There are lots of possible goals a coach bring players to tournament. One of it might be to test the level of players with the International players, outside their own country.
Some go for exposure, some may want more matches, and some chasing the ranks. After all the reasons, when players are on court, the goal definitely to get the win. Maybe not 100% winning, but some good matches that give chances to players to gain some positive encouragement and experience.
We came to Bangkok to see their current level compared to players outside Malaysia. There were lots of Nationality in Bangkok, coming from India, Hong Kong, China.. and definitely most players from Thailand itself.
To get to somewhere we want to be, we need to know the exact location. Like going on a car or Taxi, the driver will need to the location to go. And we need to have a destination in this case, the longer it is, many check points need to be achieved. In tennis development, the address are not certain. We need to go to a destination where we are able to reach first. Yes we are saying Wimbledon or Roland Garros but where do we need to go first? If from Malaysia, driving to Paris needs a lot of stop over.
To get there, we need to go to a different destination first. Many parents having goals to get to this destination which is too far ahead without knowing the stop over they need to reach. This will make the journey too vague and cloudy and discontinue the journey as lost of motivation happens.
Out first check point is the National Junior events. We have completed that, and being at the top in National means we have to move further to another check points. Being in Malaysia, South East Asia (SEA) part, we are not the powerhouse of tennis. For that reason, we need to travel to the powerhouse of tennis in SEA.
A hybrid adoption was done since two years ago to blend in Malaysia and Thailand competition. True enough, that has build the players better in term of quality in 10 and 12 under. We manage to be on top tier of Malaysian players in their age category. Going up the age in Malaysia to 14 & under seems not very interesting since not many players are there anymore. The good 14 under already playing 16 under, while the remaining 14 under are not very much challenging. We decided to go further.
In Bangkok recently, they both lost in the first round of the tournament. The winning came after that, but the learning comes earlier. We notice that the players in this category played better in term of pace and consistency.
But, the underlying reason for pace and consistency that we have found out is the movement. Ability to move and recover faster is the key here. As simple as that, we make them as our goals to improve. Lets see if that improvement will bring them to be better players. I guess it will.