ALOR STAR: National men’s singles head coach, Misbun Sidek admits that among his charges glaring weaknesses at the 2018 Badminton Asia Team Championship is a lack of physical strength which needs to be addressed and worked on in the build-up to the 2018 Thomas Cup in Bangkok come May, as well as for the long run.
According to him, in terms of the players technical aspect they are not inferior but they will need to work on more of a scientific approach which will be based on a systematic programme to further improve and enhance the players’ game.
"When they are able to improve on physical strength, their mental strength will automatically improve as well. What we can see other countries such as China and South Korea doing for the long run is building up the players’ physique and they are now quite strong as we can see,” said Misbun.
He explained that the national squad still have room for improvement in preparing for the Thomas Cup.
"We do not need to think so far ahead (as in winning the Thomas Cup), but what we need to do is see where are the important points that we need to work on to seize. We need to carefully plan especially as to who will be in action in Bangkok.
"It is not easy especially for men’s singles in terms of preparing the players, as we need to take the best initiatives to be inculcated and applied for the players,” said Misbun.
He added that overall he is satisfied with the players who were fielded especially the ones for men’s singles.
"I will pick the players who can shoulder the responsibility of playing for Malaysia. At the very least I took the brave move of giving Lee Zii Jia, Soong Joo Ven and Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin the opportunity to step up and be senior players.
"I also brought Leong Jun Hao so that he can see for himself the performance of top players from other countries,” said Misbun.
The national men’s squad bowed out of the Badminton Asia Team Championship when they lost 3-1 to China in yesterday’s semi-final, though they have already booked their place for the Thomas Cup on merit.