New Delhi: Malaysia’s former men’s doubles chief coach Tan Kim Her who was appointed by Badminton Association of India (BAI) as their new doubles coach, has started making positive change for India’s doubles players.
The 44-year-old coach signed a five-year contract with BAI effective September, has already begun working with Manu Attri/Sumeeth Reddy (men’s doubles) and Jwala Gutta/Ashwini Ponnappa (women’s doubles) to help them qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
According to Indian media, Tan was confident that World No. 20 Manu Attri/Sumeeth Reddy who won the Mexico GP last week could improve their ranking to 17th position soon, while Jwala and Ashwini were ranked World No. 13 and won’t face much difficulty to qualify for Rio.
Those Indian doubles players, who were earlier felt quite neglected for lack of doubles coach believed Tan has all the attributes they need in order to bring their games to the next level.
“Coach Tan Kim Her has brought changes to our program. His innovative training techniques and longer duration training period are moving us towards a right direction,” said Shlok Ramchandran, the youngster from Mumbai, who with his partner K Nandagopal won the last two All India Senior Ranking badminton tournaments in India.
Tan Kim Her also managed to pair up Chirag Shetty (18 years old) and R Satwik Sai Raj (15 years old) who recently became the youngest men’s doubles champions at a Senior All India tournament.
India’s Chief national coach Gopichand was also pleased to have Tan to serve as their doubles coach.
“Tan Kim Her is an experienced coach, I am very confident he can bring revolution to our doubles department. I have given him freedom to train the doubles players, and they will soon move to our new training academy few kilometers away from our present academy,” said Gopichand.
Although Tan Kim Her has a successful career as a player and coach, surprisingly, he doesn’t want his kids to become professional badminton players.
“When I was playing badminton, I went through a lot of financial problems, and I don’t want my kids to have to experience those problems again. Those issues have left a permanent memory in me, that’s why I preferred my kids to pick up a different sport,” said Tan Kim Her.
