama, July 3, 2022
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