How other sport has helped Shrewsbury Town striker George Lloyd carve out a career

It is quite common that playing one sport can help you succeed in another.

But rarely is it so clear to see as it has been for Shrewsbury Town fans watching striker George Lloyd.

It is common knowledge the former Cheltenham Town frontman is also a former gymnast who competed at county level.

And for the Shrewsbury fans who have seen him start 11 League One games this campaign, they will have witnessed the striker outjumping some of the division’s tallest defenders.

So it will come as no surprise what his specialist apparatus in gymnastics was.

“My specialist pieces were floor and vault,” he said. 

“I kind of started to do some county championships. I managed to win one.

"When it came to six pieces (of apparatus) I was not always up there but floor and vault I managed to kind of win.

“I was in the south west event, and I was competing for Gloucestershire my county.

"For my age, I was quite good, but I have always been quite springy. The rings and stuff I always struggled on.”

Lloyd arrived in Shropshire with a big reputation as a forward who could cause defenders issues in the air despite being small insize.

Regularly balls are hit into Town’s box from set pieces and Lloyd is the one to get up highest and head it away.

And the 24-year-old has explained how his other hobbies as a youngster helped him.

“It comes from gymnastics,” he continued. 

“Especially vault, the only way to do better at it is when you hit the springboard, and you need maximum power to push off and get as high as you can.

“It was never something that I tried to work on. I did not ever practice to jump high it just kind of comes when you are doing it for so long and so many times.

“If I am honest, I think I am good in the air but I do not think I am amazing as some people say.

“It is more because I surprise people it is left in their minds. Whereas if you have someone who is six foot five then you think he should be good in the air so it does not get remembered as much.

“Because I am small it does get remembered.”

In his short stint in Shropshire, Lloyd has been known for his work-rate and that is something else he attributes back to gymnastics.

“I have always been someone who has been quite full-on,” he said. 

“I was in primary school, and I was doing football on Saturday mornings, and gymnastics on Saturday afternoons.

“I would always be doing one or the other, and I have always been doing stuff. Gymnastics was a very disciplined sport.

“You are in to work when you get there, and you are in for long hours, and I started it when I was eight.

“That gets engrained in you after you have been doing it for a certain amount of years.”