Wayne's world: Fitter and better

BENGALURU: WITHIN the first two months of Wayne Lombard's reintroduction back into the women's hockey programme late last year, the head of athletic performance wanted the players to understand their bodies better. So, he ensured a session between the players and two gynaecologists.

The South African picks up the story. "It wasn't a behind-closed-doors session where none of us male staff were there, we did it in January, I think," he tells this daily in a call from Japan. "They (the players) were able to ask as many questions as possible about anything relating to female physiology, anatomy, etc., etc. I think that was a really good call -- I'm assuming here because I wasn't part of the meeting obviously -- but I think that it was good for the girls to come out and ask questions that they might not want to ask in a public environment where there are other male coaches around or something. And I think that was a good thing."

In isolation, it may not sound like a major thing. But this is one of the many things Lombard, who began his second innings with the women's hockey team after Sjoerd Marijne was reappointed at the fag-end of last year, has helped institute. All of these changes -- some of them revealed for the first time -- is what has helped them become unlikely contenders to win gold at upcoming Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya. The gold carries a greater prize too: automatic spot in the 2028 Games at Los Angeles.

For years, Lombard, and the entire S&C community across the globe, were big fans of the yo-yo test. Not anymore. Even as the world had moved away from it over the last few years, the women's hockey team were still caught in the past. One of the first things Lombard changed was to introduce the 30-15 intermittent fitness test.

Lombard explains the whole process as well as the rationale behind implementing this. "Basically, you're running for 30 seconds, resting for 15 over a 40-meter shuttle instead of a 20-meter shuttle," he says. Basically, you run to voluntary fatigue, or we pull you out of the test and give you the same numbers. It's just over a slightly longer distance, so I feel it gives us a bit more of an accurate proxy for something called maximum aerobic speed and probably a little bit, I wouldn't say easier, but better for your slightly slower players who struggle to accelerate over five meters or so. It gives them a bit more time over the 20-meter shuttle to get a bit more of an accurate measure of aerobic capacity than what your test might be. It's a similar concept. It's just a change in process.

"Yeah, so when I came in, they were still doing the yo-yo, and I preferred to go into the 30-15 now. I think in the past, the yo-yo was standard. The thing with the yo-yo is that there's a lot more data on hockey in the yo-yo, so it's an easier test to compare. However, you can convert the 30-15 data to get an idea with that, because ultimately, it's an aerobic test, and the more you run, the fitter you are."

That fitness and endurance is what carried the team to a fifth-place finish at the World Cup in the Netherlands and Belgium. They were quicker than almost every other team. But they were also quicker than an older version of themselves. Lombard, who has access to the raw fitness data on an everyday basis, is intimate about the side's developmental curve, from a fitness point of view.

"They, for sure, are in a better space," he says. "But I think the most important thing is the consistency of performance now. So what I did see now in the World Cup, or in the Nations Cup specifically, is we are able to perform match in and match out at the same intensity as what we would expect them to do in one match. It's easy to go and play one game and do a whole lot of running and be physical, etc. But can you do it in five, six, seven games within a tournament structure? And I think that's the biggest difference. So you would have seen in the World Cup, Australia wasn't our best game. We needed a win there, but we drew it. But we bounced back really well against one of the best teams in the world, against Germany. And I think we just, one, we outplayed them technically and tactically, (but I think we physically just outplayed them completely. I mean, our counter-attacks in the three goals we scored was testament to the work that the players had put in. And we were just too fast for them in the end, I felt." But before the gynaecology sessions and before implementing an entirely new fitness test as a way of measuring the players, what he saw was the number of injuries. That, he felt, had to be reduced immediately.

"The biggest change, I think, or the biggest thing that we needed to look at when I came into the team, there was a long list, laundry list of injuries in this team," he explains. "That was my number one priority. We needed to get this under control because for this team to be successful, or any team to be successful, you need your best players on the park as much as possible. That wasn't happening.

The team was in the cycle of one person coming back, next one getting injured, one person coming back, next one getting injured. So, the primary emphasis for me when I arrived was trying to get that under control. One thing that does help is obviously the short time."

"I've worked together (with the team) in the past, so we know how we work. I think the key was rather to get a good training structure and plan in place where the players, not only were we going to train hard, but we were also going to recover really well. Making sure that even though we were going to push them to possibly train harder than they have, we needed to make sure that they were taken care of off the field as well. And that's the key with everything. So everyone talks about training plans and this and this, but no one talks about how to implement and ensure that the recovery strategies are also planned in and around the training environment."

Because Lombard also works with a lot of other sportspersons -- including the likes of PV Sindhu as well -- it's impossible for him to be physically present on the ground all the time. It's why Rodet (Yila) and Ciara (Yila) have become massive, two scientific advisors permanently attached with the women's side.

In Japan, India's biggest threat will be China. They are reigning Olympic silver medallists and are ranked fourth in the world (for perspective, India are eighth). But, context is important. In January 2026, India were on a wing and a prayer. Now? Wing, prayer but also quiet expectation.