Every player can benefit from developing their own set of routines and processes to help them prepare and play successfully. 

In the first installment of this series, I dealt with developing routines to be employed during batting, bowling and fielding practice. 

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

In the last part of these series we found out why a killer instinct is critical to your clubs success whatever level you are at. Today we look at the three ways you can do it as a captain or player.

1. Keep wickets at the front of your mind

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

There are a lot of ways to win a cricket match. The most effective is to bowl the opposition out. If you can take 10 (or 20) wickets in any format regularly you are going to win a lot of games.

Today we are delighted to introduce a new guest writer to miCricketCoach. Ben Baruch is a 13 year old cricketer from Buckinghamshire in England. He has played district level cricket. Today he gives his views on how to improve your strike rate, something very important for all young players looking to make an impression.

Listening to ex-International bowler Damien Fleming recently, I was interested to hear him refer to some players as 'Having a good map' with respect to how they prepared for each game. I have always said “You have to have a plan!” and it seemed to me that Fleming was making the same sort of statement.

What is 'The Map'?

Everyone has a set of processes they follow prior to playing a game.

This is the third part of the "Healthy living for club cricketers" series. To go to part one click here.

That's the idea a lot of people have in early January and why not? It's a good time to start self-improvement after the excesses of Christmas.

Just as most of us take a golden opportunity to do something positive, most of us have given up as quickly as we began. How are you going to stick with it this year?

Last season my team were cruising to an easy victory in a one day game. We had skittled the opposition for 144 and were 120 for 2 in reply.

I was down to bat at 6 but had not bothered to pad up, a situation which rapidly changed when we lost our best batsman to a rash shot followed almost immediately by the new batsman muttering something about unplayable deliveries as we passed each other.

How much training can you do during the season?

Many people might say the more the better. I think it's more complex than that. After all, most club players will not have the time or resources to spend all day training. That's without the risks of injury and fatigue through overtraining.

Getting the balance right is a science and an art.

This complete guide covers the articles on this site that give you the answers to the questions:

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.