Mulyo's patience helps push Taufik to Olympic glory

Eva C. Komandjaja The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

National coach Mulyo Handoyo has the recipe for success with temperamental shuttler Taufik Hidayat, and it led to Olympic glory.

Taufik, whose on-court and off-court tantrums and criticism of the country's badminton governing body PBSI, have many times put him on the outs with the association's officials as well as fans, has often been criticized for underachieving despite his immense talent.

His mediocre play was put down to an allegation that Taufik was going out clubbing too much.

But Mulyo sees it differently. "Many people have judged Taufik and accused him of having poor discipline. That is not true. He can be disciplined when he is training with me," Mulyo said in defense of his player.

"Every player has a different character and I think it depends on how the coach handles the player," he said.

Mulyo said that he let Taufik, who drives himself to the training center from his nearby residence, to arrange his own training schedule and gave the player the freedom to choose where he lives while working out at the national training center in Cipayung, East Jakarta.

"When other shuttlers start their training sessions at 8 a.m. every morning, I allow Taufik to start a half an hour later because it suits him.

"I don't care about how early or how late we start the training session. As long as he is serious, Taufik will do well. It's the quality that counts, not the quantity," said Mulyo, who has coached Taufik off and on since 1997.

His coaching style has molded Taufik into one of the world's best shuttlers, but the most important thing is that his understanding and patience seems to set him apart from other coaches, at least in the eyes of Taufik.

Two years ago, Taufik threatened to abandon the national team and play for Singapore, after falling out with the governing body PBSI, over the exclusion of Mulyo from the national center. Mulyo subsequently signed on to coach the Singaporean team and Taufik followed him.

Taufik carried out his threat, but his partnership with Mulyo lasted only two months before the player returned home on a promise by PBSI that Mulyo would also be called home later.

In February 2004, Mulyo returned to Indonesia to reunite with Taufik and it proved to be a successful partnership, as six months later, Taufik was crowned the Olympic Champion in Athens.

Born on March 6, 1960 in Pati, a small town in Central Java, Mulyo began his career in badminton as a shuttler, but he never made it past the provincial stages in most local badminton tournaments.

"I always used to lose to Icuk (Sugiarto) back then," he recalled, referring to Indonesia's 1983 world champion.

While not overly successful as a player, Mulyo decided to start coaching at the Djarum Kudus badminton club in 1982. The club is renowned for producing great players.

"I like coaching, because I like to teach people, especially young shuttlers," Mulyo said.

In 1995, he was hired to coach at the national training center and assigned to work with a group of young shuttlers, including one young, talented teen by the name of Taufik Hidayat.

"Taufik had the lowest ranking among his peers and I was assigned to coach him," he said.

Also under Mulyo's tutelage were Agus Hariyanto and Ronald Susilo. They are both playing for different countries now.

Agus is playing for Hong Kong, Ronald for Singapore. The latter put in a stunning performance in Athens by knocking out top seed Lin Dan of China in the early rounds.

When Taufik was promoted to the senior level, Mulyo remained as his personal trainer with former national shuttler Joko Supriyanto his assistant.

Mulyo's tenure at Cipayung came to an abrupt end in 2001 when the Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) decided not to extend his contract as a coach of the national team due to a dispute with other coaches over contract fees.

Mulyo then applied for a coaching job in Singapore and worked there for two years before Taufik and PBSI asked him to return.

"Taufik asked me to return to Indonesia for him. I questioned his seriousness and he promised he would work hard, so I decided to return to Cipayung," he said.

Mulyo admitted that his economic situation was better in Singapore, but he also realized that it was more difficult to produce world-class players in Singapore, because their was not as much top quality talent as there is in Indonesia.

"But I never thought about money. I was motivated by the desire to coach Taufik," he said.

After helping the player gain his recent Olympic success, Mulyo's next challenge will be motivating Taufik to win the All England tournament and the World Championship.