This is a guest article from batting coach, Gary Palmer.

What is the purpose of the pre-match batting practice?

The aim is to build confidence by consistently hitting the ball out of the middle of the bat while exaggerating perfect technique. To feel good in the middle you can use throw downs to capture the feel of the correct shapes of your shots.

The better your preparation the more confident you will feel. This leads to being more relaxed at the crease when you finally go out to bat. You will have confidence in you technique and ability to execute shots successfully because you have prepared well and have a feel for the correct shapes.

Most players think coaching is easy: You rock up, set out some cones, do some drills and go home. While that's part of the story, there are certain skills the coach needs to practice to be effective.

How vital is a good slip catcher?

We work all year on developing bowling fast bowlers and spinners with the intention of taking the edge of the bat to create catching opportunities. So develop fielders who can convert those chances into wickets!

So, as a coach, lets assign some quality time to slip catching skills. Including your own. Read on to find out more:

Do you recognise this?

Bowlers have bowling with soaking wet balls, drying the ball on a towel kept in the back your trousers and fielders throwing the ball sideways as the ball slips out of their hands. Anyone who has played club cricket will know all about these kinds of challenge.

What if you could speed up your learning ability?

You could finally reach your potential. Imagine how good that would feel.

The ability to learn and make changes is one of the three most important elements of success in cricket. So how exactly to you teach yourself to learn better?

Weather often keeps us training indoors, but why not think outside the box this year, or perhaps more aptly, think outside the sports hall?

There's still a lot that can be achieved from getting out, even in the wet.

This is a guest article from Gary Palmer, batting coach.

Without a good ability to bat against the short ball, you will never make the step up to a higher grade of cricket. It's the stumbling block that finds out many talented players. It's the difference between making it and not making it.

But, it's also counter productive just to go and practice against fast, short balls. You have to build a foundation of technique first. It's not about being brave or "having bottle", it's about eliminating technical errors to build confidence.

Graeme Smith has retired. He was such a unique player, are there any lessons we can possibly take from the South African?

It would be foolish to simply try and copy him in technique or character. He was a bristling personality, often favouring the task over man management. He looked like he was about to get out LBW all the time. You can't copy that unless you are of similar temperament, judgement and body type to Smith.

Yet we can't deny it worked for him. Even under huge pressures he piled on the runs; over 16,000 in international cricket at well over forties. That's a lot of flicks to leg. It also means it's not down to luck, or natural talent. Something else is going on there.

So, lets unpick the skills that you can transfer to your game without having to have a barrel chest, an aggressive leadership style and a lantern jaw.

This week, we had a batting masterclass from Somerset and England's Nick Compton.

Nick is someone who I have watched and admired for a number of years and a few weeks back he agreed to come in and work with our cricketers. His story reminded me of the session that we did with Kevin Pietersen. Their batting style of play may be different, yet their approaches to challenge, their drive, their hard work, honesty and willingness to share information with others was identical.

Here is what we learned from that masterclass.

Batting tips taken from advice from Kevin Pietersen, Michael Bevan, Aakash Chopra, Gary Palmer and Mark Garaway. Click to enlarge.