This afternoon, I had a conversation with ex-England captain, Michael Vaughan about the impact on batting tactics and shot execution in limited over cricket.

We discussed how - tactically - the game has gone full circle. The new ODI regulations have influenced the renaissance of an age old limited overs adage.

Keeping wickets is, once again, the holy grail of batting.

It only seems like a few years ago when every team had at least one batter who would walk to the wicket with his team-mates giggles carrying across the outfield.

We were all waiting for the inevitable death rattle as the "bunny" plays all round a straight one.

Top level coaches now encourage the "bunny" to think about scoring runs rather than just surviving with leaves, blocks and evasion. As a result it's common to see lower order players reverse sweeping and moving across their stumps to tuck the ball into the on-side for one.

So how can we develop the next generation of lower order batters in our clubs, academies and schools?

Can you imagine this at Manchester United's training ground:

Sir Alex Ferguson: "Robin! What are you doing?"

Robin van Persie: "Practicing my free-kicks Boss"

Sir Alex Ferguson: "Are you mad? You know that we don’t allow that! You're only allowed to take free kicks in matches. But make sure you don’t miss."

Often we concentrate on the boundaries and pay scant regard to singles and developing the art of running between the wickets.

One of the reasons for this is the reliance on standardised nets to develop batting technique rather than incorporating innovative practice and facilitating brilliant cricket discussions to build run scoring awareness.

The definition of a big total in 1-day cricket has changed hugely over the years. 5 an over used to be considered impossible when I started playing the game. Now 8 an over in the last 10 is a walk in the park with some teams and, in particular, some batters.

Here are some tips to chasing down huge totals.

You know that I always am looking to get better myself so I can help players. Recently I have spent time with Muhammad Haroon who now acts as one of my consultants at Millfield School.

Haroon has helped our spinners to spin the ball hard, deceive the batters regularly and has given them unrivalled confidence.

On the day Chris Gayle rewrote the Twenty20 history books, I aptly worked with some talented young players on power hitting.

As with many young players, the guys I worked with today swung hard, hit a few for 4 and missed plenty of balls that sailed harmlessly through to the keeper.

As you know, I love coaching fielding and perfecting elements of the game that gives teams the best chance of squeezing life out of the opposition batters and taking wickets.

One of the tactics I use to achieve this is the "7 man fielding unit". I challenge the team to commit at least 7 active players to each delivery that is hit into or through the inner ring.

You are the coach. What do you do?

An 8 year old walks into a junior session for the first time and gets into a batting stance with his feet wide apart and his knees flexed.

There is a temptation to adjust the stance into a more conventional narrower stance as seen in MCC manuals from years gone by.

But is that right?

One of the biggest challenges I have faced this week is to cater for everyone's individual needs within a group of 20 children in Sardinia as part of a coaching camp.