D

ubbed national heroes while their singles peers crumbled, the Indonesian Badminton Association’s (PBSI) doubles players say that a new approach to nutrition has played a big role in boosting their performance.

As part of the nation’s top shuttlers’ preparations for the London Olympics next year, the PBSI has embraced sports and nutrition science.

“No matter how great the training program is or how talented the shuttler is, without good nutrition, it’s hard to lift any shuttler up to the world-class level,” national men’s doubles coach Herry IP said at the PBSI’s training camp headquarters in Cipayung, East Jakarta, on Wednesday.

Herry said that although the PSBI’s nutrition restoration program had only been underway since May, some improvements were already visible, such as in the shuttlers’ improved physiques.

National doubles head coach Christian Hadinata said that good nutrition was improving the athletes’ physical stamina and their ability to concentrate in matches.

“There are different kind of fuels for vehicles. Everyone starts at the same level but after 100 meters,
we’ll see who lasts longer. That’s what we’re working on with our athletes … our main goal: 2012,” Christian said.

At previous Olympics, Indonesia’s men’s doubles brought home gold medals three times: Markis Kido/Hendra Setiawan, Tony Gunawan/Chandra Wijaya and Rexy Mainaky/Ricky Subagja. Mixed doubles also captured Olympic silver twice, with Liliyana Natsir/Nova Widianto and Tri Kusharyanto/ Minarti Timur.

Richard Mainaky, who has been the national mixed doubles coach for the past 16 years, agreed on the new approach to nutrition.

“All this time we have been guilty of blaming our shuttlers for their poor stamina, which was actually caused by the [poor] food we provided.”

The men’s and mixed doubles’ top and second-tier pairs have shown improved performance at a series of tournaments this year, including the India Open, the Malaysia Open, the Sudirman Cup, the Singapore Open and the Indonesia Open.

Among the top performers were mixed doubles Liliyana Natsir/Tontowi Ahmad, who have collected three titles this year in India, Malaysia and Singapore and were runners-up at last month’s Indonesia Open.

Mixed duo Fran Kurniawan/Pia Zebadiah and women’s doubles Greysia Polii/ Meiliana Jauhari also played impressively at the Sudirman Cup in Qingdao, China, where Indonesia finished as semifinalists.

Meanwhile, Herry’s top men’s doubles, Bona Septano/ M. Ahsan, have matured their partnership by sidelining top seeded opponents from Malaysia and Taiwan at Indonesia Open. Younger pair Angga Pratama/Rian Agung Saputra also showed promising results as runners-up in New Delhi.

Herry says that advanced laboratory devices for monitoring shuttler’s muscle development and
endurance is a must for improving national shuttlers.

“Moulding champions in the doubles sector takes time. We need at least two years to raise a pair to the world level. Applying sports science will help speed up the process as we’ll be able to tailor more efficient training programs based on the lab findings.”

PBSI sports nutritionist Dr. Laila Hamid said that an on-site laboratory was needed at the PBSI‘s training facility. “All this time we have only been able to run lab tests every four months and wait for results from the laboratory run by the Youth and Sports Ministry. It’s time consuming.

“Unlike other sports, shuttlers need more frequent tests, so that the daily training can be immediately adjusted as accordingly to what they need,” Laila said.