Team Effort

March 11, 2022  |  Written by May Mangkalakiri and Derrick Ng

Creating champions and gaining success will never come easy. It is an accumulation of deliberate training and practice combined with mental training and team effort.

Nobody has ever succeeded alone. Not in business, not in school, and not in sport. The top athletes in the world are only at the top because of the team they are a part of. And being a part of that team, everybody must do their part.

One of the most common requests in our training program is to be able to train with somebody better. That training with somebody better will push the individual to train harder thus having a greater rate of improvement. Yes, that may be true, but it can only take an individual so far.

One of the lessons we learned from Coach Tony Gunawan during our training camp at Global Badminton Academy was when he spoke to the team about his experience when he was training. He too, as a coach and a player, has been asked this question and also personally experienced this specific situation himself. Being #1 in the world, who can he train with who is better than him? How can he become better when he can only train with teammates who are not as good as he is? He shared with our students that he trained with the juniors on the team the most because he was helping them, but at the same time, by helping them improve, they could push him to be better. We often think of training or playing with people weaker than us as a waste of time, or only beneficial to them, but it’s not really that way. By bringing up others, we will bring up the level of the team, and then in turn everyone will benefit and improve together.

When Coach Tony first came to the United States, a few months after winning the World Championships, Tony had to train with Coach May who was just out of Juniors! Coach May had to help feed Tony, the greatest front-court player of his time, multi-shuttles to the front-court. Coach May was extremely nervous but Tony reassured May that he would need to get all the shuttles coming over in a game and be prepared for all situations no matter the circumstances anyways. Tony ended up partnering with USA native, Howard Bach, and won the World Championships three years later.

One must be able to bring up those around you to achieve consistent success. Being able to inspire those around you to be better will only boost one’s confidence and define their leadership role. Game theory shows that people who are willing to give and help others have a strategic advantage, as they can “change the game” and make everyone better off, including themselves. So, truly, “nice guys finish first.”