LASKER IS EAGLES OWN BODY COACH

Drew Lasker has revealed his new mission in life – to keep the basketball world sane in these mad, mad times.

The Newcastle Eagles guard, speaking on the latest edition of the MVP Cast, has admitted he’s been moved to set up a hoops version of the wildly-popular Body Coach workouts via his own Facebook page.

The 37-year-old, who has his own skills development business, hope it provides an means for everyone in isolation to stay active rather than shutting down during the coronavirus outbreak.

“Obviously, everyone is self quarantining all around the world,” he said. “My thought process was – and I always tell kids this – now matter what if you have a ball, you can always worked on our game. My motto is ‘no excuse, just produce’. So there is always something that can be worked on.

I thought ‘wow, this is a perfect opportunity for most athletes who get bored working on the fundamentals to spend time working on things that you probably don’t have time for.’ Like a jump stop, a jab, a slide, thing like that I’m doing in the videos. I just wanted to be able to reach those athletes and keep them active.

“Another part was for our own sanity. If you just sit in your house all day, you’ll probably drive yourself crazy. The one thing that gives you motivation and energy is exercising. and  basketball is a fun way to exercise. So initially when I had the thought process of doing it, my target market was basketballers.

“But then I thought ‘let’s target all people’. This is the one time we’re with our families. This is a great time for us to do these drills with your dad or sister or brother. I did drills you could take to a high level or tailor them own. I’m trying to make them fun and to make the best out of this situation.”

And would he welcome the two million daily hits that celebrity guru Joe Wicks is racking up?

“I didn’t hear about the Body Coach until I did my first one,” Lasker admits. “But I took some tips from him.”

Newcastle’s BBL Trophy final victory over Solent earlier this month seems all but certain to be the end of the season.

And Lasker admits the process that led to three of his foreign team-mates asking to be allowed to return home rather than playing in the showpiece was odd to behold.

“It wasn’t until the last day or so that it happened,” he said. “There wasn’t any talk about anyone going home. It was about talking about shutting it down for a week or two. We didn’t know it was as serious as it was now. That was the mindset.”

Listen to the full interview on the MVP Cast with Drew Lasker giving us his inside line on his team’s corona-crisis ahead of the BBL Trophy final, his alter-ego as a skills development trainer, his craziest team-mate and staying sane in isolation.

Stream below or subscribe via your preferred podcast provider.

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Photo: Mansoor Ahmed