When someone says that a player is or isn’t mentally tough I always reply with "what is mental toughness"?

This was a question that was asked to England's best players back in the mid-2000s by Dr Steve Bull and his Sports Psychology team. The findings of those discussions ultimately split the subject of mental toughness into 4 sub-categories: Fight, Inner Drive, Critical Moment Control and Resilience

By breaking the huge subject down, we are able to attribute characteristics that define each of these 4 sub-categories. As coaches, we can make interventions and build strategies into our planning that help to develop and challenge these capacities with our players and teams.

So let's take "fight" and delve a little deeper into the associated characteristics:

Ex-England coach Duncan Fletcher loves slip catching practice. He comes alive as he edges the ball to the slip cordon and encourages the players to strive for more consistency, more commitment and ultimately, more brilliance.

But it was not always the case. Fletch inherited a slip cordon in 2000 that was less than brilliant. He told me that many of the players were happy to let the ball bounce just infront of them instead of diving forward and attempting the catch.

He used to call poor commitment to this kind of ball "Old England" .

Have you noticed that some batters set up differently?

Bent knees and a slightly wider base are notable in Kevin Pietersen, Graeme Smith and Gary Ballance. They move completely differently. Their movements don't relate to those coaching words and terms that I have often been exposed to in during my 22 year coaching career.

How do you coach players like this when they struggle with technical issues?

I love the post-season time of year. players are reflective about the season just gone and, in the UK, we see this as a hugely important development phase leading up to Christmas.

As always, we start with a good review that puts things into a stark light. The immediate period at the end of a season is the perfect time to do this. Here is how I go about it with my players.

Our post season review meetings have 5 elements to them:

How, as coaches, do we keep promoting the virtues of the ultimate format, Test cricket?

ODI and T20 cricket are both brilliant formats that have helped to develop broader interest levels in cricket across the globe whilst opening our eyes to advancements in fielding techniques, batting options and athleticism.

Test match cricket is a very different game to watch now because of the shorter formats and that's a good thing.

However, the challenge for me is to keep India interested in playing longer format cricket. The dominant Indian performances in the ODI series against England are a stark contrast to the pitiful 3 day capitulations that we saw at the back end of the Test matches.

This has nothing to do with ability, as the Indians have excellent players within their Test Team. To me it comes down to the attitude that the BCCI and has towards Tests. This rubs off on the player development system and, most importantly, upon the players.

We all know that if India lose interest in Test Match cricket, then the format will start a rapid slide into extinction.

So what's the solution?

Last week we looked at a couple of trusted methods to turn mid season slumps into season ending purple patches.

But keeping a team firing right until the end of the summer is tough. The run in can seem endless, especially with poor form to cast doubt on ability. If last weeks strategies aren't completely doing the job then these additional upgrades will get your players right on track.

Everyone wants to finish their season with some strong performances so they can w̶a̶l̶l̶o̶w̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶n̶o̶s̶t̶a̶l̶g̶i̶a̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶o̶n̶g̶ ̶w̶i̶n̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶p̶e̶r̶i̶o̶d̶ help their side complete their targets.

I know that many of your players will feel that this is completely out of their reach as they are stuck in a mid-season slump with the ball or the bat. Without intervention, a player relies on luck to get them back into form yet with appropriate mental and technical a player can be back on track for a late season purple patch.

Here are some mental tips that have worked for me with players as they go from slump to superstar.

Alistair Cook called England all-rounder Moeen Ali the fastest learner that he has ever played with. England's spinning sensation has gone from barely-used in his debut to take 19 wickets in the series against India.

So what exactly is it that Moeen has learnt?

In the last few weeks I have worked alongside England Rugby's Head Coach, Stuart Lancaster. Stuart has turned the fortunes of the England Rugby team round since he took the post in 2012.

What can we learn as cricket coaches from his story of success?

The main focus areas in his first years in the job have been lessons that can be easily transferred to a cricket club:

I'm moving house. While I was chucking out all sorts of rubbish in preparation, I stumbled across a fielding outline document.

The file underpinned England's fielding team at the 2007 World Cup. I put it together with key fielders within that group which included Paul Nixon, Paul Collingwood and Jimmy Anderson.