It’s a club game on a typical summer afternoon. Tell me if what I saw is a familiar story.

The opening batsman are being tied down by some accurate medium pace bowling. After 10 overs the score is 18-0.

Seeing that he needs to get on with it, one opener plays a defensive nudge towards cover and makes a dash for a quick single. His partner is looking for it too and they make it home. In the next few overs they do more of the same, making the scoreboard look a little fuller before the first wicket falls.

You only have to look at a great fast bowler like Brett Lee to see how important coordination is to cricket skill.

When Lee bowls, his muscles fire in a perfectly synchronised order to propel the ball towards the batsman at 90mph (145kph) or more. He is balanced and in rhythm.

It’s no different for batting and bowling either. The skills of coordination underpin everything we do on the pitch.

In part 1 we looked at the mental and nutritional parts of your match day. Today we get to the nuts and bolts of how to warm up, including the best drills for your needs.

Warming up: Preparing the body and mind together

Can a little bit of rubber tubing really make you a better player?

There is no doubt in my mind that resistance bands have an important place in cricket training, and you don’t need a personal trainer to get the best from one.

But like any tool, you have to use it right to get results.

This is part of the specialist fielding series of articles, for the full list of fielding positions covered click here.

OK I admit it. There are no specialist fine leg fielders. But in most teams it’s the same players who end up at either fine leg or third man, usually a bowler.

For that reason it makes sense to practice the skills you will most need.

Great news for all fans of cricket coaching drills: We have been given a bucketful to give away by the very kind guys at Inspired Cricket.

The drills cover 12 areas for all ages including:

• Warming up
• Agility training
• Fielding
• Net ideas
• Wicketkeeping

All produced in the innovative style that has made Inspired the talk of cricket coaching circles.

This drill is part of the PitchVision Academy fielding drills series, for more in this series click here.

Purpose: A warm up routine that gets the hands and eyes ready for more advanced close catching drills. It also allows a coach to make changes to technique where needed.  

Picture in your mind a Ferrari Formula 1 car: Strikingly red, super sleek and powerful.

When the Ferrari team arrive at a track for a race the car is ready to do its job of going round a track at breakneck speed. 90% of the work is done far away from race day.

It’s just a couple of weeks until the first events of PitchVision Academy Live! The interactive cricket coaching event that is touring the UK this Autumn.

Have you booked you place yet? If not you can do it by clicking here.

You are a cricket coach, not a strength and conditioning expert. But I don’t care how good your bowling coaching is.  

You want your bowlers to be able to make it on the park every week. And that means at least a basic understanding of modern injury prevention strategies. And that’s true whether you coach 10 year olds, adults or anyone inbetween.

It’s not enough anymore to know what a mixed action is and to stick to the fast bowlers guidelines. Sure, that’s where we start.