Practice makes perfect, the coaches say. Researchers thought "how much?" and tried to find out.

The answer their research established was simple: 10,000 hours or 10 years of daily practice. This applies for everything from athletes, entrepreneurs, scientists or any field.

If you have been following the site recently you know I have been looking for a subject for the 2009 Case Study.

Competition has been fierce this year with cricketers of all ability levels, walks of life and ages applying. 5 dedicated souls reached the final stages with me whittling it down to just two over the weekend.

December the 21st in Britain seems like an innocuous day but this year it taught me something about cricket.

The date is the Winter Solstice: The shortest day of the year when we enjoy just 7 hours and 49 minutes of daylight and darkness arrives before 4pm. Some might say that the depths of winter are depressing, dark, cold and often wet. Others may say this is the start of the long road towards summer.

International cricket grounds in England are dotted with brushed metal containers on the edge of the boundary advertising the energy drink Red Bull.

The drink claims in its advertising to "give you wings" and England Captain Kevin Pietersen is on record as drinking a can before going out to bat. Its big business for the companies that sell them but do energy drinks really help your cricket?

Chris is a reader with a dilemma. He has emailed in to seek advice. What do you think he should do?

Chris is a 28 year old club cricketer playing in the UK. He has had some success but never made it to a high enough level to play professionally. He still has ambitions to play a good level of club cricket, perhaps even at representative level.

Visit the exclusive "Countdown to Summer" Preseason training page for more exclusive tips and content to help you prepare.

What training can you do when there is no cricket to play?

Around this time of year it's interesting to find out what you, the community, have been buying through this site.

I know what is popular through a sneak peek I get. When you click a link on here and buy anything on I get told about it. I don't get your personal details (of course not) but I do get a bestseller list of what's popular.

So what does everyone buy to improve their game? In order of popularity:

Mention 'fielding drills' to most club and school cricketers and they are wracked with indecision and guilt. Like flossing we all know we should do it but we don't because we know how boring it is.

Thing is, it undoubtedly has an influence on your fielding skills and drilling certainly shouldn't be boring.

Dr Ganesh Dutt Chugh is a respected cricket coach and sport psychologist based in Gandhinagar, India. He has an impressive CV including 3 Masters Degrees, a PhD and real life experience coaching since 1985. He has been psychologist to many private clients as well as the Indian netball and volleyball teams.

Dr Ganesh was kind enough to answer some questions for me recently on cricket psychology.