Best of 2013: Becoming a Cricketer, Bowling and Batting | Cricket coaching, fitness and tips

Best of 2013: Becoming a Cricketer, Bowling and Batting

With 2013 drawing to a close, it's time to give you the best content on PitchVision Academy from the last 12 months. It's been another stellar year.

Of course, the year wouldn't be complete without thousands hitting the site to learn how to become a cricketer, so we published our complete guide in May, then added even more advice with a rant about all the things that people do wrong.

And for the guys who wanted to be a pace bowler we published a guide to becoming a sensation with the ball. That's because the year was all about speed.

How to bowl fast

The hunger for speed we bigger than ever, and we brought in some of the finest minds on pace bowling to help you add a yard or two using cutting edge methods.

Steffan Jones was busy, producing articles and videos on the link between the gym and the pitch:

Plus we sneaked in some advice from Zaheer Khan about building up stamina.

And what would a year be without the awesome power of Ian Pont's tips. Here he talks about the 4 Tent Pegs and his coaching camp.

Plus we examine some top level fast bowling tactics with no less than Aussie one-day hero Nathan Bracken, including the secrets of outsmarting a batsman with the art of swing bowling. You can sign up for more on Nathan's page.

Finally we looked at speed psychology: We taught you how to start using a snarly face to develop a fast bowler's attitude to go with that pace. Plus we showed you how to improve your accuracy with a simple mental trick.

World-class basics

We also gave you plenty of drills and ideas to boost your run scoring. We started with the idea that batting didn't require mythical skills, just an ability to be world-class as the basics.

Then we used examples for batting like Dhoni and Michael Bevan (who also filmed an exclusive video series with us that is still available to budding finishers).

Gary Palmer was as reliable with his batting advice as always, but certainly never sticking to the book. He told us about the great batting hoax and the new science of playing straight this year.

And speaking of myths, we also busted the idea that batting style is an excuse for poor judgement. Plus we looked at some new shots that have arrived in the last few years and advised whether you should learn them.

Best of the rest

Of course, it's not just about improving your speed and your batting. We looked at just about every other cricket-related topic, including:

And to top it all, the leg spinners at PitchVision Academy got to sample a 3 month free membership of Harry Shapiro's Leg Spin Association.

Tomorrow, the best of the podcast and coaching tips, so come back to get the skinny!

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