PETALING JAYA: Badminton legend Chen Long can take pride in his latest achievement after guiding China’s junior team to a memorable campaign at the World Junior Championships in Guwahati, India.
China capped off their outing in style by capturing three gold medals in the individual events through boys’ singles player Liu Yangmingyu, boys’ doubles pair Chen Junting-Liu Junrong, and girls’ doubles duo Tan Kexuan-Wei Yueyue.
Just a week earlier, the Chinese juniors had also lifted their 15th Suhandinata Cup title after defeating Indonesia in the mixed team final.
Chen Long, a two-time world champion and the Rio 2016 Olympic gold medallist, began his new role as coach of China’s junior squad in December last year. He admitted that his latest assignment has not been easy, saying the pressure he feels as a coach is just as intense as what he once faced as a player.
“It’s more stressful as a coach now. After watching both the semi-finals, it was stressful for both the mind and the heart. Even though I’m not playing at the moment, I’m feeling the same level of stress.
As a player, I needed to have a poker face to make my opponent afraid of me, and that helped me perform and focus better on court. But as a coach, I try to make the players on court feel better. If they win a point, I’ll cheer them up. Even if they lose, I’ll smile and tell them, ‘It’s okay, continue playing.’”
Chen Long has also taken a more diplomatic approach in guiding his young charges, ensuring that his message is conveyed in a way they can easily absorb and apply.
“As a coach, my challenge has been figuring out how I can use all the years of experience from my playing career to help the youngsters perform better and win matches.
I tell them to focus on every point, every shuttle and every rally, and not pay too much attention to the results. It’s okay to lose or win — just pay more attention to each rally and focus on the match,” he added.
