Ian Lawlor believes that playing a wide variety of sports when he was young has ultimately helped him in his football career.
Speaking on the AndyHashtag1gk Instagram account, Lawlor explained that as a child he tried his hand at a number of sports and even had the opportunity to go down the basketball route before eventually choosing football.
“I’ve always been an outdoor person and I always wanted to be outside doing whatever sport it was,” he said.
“At a young age if you can get involved in any sport, you should. I loved playing sports … I played basketball, I played hurling, I played Gaelic football so that’s all hand-eye coordination and that all stood me in really good stead and improved my handling.”
It was basketball that really rivalled football as Lawlor’s favourite with the 6”5 man making a promising point guard.
“I was the big fella that pushed the others out of the way,” he added.
“Basketball is all about footwork and handling so I think that’s pretty similar to being a goalkeeper. You handle the ball, you have to be good with your feet in certain areas, you need to be able to shuffle and pivot or whatever it might be and I think doing all that as a kid really stood for me.
“I’m really comfortable with the handling of the football, I think that’s one of my strengths, and that probably comes from all the basketball I used to play – because when I was young that was almost like an extra training session.
“I had an opportunity to go down the basketball road too but when I chose football, I really had to knuckle down at that point and that’s when I dropped the other sports.”
