Improving physical ability will be our biggest challenge: Lombard

As South African Strength And Conditioning Coach Joins Indian Women's Hockey Team Ahead Of WC Qualifiers

03:07

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Bhubaneswar: Wayne Lombard is no alien to the Indian sports lovers, having worked with the likes of Neeraj Chopra, Tejaswin Shankar, Murali Sreeshankar and Vinesh Phogat over the years.
But it was the South African strength and conditioning (S&C) coach’s stint with the Indian women’s hockey team from 2017-21, alongside coach Sjoerd Marijne, that made him a recognisable name as they created history by making it to the semifinals of Tokyo Olympics and rising to top-10 in world rankings.
Although the team trained under different S&C coaches since then, Lombard will once again be working with them and he is more than excited to be back with the team and Marijne. But he knows it’s going be a challenging few weeks since the World Cup Qualifiers will be held in March in Hyderabad.
“There’s not much time to change things much between now and then. However, the biggest challenge for us will be the physical ability of the players that need help with. The other thing that I’ve identified is we’ve got a lot of injuries and we need to make sure that those injuries are taken care of because if you want to win anything, you need your best players on the park,” said Lombard during a virtual interaction with TOI.
However, the good thing is that he has worked with them earlier and is aware of the environment.
“I’m very lucky that the players trust me and my systems. So, I don’t have to go through that buy-in process that you’d normally do in a new environment and that does help a lot,” Lombard further added.
While he hasn’t worked with the national team, he has been closely involved with several Indian players who represented Soorma Hockey Club in the Women’s Hockey India League (WHIL) and played a key role in Savita’s rehabilitation after her surgery in June last year.
“I was probably 80-20 as to whether she would be able to play in WHIL but it’s something that she was keen on and she was willing to do anything possible to get to that point,” said Lombard. “Was it an easy process for Savita? Not at all. It was a lot of work. I mean she was doing two, three sessions a day to get to the point to be able to play HIL.”
To ensure she was able to do that, they worked both on fitness and strength in tandem and while Savita didn’t have a great tournament, one believes it was just the right kind of preparation she needed ahead of the all-important qualifiers.
While Lombard will be closely monitoring her progress over the coming months, he will also have his eyes on Chopra, whom he has worked with earlier, as he treads on a different path ahead of the LA Olympics.
Asked what it was that set Chopra apart from the rest, he said, “You can see that they’ve got this focus, this drive and grit that just allows them to go and do well. You see something in them when they’re young. They have this ability to understand their bodies. They know exactly what it is that is required of them to perform at the highest level.”
Hopefully this knowledge will make all the difference as the Olympic champion tries to get back to the top once again. As for Lombard, he has a big challenge on his hands and one can’t wait to see the women’s hockey team performing well again.