Give me six months to improve player performance - James Chua 

KUALA LUMPUR, July 19 (Bernama) -- New national badminton women’s singles coach, James Chua has asked for at least four to six months to improve the performance of the eight national players under his charge.

The 43-year-old coach, who began his duty officially yesterday, admitted that there was room to improve tactically for his players to mount a credible challenge at the international stage.

"Firstly, I feel we need to correct the tactical aspects before the physical because I believe they (the women’s singles players) already have their own physical strengths.

"I have discussed with Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) singles coaching director Wong Choong Hann and he agreed with the programme I want to implement to be more tactical. But we cannot force it because a few of them are injured and need time to recover,” he told reporters at the Akademi Badminton Malaysia (ABM) at Bukit Kiara here today.

He also added that it was hard to set any target currently, but was optimistic of determining which player needed full attention to boost their world rankings.

James also said he believed that singles player S. Kisona had the potential to be the best role model for junior players in Malaysia.

"I think Kisona is quite okay but she's having injury before this, and just recovered so right now she's in Taipei for her first tournament after injury….I believe the younger players can try to reach her standard and women singles players also need to up their performance," he said.

-- BERNAMA