This post is part of the Cricket Fielding Drills Week series. To go to part one click here.

Sometimes it's very difficult to stay motivated when trying to get fit for cricket. You want to improve your fitness, but fitness drills can seem very far detached from getting more runs and wickets. To find a balance you can combine fielding drills with fitness training.

Seam bowling all-rounder Kelvin has been back in touch with me.

You may remember he asked me some coaching questions a little while back. He now has a run up problem which I hope to solve for him.

Part of a good run up is being fit enough to perform it properly. In Kelvin's case, his hard work is starting to pay off in real cricket performance:

Do you think you have your kit bag sorted? You may not have, even after you have packed your bat, pads, gloves, box and whites.

That stuff is great for playing and practising but it doesn't cover everything. So here are 5 more things every cricket player should consider having on hand.

1. XLR8 Cricket Kits

How can an American economist help you play better cricket?

John Hussman that very American economist. Although we can't be sure, my guess is he hasn't done much in the world of cricket.

What he has done is set up a website for people who want to get fit and lose weight. That site is based in the solid grounding of physiology, which means you can adapt what he says to make you a better player.

Great bowlers at any level are strong, fast, injury free and talented: The first three you can achieve with the right training, the last one needs the right parents.

As we can't change your mum and dad, we might was well focus on training.

Yesterday we talked about how to make running an interesting and specific exercise for bowlers. Today I want to help with your strength training.

Debunking the myths

I wouldn't like to be a bowler.

It looks too much like hard work to me. All that running in, slamming your front foot down with forces ten times your own weight on your knee only to watch a fancy-dan batsman casually smash you through the covers. Then you have to do it all again. Lucky for me there are plenty of people who do like bowling, but in order prevent injury and bowl better you need to be fit. Ian Canaway of Cricketsecrets agrees:

Just as a counter to my previous posts on gyms, here is a great post from Vern Gambetta about training without the aid of expensive facilities:

"I always start with the assumption that I have a bare room or a field with no equipment. If you start with that assumption then the focus is on the athlete and what they need to do to get better."

What image does the word gym conjure up for you?

A hi-tech, confusing torture chamber filled with beautiful bodies?

A sawdust covered floor where massive muscle marys are taking turns to swap pumping iron and pumping steroids?

Perhaps.

Or maybe its somewhere that you can get fit for cricket. You already know that I think a gym is an essential place for almost all cricketers, so what is the ideal gym for cricketers to go to?

I'm a pretty lucky bloke.

Because I have always had access to a gym as a sports student, fitness instructor or employee, I have always been able to improve my fitness for cricket.

I have sort of taken it as a given that every cricketer and coach agrees with me.

They don't though.

Cricket is a game that needs you to be fast and strong. If you have been following my pre-season training programme you will have been building up to this workout.