PETALING JAYA: The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) will have little time to dwell on their Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games campaign as they prepare for another major adjustment to the sport.
With the Badminton World Federation (BWF) set to introduce a 15-point scoring system from January, national doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky said BAM must fine-tune their training programme to ensure the players are ready for the faster-paced game.
With only three months to adapt, Rexy believes greater emphasis must be placed on speed endurance, as the shorter scoring format is expected to put more pressure on players from the start.
“After this, the scoring system will change from 21 points to 15 points, so we need to improve our programme further, especially in terms of speed endurance, so that we can be more solid,” said Rexy.
“The doubles game will also change. It will be more about speed and power.”
The new system will form part of BAM’s review of its overall preparation, following a campaign at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games that produced one bronze medal through women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah.
The result matched Malaysia’s haul at the Hangzhou Games, where Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik also won bronze, but fell short of the badminton squad’s target of one silver and one bronze.
Rexy said the Asian Games campaign would be reviewed closely to identify areas that need improvement ahead of the next batch of tournaments.
“That is for sure because we will sit down together and look at what needs to be improved,” he said.
BAM will now have to ensure those lessons are incorporated into their training programme while also preparing the players for the demands of the new scoring format.
