"If fitness professionals can't agree with each other about what is best, then what chance do cricketers have?"

Cricket strength and conditioning coach Liz Ward told me this recently and it got me to thinking. What myths exist in the cricket world that all fitness professionals can agree on?

It's a way of making a start at building a training culture in this great game. Fitness is such a vital part of cricket performance and injury prevention there is no excuse to avoid it.

You could be a better cricketer in your next game if you gave more warm up time to the control system of your body: The central nervous system (CNS).

We all spend a lot of time abusing the CNS. Lucky for us this abuse can be corrected by a few simple movements, causing your muscles to fire more quickly and giving you the edge on the pitch whether it's batting bowling of fielding.

The SAQ cricket fitness system promises a lot, but recently I have been wondering how effectively it delivers.

All cricket players can benefit from extra speed and agility. Whether it's running quick singles or diving about in the field. So the principle of SAQ is sound.

The SAQ book covers a plethora of excellent drills and routines to help players with this, as endorsed by the great Graham Gooch at Essex CCC.

An injury is not something any cricketer wants to think about but if you are well prepared you can cut the risk of hurting yourself significantly.

The good news is that you don't need to spend a lot of time or effort preventing injuries. After all, we would all rather be playing cricket than doing “prehabilitation”.

Not many things on the cricket pitch top hitting the ball cleanly over the boundary. It looks and feels great. To improve this skill you need to have good technique and work on your 'speed-strength' during the winter. Speed-strength, in shot making terms, is how fast you can swing the bat. The faster you can do this with good technique the harder and longer you will be able to hit a cricket ball. This velocity is developed in three distinct phases:

If you want success on the pitch, it's vital to know how to maintain your fitness during a long hard season.

You have worked hard in the winter so you will not want to lose your cricket-specific strength and speed, but playing and training is hard work in itself so the quandary is how to train efficiently without overtraining yourself. You want to maintain, not strain.

Take a listen to my latest cricket coaching podcast. This week I spoke to Pat Legge, senior coach at Devizes CC.

Pat's role as coach of the First XI rather than a youth or colts section is rare in the club game so I was keen to get his insight into the job. We spoke about coaching club players, how to warm up properly, the role of fitness training on performance and the future of coaching at club level.

Those hamstring muscles in the back of your legs have a hard life. They spend half their time doing virtually nothing, then we make great demands on them as we sprint singles and chase balls in the field.

No wonder they are prone to injury.

Even when they are functioning well they may not be giving you their best because of modern lifestyles. Here are 3 things you can do to minimise the risk of injury and maximise their performance on the pitch.