No mixed feelings over mixing it up
Paulus gets creative in training to keep doubles pairs motivated
If the coach is also bored together with his players, then the whole training environment will be drab.
Paulus Firman
PETALING JAYA: To beat boredom, one has to find different but winning ways to motivate the athletes.
And national mixed doubles coach Paulus Firman is doing just that to keep the morale of the mixed doubles players high during their training sessions at the Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM).
Paulus has four mixed pairs under his care – world No. 11 Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing, Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie (No. 12), Hoo Pang Ron-Cheah Yee See (No. 35) and Cheng Tang Jie-Peck Yen Wei (No. 57) and all of them have been without any international tournaments for seven months and counting.
Having coached for twenty over years, including his previous stint in Indonesia, Paulus says he knows how to keep the training environment exciting.
“If the coach is also bored together with his players, then the whole training environment will be drab,” said Paulus, 52.
“It’s the art of coaching to find ways to keep the players on their toes. It’ll be mentally draining for the players if they keep doing the same thing in training.
“There are days when I push them in training. Then, there are days when I try to make it exciting. We have matches against men’s singles players and sometimes, we’ve fun competitions.
“It’s all about mixing it up.” The focus of Paulus is only one – to lead his players to the Tokyo Olympic Games next year.
“I’ve set short and long term goals for the players. Ultimately, we want our pairs to qualify for the Olympics,” said Paulus.
Both Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing and Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie have an outside chance to make the cut if they can improve their Olympics ranking points in the first quarter of next year.
“The first month of next year is also important. It’s not easy to get players to hit peak form after a long break but the month of January will be the real test for them,” said Paulus.
The World Badminton Federation (BWF) have lined up two Opens in Bangkok, Thailand, from Jan 12-17 and Jan 19-24 respectively. It will then be followed by the World Tour Finals at the same venue from Jan 23-31.
“For now, though, I’m focusing on players, individually.
“Yen Wei and Soon Huat are back in training after recovering from their injuries. I’m monitoring their progress,” he said.
“I’m unable to point out who are the best pair in the team based on current form but I’m happy to see overall improvement in every player.
“I’ve added some variety in their game and they are adapting to it,” added Paulus.