I'm pretty sure Jeremy Snape wasn't referring to club cricket when he said this:

Recently I saw a coaching session that seemed to be designed not for the kids to have fun but for the coaches to impress their own will to win.

I can just imagine the drop out rate.

The reason kids come to play cricket, in my view, is to have fun. Winning is a factor but without the enjoyment more will leave than stay.

How do good coaches go about this while still teaching the skills of the game?

Keep everyone involved

I'm not sure how many chin ups Jeremy Snape can do, but when it comes to exercising your mind there is no one better in cricket.

Jeremy is a friend of the site and it's his benefit year at Leicestershire. He is putting on all sorts of top events this year in the UK and has asked if you, dear reader, wants to attend one.

Is there some sort of magic to the number 5 in cricket?

If you look hard enough there is always magic to numbers. In the case of the number 5 it's a handy tool to make you think more about your cricket training.

5 hours per week

John Berardi is a big advocate of training a minimum of 5 hours a week to see improvements. There is no reason this can't be extrapolated to cricket too.

Do you often make big plans to improve your game only to find yourself acting like Catherine Tate's Lauren?

I found myself there this morning.

I felt like I had no energy as I headed to the gym and after warming up my first couple of sets were way below par. I gave in and headed for the shower after about 20 minutes instead of my usual hour.

What was causing this lethargy?

Cricket is a statisticians dream. Every aspect of a cricketer's performance is measured by statistics. The great players are often separated from the good players based on statistics.

For those that did not get a chance to witness the great Don Bradman bat, the only way they know he was perhaps the best batsman that ever lived was in is amazing batting average of 99.94.

Long time reader Arvind got in touch about this post:

If sledging were to be accepted as a part of the game of cricket, would we then have to coach it like the other disciplines?

That got me to thinking. Is he right and if so what else should coaches be coaching at club level?

Balancing a busy life with good nutrition for cricket is tough. I'm sure we have all been in a position like Darren, who emailed me recently:

"I'm finding it hard to control my diet and to find something suitable to eat due to my unusual hours of work/activity and mix of office work and coaching.