KUALA LUMPUR – Sparring with two former Indonesian national men’s doubles players has helped Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah improve, though they still have work to do to get on the level of the world’s top pairs.
Ade Yusuf Santoso and Gerardo Rizqullah Hafidz were roped in as sparring partners for Malaysia’s number one women’s pair by national coaching director Rexy Mainaky to provide quality practice.
Pearly said that time sparring with Ade Yusuf and Gerardo had a positive impact on their game.
“Thinaah and I still lack consistency and our sparring partners don’t make many silly mistakes and are quite stable when playing.
“This means we will play lots of long rallies which gives us plenty of chances to work on our on-court rotations and consistency.
“Because of this, our speed has also improved,” she said when met at Akademi Badminton Malaysia in Bukit Kiara today.
At the same time, Pearly said their coaches had also utilised video analysis to help them improve.
Their training sessions are recorded and anything that needs to be improved or fixed will be discussed with the pair.
However, the 24-year-old is aware that she and Thinaah need to boost their physical conditioning to challenge the top pairs in the world.
“Our physical conditioning is not at world-class standard yet, so we need to work on this.
“We have been also working on finding consistency and our on-court rotations because it is not at a high level. However, we’re still progressing.
“If you want to compare with the last few months, there have been improvements but we’re not at a world-class level yet. We are working hard to reach that level,” she added.
Previously, Rexy mentioned that the women’s doubles duo were slowly getting back to their best despite being dumped out of the recent French Open in the first round.
He remarked that the pair were playing with more aggression and supporting each other with their on-court rotations.
After their quarter-final defeat at the All England, Rexy also highlighted how the pair needed to up their physical conditioning, endurance and strength to compete with the world’s best. – March 19, 2024