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Picture yourself playing for your country: The pinnacle of cricketing achievement.

How realistic a dream is it to you?

If you are anything like me no doubt you still think it's possible. It might be the faintest hope going (I'm 31 and never played first class cricket) but it's still secretly in there.

Ignoring that crazy pride and looking at the facts: 99% of people who play cricket will never go on to represent their country. Does that mean you can only succeed if you are in that lucky talented 1%?

Cricket is like football when it comes to training.

As James Hamilton recently said, the both games started as a pastime where practice was akin to cheating.

So it's no wonder that your attitude to practice and warming up is still:

"Training - learning - developing - aren't fun, and isn't [sport] meant to be fun?"

Used properly, swimming can be a powerful tool in your cricket training armoury. As we discussed yesterday, there are times when even the hardest training players need to rest. It's vital for recovery and success.

On days like this, activities like swimming are the perfect way to rest and stay active.

It might seem odd, but one of the most important factors in your cricket performance is the amount of rest you get.

If you get too much rest your body responds by putting on weight, losing strength and making your skills rusty. Meanwhile too little rest leads to overtraining and an equal drop. It's a delicate balance to get right but one that is vital if you want to improve your game.

The rules of resting

Of all the clichés in sport, 'think positive' must be up there with the best. What does that it mean and can it improve your game of cricket?

Used right, a positive mental outlook can make a big difference to your game.

Many studies over the last 40 years have looked into the power of mental training and have found:

One of the hot athletic fitness topics of the moment is how to prevent injury and increase power in throwing.

As cricketers we should all be interested in that, especially bowlers whose shoulders regularly get quite a beating. Both benefits come from improving the stability and mobility of your shoulder muscles as part of an overall training programme:

• Brian Mackenzie's Sports Coach journal 'Successful Coaching' has published an article of mine. Thanks Brian.
• Vern Gambetta works his magic again. This time it's on the importance of the bum and ankle in training the shoulder for throwing (pdf).
• Here's another great site talking about cricket fitness. David Virgo is the mastermind behind it all.

This article is part of "The complete guide to cricket field settings" series.

A while back I gave you some tips on spin bowling tactics for club cricket (although a lot of it works just as well at higher levels too).

It's a horrible feeling when you have been in the field for a long time: Your legs get heavy and all you want to do is get off the pitch, get in the shower and have a pint or a cuppa.

Usually this is the time you need to be most switched on.

So it pays to use a couple of tricks to keep the fatigue away in the dying overs.