Lajong has a strongman

However,more than the others who watched Lajong beat IAF 2-1,he can actually boast of having played a major hand in their resurgence this season which saw them advance from division two of to the main draw of the I-League.

As the Lajong players in their dazzling blue away colours blitz almost at will through the IAF midfield in the first half,Wadhawan describes with some pride how the side and few select players have improved ever since he became the strength and conditioning coach for the North-Eastern side.

“I was contacted by Lajong in the end of 2009. They had just been relegated from the I-League and even their individual performances were quite average. They simply lacked the fitness to keep up with the players in the top division” he recalls.

While it was a major task for Wadhawan,it would not be the first time he had picked up a challenge head on. Wadhawan,37,studied not to become a conditioning expert but to become a pharmacist. He ran a chemist’s store for five years before deciding that wasn’t the life he wanted. “I had been training for a few years even while I was a student. I enjoyed it and knew my career had to go along these lines. I searched for what was the course that would set me apart from others and I decided on studying to become a certified strength and conditioning specialist,” he says.

That was the first of many courses Wadhawan would pursue. He would go on to study techniques like bio-signature modulation,core conditioning,and instant muscle strengthening. The last course studied under the supervision of Charles Polyquin,a reknowned practioner of sports conditioning attracted the attention of Pradyum Reddy,who taken over as head coach of Lajong after their disappointing 2009 season. Reddy had worked in the USA and recognised the value of a conditioning expert.

“Its not enough to be a physical trainer. Athletic conditioning is different from bodybuilding and the requirements for a player are different,” says Reddy.

Despite the need for more strength and conditioning experts,Wadhawan isn’t surprised there are not many in India. “It is a tightly knit community and I would reckon there are less than a dozen in India. You can’t be some body builder who decides to become an expert. You need to understand how the body works and this is where my background as a pharmacist helped,” says Wadhawan.

But while Wadhawan was brought into Lajong,he realised that a change in mentality was needed. “The guys at Lajong have been raised thinking they don’t need to train. They don’t work on their upper body because they think it will become heavy and that will slow them down. A lot of the guys made excuses to avoid training,” he says.

It is not just the players who don’t take conditioning seriously. “The first time I went to Shillong for a camp,I was surprised to see that they had hostel facilities,kitchen with a chef,a playing field but they didn’t have a proper gym. The one they had had a single barbell and there was no dumbell above 20 kg,” he adds.

“A lot of their habits were surprising as well. They used to do static stretching before training when instead they should be doing dynamic stretching. I also have to give them a lot of nutritional information. The guys ate a lot of rice even before a match and that made them lethargic. They eat plenty of protien but it was mostly beef which is full of hormones and synthetic medicines. Instead I advised them to consume more organic meat,” he says.

Wadhwan works with the team on a consultancy basis and has held three camps of 20 and 15 days. The results speak for themselves. The players are fitter and show more flexibility and on Tuesday they ran circles around their opponents. Despite a slip up which costs them a goal,the y still win 2-1.

Despite the win,Wadhawan has his fingers crossed. “It is still a work in progress. While the players have made progress their gym is still not up to the mark. I am supposed to hold another camp in six months time and I have been promised that things will get better,” he says.