Japan need to toughen up mentally

Japan manager Park Joo Bong, arguably the greatest ever doubles player, knew all about handling pressure and winning gold medals during his heydays.

However, try as he might, he admitted his Japanese team are still finding it difficult to handle the pressure of playing in team events. This was evident when Japan lost their 2011 Double Star BWF Sudirman Cup World Mixed Team Championships quarter-final tie 3-2 to an under-strength Indonesian team on Friday night.

The withdrawal of former world champions Taufik Hidayat, Liliyana Natsir, Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan due to personal reasons and injuries, severely hit the Indonesian team, yet they managed to maintain their record of never failing to reach the semi-finals of this tournament.

Joo Bong, who has tasted success as coach of England and Malaysia, said: “Perhaps we need to work a bit more on the psychological side as our players find it hard to handle the pressure of team events.

“The loss is heart breaking, but it will make the team stronger and hopefully, we can comeback an even better team the next time.

“Japan have come a long way recently. We reached the Thomas Cup semi-finals last year for the first time, and now we nearly reached the semis of the Sudirman Cup for the first time.”

Joo Bong’s players have also lit up the international circuit with the likes of Miyuki Maeda-Satoko Suetsuna and Hashimoto-Noriyasu Hirata (Japan) wining OSIM BWF World Superseries titles this year and Mizuki Fujii-Reika Kakiiwa and Sho Sasaki winning Grand Prix Gold tournaments. Kenichi Tago (picture), and Eriko Hirose also reached the All England finals in the men's and women's singles competitions in 2010 and 2011.

It could be only a matter of time before they start living up to expectations in team events as well.