Practice makes perfect, the coaches say. Researchers thought "how much?" and tried to find out.

The answer their research established was simple: 10,000 hours or 10 years of daily practice. This applies for everything from athletes, entrepreneurs, scientists or any field.

It's the Christmas and New Year special as this series of the Cricket Show comes to an end.

Dry your tears because it's another packed show where we cover:

• Injury prevention
• Staying fit and healthy over Christmas (or any holiday period)
• How to stop bowling accidental off cutters

If you have a question or feedback drop us an email. We will answer it on our return.

Chris is a reader with a dilemma. He has emailed in to seek advice. What do you think he should do?

Chris is a 28 year old club cricketer playing in the UK. He has had some success but never made it to a high enough level to play professionally. He still has ambitions to play a good level of club cricket, perhaps even at representative level.

Visit the exclusive "Countdown to Summer" Preseason training page for more exclusive tips and content to help you prepare.

What training can you do when there is no cricket to play?

Around this time of year it's interesting to find out what you, the community, have been buying through this site.

I know what is popular through a sneak peek I get. When you click a link on here and buy anything on I get told about it. I don't get your personal details (of course not) but I do get a bestseller list of what's popular.

So what does everyone buy to improve their game? In order of popularity:

Mention 'fielding drills' to most club and school cricketers and they are wracked with indecision and guilt. Like flossing we all know we should do it but we don't because we know how boring it is.

Thing is, it undoubtedly has an influence on your fielding skills and drilling certainly shouldn't be boring.

With the Christmas break coming for Kevin, we discuss how festive times can upset your training (or not). We also talked about:

This article is part of a two part series. To go to part one click here.

In part 1 we learned how batsman and bowlers are able to learn how to pick up on the tell tale signs of what their foe is thinking. The next step is being able to manipulate their plans to get them thinking what you want instead.

Despite being a team game, the business end of a cricket match is one on one. This solo battle of wills is one of the greatest challenges of cricket. Think Donald against Atherton and you get the idea.

It's getting increasingly difficult for us cricketers to develop the all round athletic skills we need to succeed.

Playing lots of cricket is the best way to get better at cricket, but doing that alone will not make players faster, more powerful or less prone to injury. To do that you need a well planned progressive training plan.