The summer change has been made and harrowdrive.com is back with a brand new look. If you are reading this in an email or RSS reader click here to take a look at the spiffing new site.

All the archives are still available for you to go through at you leisure.

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The complex discipline of sports biomechanics has some surprisingly simple suggestions to improve your batting.

It's often assumed that the skills of batting are natural. Although many aspects are down to talent, anyone can become more efficient by applying simple biomechanical principles to their game.

I am inviting readers to submit their experience, tips and advice on how to improve your cricket. Today it's the turn of Guy, who had an “aha” moment recently. Comments are open for your feedback.

I stumbled upon something the other day that really helped my batting.

For a lot of my playing time I have always started to play a shot as soon as the bowler has released the ball. It was only recently that i realised how little I actually watched the ball. I used to use the bowlers release of the ball as a trigger to start playing my shot and this lead to me placing my foot in the same place, every ball, and only being able to play limited shots.

After a short break, the Sunday weekly links post is back! What do you mean you never knew it was away?

• Common myths in training for speed
• Assess Your Mental Game
• Keep track of your diet, exercise plan or cricket season.
• When training to be better at cricket, don't forget to become a better athlete.

One of the most common emails I get is from players requesting I help them with their technique. No matter if it's batting, bowling or fielding, my answer is usually the same.

It's an answer that Greg Chappell crystallised for me in a story on his now defunct coaching website:

"A top PGA Tour player went back to his long-time coach, Mr Penick, for a lesson. This man has been playing terribly. Before the slump, though, he'd been a star on the Tour.

Fast bowlers understand the need for fitness more than any other cricketer. But like all sports participants, many bowlers are confused by what is best for them. The trick is comparing the principles to the methods:

The perfect cover drive isn't that important. The techniques are poured over by well meaning coaches striving for the edge. In reality perfecting your technique is not as important as you think.

Any batsman at any level would love to have a cover drive and pull shot as technically perfect as Michael Vaughan. Technique is just a means to an end though. Shiv Chanderpaul got far more runs in the English summer with a much less classical method.

Every cricketer wants to be a more powerful and faster player. One of the most misunderstood methods to improve is plyometrics. Read on to find out the simple tricks you can use to master the basics.

What are Plyometrics?

Plyometrics is a catch all term for training methods that use fast, explosive movements like jumping. The aim is to improve the amount of force your muscles can generate. The crossover to the cricket pitch is most obvious in running speed and fast bowlers leaps. However, you can also use plyometric style methods to improve throwing distance and speed as well as hitting power.

Recent research has show that sport psychology techniques work even for people who don't believe in all that mumbo-jumbo.

I'll be the first to admit psychology has a bad reputation in the sporting world. If professional players still view ideas like self-talk and visualisation with suspicion, what chance does the average club player have of using these powerful tools to his or her advantage?

Club players just don't trust the ideas.