Having clear goals is like having a map to success. That's why I have been working with our case study subjects on getting some clear goals for the English/Welsh summer in 2009.

Do you remember the Marcus Trescothick sweet controversy?

The former England player revealed he helped the ball swing by eating sweets. The sugar on his saliva as he shined the ball seemed to make a difference. Sales of Murray Mints around English cricket grounds shot up overnight.

There are two types of people in this world: Those who hate jogging and the crazy ones.

Let's face it, for most cricketers jogging is less fun as getting out for a golden duck, dropping a catch and getting your bowling smashed around the park all rolled into one. But most of us would also admit that being a little fitter would help too.

This edition of Umpires Corner in association with the International Institute of Cricket Umpiring and Scoring covers some more tricky questions of the Laws.

Your memory is a brilliant but flawed system. If you are using it to improve your game you may be working on the wrong things.

The problem lies in our ability to recall cricket performance. We think we remember things as they happened, but this is rarely the case. Nobody has the memory capacity to remember every ball of every game and practice. You may lose something important, especially around emotionally charged moments: a stunning victory or controversial umpiring decision.

Ben Baruch takes the reins again today. This time his article is about going back to the basics of batting: Something we can easily forget about in the world of trigger moves and Twenty20 hitting.

When a batsman is out of form their coach will often tell them to 'go back to basics'. What are these basics?

The press up divides cricketers of all ages and levels.

On one side it's the simple to do, no equipment required exercise of the super fit (or those aspiring to get fitter at least). On the other side it's a painful punishment that brings back memories of nasty PE teachers from school.

PitchVision Academy batting coach Gary Palmer explains the basics of taking guard. For more technical tips try Gary's exclusive course: Improve your batting with simple changes to your setup.

You take guard so you know where your stumps are when you are in your stance. This is important because if you know where your stumps are, you know what balls to play and what balls to leave when you are defending.

When the weather is not so good the indoor net is a saviour to cricketers. The question is: do they do more harm than good?

I would be interested to see an experiment where 2 groups of players were split into those who netted in the winter and those who did not. I suspect at club level the difference in form might be less than we imagine.