PBTI Brings Foreign Coaches to Improve Indonesia's Taekwondo Performance
JAKARTA - The Indonesian Taekwondo General Manager (PBTI) has decided to bring in foreign coaches in order to improve Indonesia's taekwondo performance in various important international events.
The decision to bring in a foreign coach to handle the athletes at the national training center was also carried out as part of preparing the best team for the 8th Asian Taekwondo Indonesia Open Championships 2026 and the 2026 Asian Games.
The foreign coach brought in was Erfan Heydaari from Iran, who will handle the kyorugi or wrestling number. Erfan is a former Iranian national team athlete and has won a silver medal at the 2018 Asian Senior Championships and a bronze medal at the 2019 Asian Club Championships and the 2019 Asian President's Cup.
"Based on the study of the field of performance development, Iranian taekwondo has shown tremendous progress. The PBTI General Secretary then asked that the kyorugi number be handled directly by the Iranian coach," said PBTI Secretary General Rafael Siagian.
PBTI has forged 31 taekwondo athletes in the training concentration program which took place at the POPKI Cibubur GOR. The number consists of 20 kyorugi athletes and 11 poomsae athletes, the result of selection from the series of the Nusantara Knights Series Championship.
Kyorugi athlete, Muhammad Bassam Raihan, admitted that he was more motivated by the presence of the new coach. He assessed that Erfan provided various positive inputs to improve his technique, strategy, and attack.
"I see that this Iranian coach is quite flexible in dealing with athletes. So, I am more excited to train. I am also more motivated to give my best for Indonesia," said Bassam.
The 8th Asian Taekwondo Indonesia Open Championships 2026 tournament will be held on August 1-5, 2026 at the Senayan Indoor Tennis, Jakarta. This event will be attended by 478 taekwondoin from 36 countries.
The prestigious event, which falls under the G2 World Taekwondo category, is one of the important tournaments in the collection of world ranking points towards the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and the World Championships.