Forget getting told how to play a drive, here's how to learn it.

I have the pleasure of working with a talented leg-spinner every few months. He is a top little fella, only 10 years in age and growing at the same rate of knots as a sweet corn field in the middle of a perfect summer. He first tried leg spin at the age of seven on a cricketing holiday we run out in St Lucia and has persevered with the toughest skill in cricket ever since.

It’s frustrating to have your thoughts and ideas go unnoticed.

Don't you hate it when you can't stop thinking about how you got out?

You sit on the side of the pitch filled with regret and frustration. Sometimes this feeling lasts for days. You kick yourself, you dwell on what you could have done differently. You consider if it's all really worth it.

When it's really bad, you carry all these thoughts into your next innings. Instead of just reacting to the ball you are double checking your technique and tactics and getting your mind in a whirl.

It's painful.

It clutters your mind.

It lowers your batting average.

Most of us know what do do with a technical issue: Get in the nets and fix it. We also know that to get fit you train with cricket specific fitness work. But what if you want to improve the mental side of your game?

All year, every year club, school and Academy players head to nets. As the aim is to improve, how can we make nets achieve that aim?

For the thinking cricketer, there is a list of things that make you say, "I must try that". Somehow you never get round to it and end up doing the same thing you always did.

One of the most common pieces of advice from top bowling coaches is to learn to "brace the front leg". But that's a technical term, and it's not obvious to everyone what it means, or how to do it. So, here are more details about how and why you brace the front leg to bowl fast.

LBW always seems a bit unfair. You are sure it was sliding down the leg side, but when you look up the umpire's finger is slowly raising.

You don’t get to be a talented cricketer unless you have resilience.

Does natural talent define your playing format?

Ed Smith argues that it does. In this article he say ODI batting is harder because it requires more natural talent. Test skills can be learned, ODI skills need something that can't be taught and a touch of genius.