PETALING JAYA: Singles coaching director Kenneth Jonassen has had to change his training methods after the national players struggled to adapt to the European style.
Jonassen has come under fire after overseeing a tough year in the men’s singles after joining the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) a year ago.
It is learned that the likes of world No. 28 Leong Jun Hao and world No. 39 Justin Hoh found it hard to adapt to Jonassen’s European method, which focuses on challenging the mindset of players.
The method requires the players to set their own goals and drive their own progress.
The Dane then had to switch to the Asian training approach.
“Quite early on, I made changes to a few things. People may think we are still following the European training style, but actually, we are not,” Jonassen said.
“In fact, we went back to a very Asia-based training approach four to five months ago because we felt it was not beneficial and the players were not ready to do those kinds of sessions.
“So I changed quite fast as I started to understand how players here think and react.
“The Asian approach is actually not very different, and now I understand that we will eventually reach the same goal, just in a slightly different manner,” Jonassen said.
Jonassen added that he might combine Asian and European styles in the future to bring out the best in his shuttlers.
“Eventually, we are going to try again with a combination of different elements, as we now have a better mutual understanding,” said Jonassen.
“I think it will be more ideal to combine more elements moving forward.”
With the more familiar Asian training approach in place, Jun Hao and Justin will be keen to improve their performances this year.
Jun Hao is getting ready to compete in the Malaysian Open, which starts on Tuesday at Axiata Arena, Bukit Jalil.
Justin’s first tournament of the year will be the Indonesian Masters from Jan 20-25 in Jakarta.
