Rugby World Cup winner Martin Johnson, world ranked tennis star Tim Henman, England cricketer Jeremy Snape. These are just three examples of the high performance contributors in 'Striving for Excellence'

You see, it's testimonial year for Jeremy Snape.

Most professional cricketers produce a glossy brochure to celebrate their career, but Jeremy has gone one better making his brochure a goldmine of tips on how to improve your sporting and performance.

Have you given serious thought to how you learn?

Your ability to master new skills is directly related to how well you do on the cricket pitch.  But when it comes to learning we are all different.

There is no one way to learn anything, cricket is exactly the same.

If you can tap into your unique learning style you will be able to develop your technique, mental game, and athleticism faster than you ever thought possible.  

It was my turn to make the teas one Saturday, so I was in the club kitchen buttering piles of bread. It was lucky I got there early because as I buttered away one of the selectors walked in.

"Hi David, you know you are skippering the 2nd XI today don't you?"

It was the first I had heard, a few hours before the start of play.

Every now and again I reveal what books are selling fastest through the Amazon store we have here on miCoach.

As you may already know, I get a small commission (about 4%) every time you buy a book, DVD or anything else through this site. I use the vouchers Amazon sends me to buy more books and help make miCoach better (and to keep it free).

So here are the latest bestselling cricket books through miCoach, in order of popularity:

You can have as many team nights out, boot camps or bonding sessions as you like. If there is no basic trust and understanding of responsibilities then the team will not gel, at least not in my experience.

Expertise from captains, coaches and senior players is required if a team does not come together naturally. Most players are cynical to traditional 'team building' techniques, even if they really want it to work.

On the one hand, you would love to get one at almost any point in your spell, but how many bowlers plot to do it?

Most of us consider it a stroke of luck, perhaps a once in a lifetime thing.

Yet we all know proper planning and preparation is the way to success so why not plan how you are going to knock down three in three?

With the cricket season starting, I thought I'd just make a couple of remarks regarding selections, performance and attitudes during the first few weeks of the season.

This is addressed to those players who have worked solidly through the off season and preseason periods. Players who have made significant changes to their games and players who are approaching the start of the season proper with optimism and positivity.

Imagine it's the morning of your biggest game of the season. What do you do to focus your mind on the task at hand?

Whether you bat or bowl, we all feel better when we are in control and are able to predict what is going to happen. You can't do that about the game, but you can do it about your preparation right up until the start of the match.

If you are Kevin Pietersen, Brett Lee or MS Dhoni you might answer with a five (or maybe six) figure number. Which is nice for them, but what has it got to do with making you a better cricketer?

Scientists have worked away to find out the factors that contribute to whether someone succeeds or fails at their goals. The biggest determining factor is your social network.

This is part one of a series on how to captain in the field. To go back to the introduction click here.

A good cricket team has a certain attitude. They concentrate on every ball, show a never say die attitude and encourage each other in the right ways. However, this is easier said than done, especially in sides where the attitude has historically been different.