KUALA LUMPUR: Cheah Soon Kit made his name as a doubles player and even became a doubles coach with the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) for five years until his resignation in 2007.
So, it came as a bit of a surprise when he started coaching singles players for the last 1½ years.
And Soon Kit, the chief coach of Looi Badminton Academy, has done quite a decent job too as some of his shuttlers have either won titles or pushed the national junior players to the limit in this year’s 100Plus National Junior Circuit.
So, why the switch to singles coaching?
Soon Kit, who won the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games men’s doubles silver medal with Yap Kim Hock, said that he wanted to expand his repertoire in badminton by coming out of his comfort zone.
“I wanted to do something different for a simple reason – improve my knowledge of the game,” said Soon Kit.
“It’s different training the doubles and singles players. The doubles involves choosing the right combination and having the right chemistry between two players. In singles, the players are more individualistic and more skilful. Even their self-motivation varies,” he said.
“This is a challenge for me and I’m enjoying it. It helps me to grow as a coach.
“I actually started as a singles player but, in 1986, the late Datuk Punch Gunalan asked me to take up doubles because I possessed good smashing abilities. We also lacked a strong second doubles pair as part of our rebuilding process for the 1992 Thomas Cup.”
Soon Kit and Soo Beng Kiang were in the team who helped Malaysia capture the 1992 Thomas Cup by beating Indonesia 3-2 at Stadium Negara.
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