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ndonesia’s former national coach for women’s singles, Marleve Mainaky, is set to make a bold career move by joining the newly established badminton club Exist, in an aim to mold the country’s next generation of shuttlers.

“Discipline and mental strength are the main factors involved in creating top shuttlers, rather than the technical skills,” said 39-year-old Marleve, who in September resigned from the national training camp after handling the country’s women’s singles since 2007.

“I believe that here in a club, we have more chances to improve those aspects than at the national training camp, where most of the shuttlers have already been molded, meaning the chance for further significant improvement is far less.”

As injuries have become increasingly prevalent among many of Indonesia’s current shuttlers, Marleve also hopes to be able to prevent the occurrence of injuries by instilling good habits among the young trainees with a good combination of physical and technical training.

During his national coaching term, which included a brief partnership with the country’s former singles head coach Hendrawan – now the national coach for Malaysia — Marleve prepared Maria Kristin Yulianti to win the bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and delivered the women’s squad that reached the Uber Cup finals in the same year.

Despite several invitations to coach abroad, such as in Malaysia, Japan, Poland and Germany, Marleve decided to stay at home.

“My family and children are already settled here. Also, I defended Indonesia in the Thomas Cup squad on three occasions, and I just couldn’t imagine myself sitting on the coaching bench representing another country. Personally, I just can’t see myself doing that,” said Marleve.

In the North Jakarta-based Exist badminton club, which was established last year, Marleve is now responsible for the development of the singles players, while a former badminton coach from a US club in Boston, Thomas Indratjaja, will handle the doubles sector.

During the first year since its establishment, the club has already funded 32 scholarships for young shuttlers between the ages of 13 and 18, who come not only from Jakarta, but also from East Java, Bogor, Klaten, Surakarta and Ambon.

“Within the next two years, we hope we can start supplying young players into the [Indonesian Badminton Association’s - PBSI] national camp,” Exist director Alfianto Wijaya director said on Thursday. Among the club’s scholarship recipients, singles shuttler Fitriani has been two-times champion at the PBSI National Circuits in Semarang and Surabaya.

As part of the club’s progressive attempts to produce more young players, the club plans to send three shuttlers to compete at the Singapore Youth International from Dec. 12-18, as well as to host the inaugural Exist Open national championship in January next year.

It also liaises with badminton clubs outside the Greater Jakarta area, in Pati, Surakarta and Bogor, in the hopes of discovering more young talent for the continuation of its scholarship program.