First day at work: New women’s singles head coach Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin at the training centre. —LOW BOON TAT/The Star
PETALING JAYA: New women’s singles head coach Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin showed his intent to make a good impression by turning up early at the Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM) in Bukit Kiara.
Iskandar was supposed to start work today but turned up two days earlier on Monday.
The 34-year-old, who left his position as Ireland singles coach to join the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM), faces a tough task to lift the standards of the struggling women’s singles in the country but is eager to embrace the new challenge ahead of him.
“Yesterday was my first day. I wanted to come here and start a bit earlier. I wanted to see the condition of the players and their tournament schedule,” said Iskandar after overseeing a training session at ABM on Tuesday.
“One of my reasons for joining BAM is singles coaching director Kenneth (Jonassen), who called me personally to ask me to take up this position.
“I could see that he really wanted me to join and I appreciate his faith in me. I also wanted a new challenge. I wanted to improve myself as well as the players.”
Iskandar believes his experience both as a former player in BAM and as Ireland coach will help him a lot in his new role.
“I was a player in BAM once too, so I can understand the challenges the current players face,” said Iskandar.
“For the first two weeks, I will observe the training sessions and have discussions with Kenneth on how to improve the players tactically and work on their consistency on court.”
Currently, world No. 38 K. Letshanaa is BAM’s No. 1 women’s singles player followed by world No. 71 Wong Ling Ching.
Iskandar’s main task will be to prepare his new charges for the SEA Games from Dec 9-20 in Thailand.
“We will focus on what we need to do for the SEA Games. Most likely, we will be sending our best players,” said Iskandar.
“Every country is improving and we need to fight hard to do well. For me, Letshanaa still lacks maturity.
“She can attack well and get points but sometimes when she’s leading and looks confident, she tends to overthink and give away too many points.
“As for Ling Ching, she is a fighter but she struggles to kill the shuttle. We will analyse how to improve her attacking game,” added Iskandar.
