BAM Coaching and Training (C&T) Committee chairman Kenny Goh said under the new plan, there will be only two departments – singles elite and doubles elite – for a lean and robust set-up within the national body.
BAM coaching director Wong Choong Hann is set to serve as the singles coaching director heading singles coaches, elite shuttlers as well as back-up players, while newly appointed deputy coaching director Rexy Mainaky has been minted as coaching director for the doubles department.
Currently, each of the five departments – men’s and women’s singles, men’s, women’s and mixed doubles – has its own head coaches and coaches reporting to Choong Hann, which the C&T felt were “too many levels” to go through.
“We heard reports from head coaches on tournaments held in the past few months, especially in Europe and Bali. We made this decision after a thorough SWOT analysis,” Kenny told a press conference at the Akademi Badminton Malaysia (ABM) after chairing a virtual C&T meeting today.
“Previously, we had too many levels. The coaches go to the head coach, then he goes to coaching directors. But now, these two coaching directors will look at the entire structure, and they will plan and decide who to coach whom, conduct review on coaches and players.”
Kenny, who is also BAM secretary-general, said with the new arrangement, the coaching directors will be more focused on their respective departments, and when there is a problem, they can look into it directly for a quicker solution.
“We don’t change for the sake of changing. We have done SWOT analysis; we have looked at the challenges ahead and felt that this restructuring will help us achieve our objectives … No guarantees (of success), but no change might even make it worse.”
Kenny said 2022 will be a challenging year with the SEA Games, Thomas and Uber Cup Finals, Birmingham Commonwealth Games and Hangzhou Asian Games in line to serve as milestones for BAM’s Project 24 goal, the ultimate aim of which is winning the country’s maiden gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
He said one of the major milestones for 2022 will be the Thomas Cup.
Kenny also announced that the annual year-end performance review has been postponed until January, after Rexy, who only reported for duty on Dec 1, requested for time to evaluate the players and coaches.
He didn’t rule out the possibility some heads will roll after the review.