Loca flavou please SAM must put faith in home-grown coaches, says sports lecturer

By RAJES PAUL Fang Kai Xiang, Han Jian and Li Mao of ; Morten Frost of : The Denmark and Park Joo-bong of Association of (BAM) South Korea. should have faith in local coaches BAMhired Yap Kim Hock as the and stop depending on foreign chief coach in 2005 to show their expertise. faith in local coaches but termi• The local coaches, however, nated his services after the 2008 should not sit on their laurels but Olympics. educate themselves to become bet• Malaysian badminton has been ter and more knowledgable in all without a chief .coach ever since. a~pects of the game. Sheikh Kamaruddin said he was This is the opinion of Tuan frustrated with the lack of enthu• Sheikh Kamaruddin Sheikh siasm shown by local coaches as Ahmad, a lecturer with the Phy• far as equipping themselves with sical Education Department of knowledge of the game. Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), "They should take up courses who has been vocal on the impor• and not be satisfied with their tance of educating the sports com• past experience as a player to get munity. by," he said. He said BAMshould even go as "Coaching a player is not only far as entrusting the job of nation• about improving their skills on the al coaching director to a local. court. There are other aspects like "We have engaged many for• sports science, psychology, physi• eigners in the past and they have ology etc." contributed much to the sport. "We have many sports science But the time has come for Malaysia experts from the National Sports to rely on the local coaches," said Institute (NSI)but their contribution Sheikh Kamaruddin. . is useless if the coaches don't know BAM are looking at revamping what they want from a player. their coaching and training struc• "They should analyse and work ture and their new proposals will together to maximise the poten• be revealed at a meeting on Sept tial of an athlete." 8. They are also looking at candi• Sheikh Kamaruddin is hoping dates for the chief coach position. that BAM's coaching and training Malaysia have had many for• committee will avoid making the Sheikh Kamaruddin: 'Localcoaches shouldtake up courses and not be satisfied eign coaches before, including same mistakes again. withtheir past experienceas a playerto get by.'