Indonesian Shuttlers Need Role Models: PB Djarum
Kudus. PB Djarum, one of the best badminton clubs in Indonesia, said that with the country's recent lackluster performance at the 2017 SEA Games, young shuttlers need role models to motivate them while training.
Indonesia recorded its worst milestone in history at the 2017 SEA Games, including in badminton, which the Southeast Asian country has dominated since 1977.
Speaking to reporters during an audition for young athletes, PB Djarum manager Fung Permadi insisted that Indonesia's badminton has a shortage of top role models.
"Especially in the men's singles, in the past we had Taufik Hidayat [who won an Olympic gold medal in 2004] and now we don't have any like him," Fung said in Kudus, Central Java, on Thursday (07/09).
Fung added that to develop athletes, short-term approaches are not the best options. "Humans are not machines, it's different when upgrading athletes, they need a long process," he said.
"Yet, the result will always depend on the athletes themselves," Fung added.
Meanwhile, speaking at the same event, former elite shuttler and the 1993's All England winner Hariyanto Arbi admitted that during his active period as an athlete, he always had a role model in mind to help win titles.
"The coaches said to us that we had to follow the great Liem Swie King, who never wanted to give up on courts. When an opponent had 10 points, Liem would always push to earn 15, that's simple," Arbi said to the audience, including Liem himself.
Liem, now aged 61, is an Indonesian singles legend who had won the All England three times in the 1970s to the mid 1980s. He had been undefeated for 33 months and his legendary jumping smash technique has been copied by many shuttlers around the world.
Tags: Keywords: