The great Des Haynes week continues on PitchVision Academy. In the show this week we interview the great man about his time playing in the outstanding West Indies sides of the 80s and 90s.

There no worse practice than when a set of bowlers practice one element of the game; and the batters try to work on another element entirely. 

Disjointed net sessions are counterproductive because nobody gets what they want: least of all you as the coach.

Every team has the unlucky bowler who beats the edge to ohhs and ahhs from the slips yet picks up the rare wicket.  The ball just swings too much to find the edge.

Can you turn that bowler from “unlucky fred” into “fantastic fred”?

Many young players dream of making it as a professional cricketer. How do you give yourself the best chance of making it to the top?

One simple way is to play with the intensity and enthusiasm of a player who is in an Academy.

You see, Academy players know that talent is a flexible thing. You can be born with great natural hand-eye coordination or you can learn how to improve it over time.

This is a guest article by club cricketer Brian Wardle

I recently read Bounce: a book by Mathew Syed, who believes everyone has the ability to be successful.

My cricket club has a big game this Saturday.

We are up against the top of the league; a side with an impressive bowling attack. We are still in the hunt for promotion so a result is crucial.

I hope no one form the opposition reads this because I’m going to give the game away as to how we are going to win...

Our main batting strategy is to target their weaker bowling so we can either put up or chase down a score.

We all agree that good players are also mentally strong players. Yet despite the reams of coaching materials on technique and fitness, there is no system for developing confident cricketers.

You may, like me, have found yourself frustrated with players.

Despite your best efforts individuals are unable to maintain standards throughout the summer. Form is erratic and tails off at the back end of the season just when it’s most needed.

What I didn’t realise was that the training plan was the problem.

This article is part of a series designed to show you how to adapt cricket drills for your needs. To see the full list of articles in this series click here.

Drills that are designed to groove skills already learned rather than teach from scratch are the focus of this article.

Here we are going to assume that a player can perform the skill and have a feel for it, they just want to get better at it.