Ashish asked a question I think a lot of young fast bowlers wonder,

"What are some good bowling exercises for teenage fast bowlers to do at home? I heard fast bowlers need a strong core, shoulders, arms and legs."

Ashish has heard right in that bowlers need strong everything!

Menno Gazendam is author of Spin Bowling Project. Get your free 8 week spin bowling course here

Why would anyone prepare pitches that do not take any spin?

It's a great loss for the game when the beauty of spin bowling is neutralised by flat pitches. It is a modern day trend at the top level cricket that will hopefully change.

The new year brings new hopes for getting fit, and for cricketers that means very specific things: run faster, bow faster, hit harder, throw longer, keep up stamina and prevent injuries.

All worthy aims of course, but there is a trap waiting. If you fall in you can forget about your dreams of improved fitness this year.

What is this trap?

There is no doubt that fitness is crucial to the modern cricketer to improve performance and prevent injury. The benefits are well proven.

But fitness is also a minefield.

There is so much information available yet much of it is at best no benefit and at worst dangerous.

That's why you should get the PitchVision Academy newsletter.

The weekly email cuts through the rubbish and takes you straight to the tips, ideas and programmes that actually work to help you reach your goals for the year.

We all understand how important being strong, balanced and powerful is to a fast bowler, yet we are generally "take it or leave it" when we talk fitness to our spinners.

So, how can being strong benefit a spinner?

Menno Gazendam is author of Spin Bowling Project. Get your free 8 week spin bowling course here

The arm ball.

Or as some like to call it, the floater.

Bowled by the off spinner to either leave the right hand batsman or come into the left handed batsman. Vice versa for the slow left arm orthodox bowler.

Look at Monty Panesar in this video bowling a beautiful arm ball to the great Sachin. You can see the shiny side on the off side in the slow motion, helping him drift it in.

Gary Palmer, the PitchVision Academy batting coach, sheds light on the biggest hoax in batting.

Cricket has advanced in so many ways in the last 60 years. So why do we still hold onto the same ideas when it comes to classical batting technique?

Coaches and players have always called batting a side on game. But I have learned that batting is more front on than side on.

In my experience, when I say this most people disagree instantly and switch off.

Psychologist columnist Karl Stevenson discusses practical ways to understand personality to improve performance.

A watchmaker knows the size and weight of each cog in order to make a watch tick correctly.

Similarly, if each member of a team understands what makes each other tick, they can push the right buttons to get the best out of one another.

Below are three exercises that allow your team to start identifying with each other, and a great way of raising team awareness amongst a group of individuals.

The PitchVision Academy Cricket Show is on a Christmas break, but there is still the archive if you still need advice from the team.

So, here are my favourite episodes of 2012 for you to catch up.

This archive article was published in 2008. Republished today with an edit to bring it up to date.

Whether you aspire to play at professional level or not, there are many things you can learn from first class players.

Professional players rely on their form for a living. Without it they would be out of a job. More often than not that means they are doing everything they can to stay on top of their game. You can apply some of this determination to improve your results.