Lombardo Coaching

A typical coaching day

To achieve the most optimized VMG possible, it’s interesting to see how, depending on the scenario, locking the wing, foil, and body angles can be the best option, while in other situations, allowing more flexibility and pumping becomes more effective.

I find it fascinating to explore the different possibilities this sport offers - observing, comparing, and quantifying what works best, and using that to better understand when to act, how, and why.

What you feel is not always what you do

On the water, sensations can be misleading
Video analysis often reveals a very different reality
🧠 Awareness is the first step to performance

WingFoil – Tack Analysis 📊

On this port-tack turn, the athlete switches her feet before initiating the tack.
During an airborne foot change, the board must stay flat — and flattening it before the turn inevitably leads to:

1️⃣ a loss of angle upwind,
2️⃣ a loss of speed,
3️⃣ difficulty maintaining wing & foil pressure, since you momentarily end up facing away from the wing.

Together, these factors reduce the efficiency of the entire maneuver — from the entry, through the rotation, and all the way to the relaunch.

📊 Data from this tack:
• Windward loss: –19 m
• Minimum speed: 2.5 kn
• Average speed : 11.5 kn
• Time to get back above 18 kn and onto a proper upwind line: 4.6 sec (26 m)

Now compare this with her starboard tack right after — where she switches her feet immediately after passing through the wind:

• Her minimum speed is 8,3 kn (232% higher)❗️
• She stays fully engaged with zero downwind loss,
• And throughout the turn she keeps tracking back toward the wind axis, leading to a much faster and cleaner relaunch: 2,9 sec ( 18,7 m)⚡️

🎯 Foot-change timing influences everything:
angle, pressure, stability, speed, and upwind performance.

We’re working on it. 💨