SHAH ALAM – National badminton coaching director Rexy Mainaky has openly condemned the negative attitude showcased by national women’s doubles player M. Thinaah, which has affected her performance in the ongoing 2024 Badminton Asia Team Championships (BATC).
His response comes after Thinaah, together with her partner Pearly Tan, hoped for their coaches to introduce new game plans to help them reach peak performance.
The world number 14 Malaysians fell to the world number 30 Indonesian pair Lanny Tria Mayasari-Ribka Sugiarto, 14-21, 21-18, 15-21 in the quarterfinals match, which lasted 59 minutes at the Setia City Convention Centre here today.
The 56-year-old, himself an Olympic gold medalist in the 1996 Atlanta Games, said that Thinaah should not strive to be perfect and should adopt a warrior mentality if she hopes to reach further heights.
“I don’t agree with Thinaah’s comment that she and her partner need different gameplay and strategies.
“Thinaah’s negativity on the court is too obvious, and all their opponents are very well aware of that. Whenever there is a smash, there’s no follow-up from Thinaah, and she has to change her way of playing. She should have the urge to fight more.
“That’s why you see in today’s match, the Indonesian players kept hitting the shuttle towards Thinaah as they all knew that she was pressuring herself.
“Thinaah’s movements have been bad, and she has been too negative about herself. She always wants to be perfect every day. In life, you can’t be perfect. Today you may be good and tomorrow you may be bad.
“The Paris Olympics is around the corner, and both Pearly and Thinaah have to overcome their body language and attitude on the court.
“I’m not God to say that the future of Pearly and Thinaah is bright, but I will do my best to make sure that they reach their target,” said Rexy when met after the match.
Rexy was also disappointed with the overall performance of the national women’s team at this year’s BATC event, citing that his charges failed to take advantage of the teams that didn’t bring their strong team.
He further said that the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) will be using the services of veteran sports psychologist Frederick Tan to prepare the shuttlers’ mindset who are in the Road to Gold (RTG) programme.
Frederick has been the sports psychologist for former national badminton legend Datuk Lee Chong Wei.
“We have had support from physiologists at the National Sports Institute over the years, and BAM has been working hand in hand with them. We have always been looking at how we can make things better for our shuttlers.
“Frederick will be arriving on the 23rd of February, and we will sit down with all the players in the RTG program. We need Frederick to fine-tune the players’ mindset so that we can win the elusive Olympic gold medal,” Rexy added.
Ng Tze Yong, Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik, Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi, Pearly Tan-Thinaah Muralitharan, Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei are part of the current RTG programme. -t February 16, 2024