Remember Josh, the little fella from last week who was working on hitting the ball harder with more control using a shallow rather than steep batswing?

From beginner to advanced batsman, one of the most common flaws in driving is weight transfer.

But what is it, and how do you use it to hit your drives harder along the ground?

Since Twenty20 began, the rate of six hitting has risen by 20%.The trend for power hitting in unmistakable.

How do you get in on this rope clearing action?

We are all well drilled in playing the forward defence, playing it to prevent the bowler from taking a wicket. In fact, it's a lot more useful than that.

Playing defensively spans everything from "none shall pass" drop to the feet, through to a defensive push that is designed to score runs. It's a shot with nuance that requires skill and practice to get right. ANd if you do it will increase your strike rate!

So, it's time to give the forward defence the time and respect it deserves and learn to play with both soft and hard hards to make more of those balls you can't smash.

Last night I had a session with a batsman that revealed something exciting about modern technical batting coaching and got an instant result.

Imagine a net session where the coach just gives you feedback from the bowling machine by showing you videos of what you are doing and videos of how things should be done.

Cheteshwar Pujara is a throwback, but he proves beyond doubt that cricket is about a relentless thrust towards doing the basics at a world-class level.

You might have been told the best way to learn something is to work it out yourself. But how do you do that in a cricket net?

Millfield school’s junior batting programme for Year 9 (13–14 year old cricketers) is focused on the fundamentals of movement, balance and how we can best generate power and ball speed off the bat.

Every bowler benefits from a few extra klicks on the gun. Research into bowling pace has moved on a bit since we last talked about it, so it’s time for an update.