This guide for young rep level cricketers aged 11-18 is of a series of introductory guides to PitchVision Academy, for the full list click here.

 We all have to field, and being a good fielder brings the advantage of getting ahead of others: Selectors tend to pick the better fielder in close match ups.

If you are passionate about cricket, you are passionate about being the best fielder you can be, so how do you do it?

And that is my Ask the Readers question for this week: How do you improve your fielding?

On the cricket show this week we talk spin bowling in India and Burners tells us all about the scourge of the GP in modern cricket.

There are questions on getting your chance to play, and how to rotate the strike, plus we almost get some gossip from Mark Garaway… almost.

A brand new, dynamic age-group tournament - the Delhi Premier League (DPL) - has completed trials with aspiring young cricketers this week. With a future IPL contract in mind, over 25,000 9-19 year old passion-fuelled cricketers applied. PitchVision was essential to the selection process.

One of the real keys to coaching is to know your players and your team well enough so that you can raise or lower the pressure dial to get the most from your players.

Gaining rapport and building trust are the foundations that underpin coaching. Rapport and trust are more important than technical coaching. Without rapport and trust, even the most sound of advice often falls on deaf ears.

To illustrate how pressure, trust and rapport work, here are some real examples whereby pressure was added (or taken off) with highly positive outcomes.

This week’s winner of the Cricket Show podcast question competition is Ben. He wins a free coaching course from PitchVision Academy.

"As a left arm orthodox spinner, I find bowling to right handers relatively simple. However, I just cannot bowl to left handers. Over the wicket, round the wicket, flighting it up, darting it in. I just cannot do it. I've never been a massive spinner of the ball, but I can get it to go enough (maybe a foot, nothing bigger), and I vary my pace well, but I just cannot figure out how to bowl to lefties. Can you help? "

Listen to the panel’s answer to his question here.

To enter your own question for the chance to win your choice of online coaching course send your questions in here. 

One of my training clients is having a little trouble with occasional knee pain. It’s nothing more than a niggle, but we have to take care it doesn’t become an actual injury.

It got me thinking; this is good practice for all players; your first aim should always be to get on the park, and that means staying injury free. However, you are not a physiotherapist (neither am I) and so diagnosing and solving injury issues is impossible.

What do you do?

Sometimes even the great Shane Warne had to admit defeat.  Despite being the textbook attacking spinner, there were times even Warnie used negative bowling to get results.

There is certainly no shame in switching plans as a last resort.  If the finest leggie to ever live used it, you can too.

Picture the scene; a limited over game where you bat first and put up an above par score of 223. 

Variation of drill is one of the big challenges for a coach working with keepers. As we discussed last week, we should always remember that we need to keep the practice relevant to the match as possible.