Rexy’s remedies from his arsenal of coaching weapons

THE past three weeks had been a very stressful period in the office for national badminton coaching director, Rexy Mainaky.

Given a mandate to put in place a credible coaching structure for the new Olympic cycle, Rexy and his fellow coaches spent hours brainstorming on the way forward in preparing for the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.

His stress busting formula over the weekend was to sample his wife Henny Saijati’s hearty meal and watch his favourite football team Arsenal beat Southampton.

“It’s my idea of work and life balance,” the 56-year old former world champion told this writer.

“For the past three weeks my fellow coaches and I had been debating, discussing and dissecting the performance of every player on our books.

“I think the last time I was under so much stress took place 20 years ago, when I was involved in a meeting that lasted for almost 24 hours non-stop, deciding who to drop and who to be retained in the playing set up at England BA.”

It was in England that Rexy launched his coaching career upon his retirement in 2001.

On the court, Rexy guided England’s mixed doubles pair Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson to the silver medal at the 2004 Olympics and the 2005 All-England title.

By July 2005, he had touched down at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) for his maiden stint as Malaysia’s men’s doubles coach.

Within seven years, Rexy enjoyed a topsy-turvy time – from the high of leading Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong to the Asian Games title in Doha in 2006 and the All-England title a few months later, and the Permanent Resident’s status in 2007 to an alleged mutiny that hastened his departure in 2012.

No doubt Rexy belongs to the exalted company of true winners who are normally driven by a desire uncommon among mere mortals.

He is a proud former world champion of his chosen sport and in a career spanning more than a decade, alongside baby-face Ricky Subagja, TV analyst-turned-head of performance and development at the Indonesian BA, they churned out four World Cup titles, a World Championship gold medal and an Olympic gold medal. Very few can match such acclaim.

Having made Bangkok and Manila his ports of call after a stint back in Indonesia, Rexy returned to Malaysia in 2021, eager to stamp his mark again despite the challenges in producing generational talents.

He has made his plans clear.

In announcing a four-year contract for all the coaches in the new set-up, Rexy is looking at consistency in the coaching set-up.

In his radar are established names such as Mulyo Handoyo, who guided Taufik Hidayat to the 2004 Olympic gold in the men’s singles and also coached India’s K. Srikanth, Lakshya Sen and H. S. Prannoy in 2017 and Kenneth Jonassen who is set to leave the Danish national team after 11 years as the chief coach.

They are in line to succeed men’s singles coaches Hendrawan, who will leave the at the end of this month after 15 years and Datuk Tey Seu Bock, who has been moved to the junior team.

Rexy is looking at coaches who may be able to turn Ng Tze Yong, Leong Jun Hao, Justin Hoh and Eogene Ewe into World Tour Super 500 title winners and potential point contributors to team prospects.

Rosman Razak is reportedly making a comeback to the national body as the women’s doubles coach, while Hoon Thien How, who was previously leading the women’s doubles team, has been moved to the junior men’s doubles team

Of course, within the cycles, there are milestones which, if drastically not achieved, would trigger minor changes from the management point of view.

With the mandate given to him, Rexy is likely to extend his contract that ends in December.

Ultimately, Rexy remains accountable as Malaysia awaits for his remedial measures in his arsenal of coaching weapons.