Do you dream of bowling the perfect spinning delivery?

You know the one. For the off spinner it's the one the drifts away from the batsman before ripping sharply back off the pitch through the gate. For the left-armer and leg spinner it's the one that pitches on leg stump and clips the top of off stump. Bowled Warnie!

Today we are delighted to introduce a new guest writer to miCricketCoach. Ben Baruch is a 13 year old cricketer from Buckinghamshire in England. He has played district level cricket. Today he gives his views on how to improve your strike rate, something very important for all young players looking to make an impression.

Listening to ex-International bowler Damien Fleming recently, I was interested to hear him refer to some players as 'Having a good map' with respect to how they prepared for each game. I have always said “You have to have a plan!” and it seemed to me that Fleming was making the same sort of statement.

What is 'The Map'?

Everyone has a set of processes they follow prior to playing a game.

This is the final part of the "Healthy living for club cricketers" series. To go to part one click here.

If you are a regular reader (and if not you can become one here) you may have noticed a couple of changes to the site. Well spotted eagle eyes.

Yes, we have a new regular contributor to the site. You can find out more about that in a moment.

This is the third part of the "Healthy living for club cricketers" series. To go to part one click here.

This is the second part of the "Healthy living for club cricketers" series. To go to part one click here.

If I took a quick poll asking: "would you like to be healthier" I'm betting 100% of the honest answers would be in the affirmative.

This is the first part of the "Healthy living for club cricketers" series. To go to part two click here.

What has healthy living got to do with cricket? Let me tell you a story to illustrate.

There was a time not so long ago when I wasn't the picture of health. My diet was poor, I was overweight, I rarely trained and my cricket was suffering.

That's the idea a lot of people have in early January and why not? It's a good time to start self-improvement after the excesses of Christmas.

Just as most of us take a golden opportunity to do something positive, most of us have given up as quickly as we began. How are you going to stick with it this year?

Ian Botham is the King of Sky Sports pitch reports. But you can't have him at your game. How are you going to fathom out the way it will play without Beefys help?