Ever wondered how all that high and mighty sport psychology actually works on the pitch? Tom from SimplyCricket gives his own personal experience of working on his concentration to improve his batting form.

It was during another (reasonably long for me) stint at the crease that I began to wonder what was behind my purple patch with the bat. Sure, I had shown glimpses of being able to grind out innings in the past but as most people will tell you, I'm in the team to bowl; any runs scored are considered a bonus.

Mike is a cricketer with a problem. He feels like he is working hard but not improving.

Sure, Mike is doing everything he can. He trains in the gym regularly, never misses a club training session and always turns up early on match day for warm ups and fielding drills.

In frustration he heads online for help. What he doesn't realise is that as soon as he sits in front of PC he has a perfect tool to get more from his training: A training log

To put words in the mouth of renown strength coach Alwyn Cosgrove: If you know what similarity your cricket has with martial arts and motorcross you might help make yourself a better player.

The answer is that all three sports suffer from build up of lactic acid, the pesky stuff that make your muscles burn and tires you out. Alwyn explains:

Who has time these days to eat well? The answer could be a little device for your kitchen called the Magic Bullet.

I'm very proud to announce that I have teamed up with the boys at www.simplycricket.net to set up a new forum dedicated to cricket fitness and nutrition. Click here to see it.

I'll be looking after the forum and contributing to to the other advice sections too. I want it to become a lively and intelligent area for discussion. Please sign up (it's free) so I don't feel lonely in there!

Club cricketers are a hardy bunch. You have to have a fairly thick skin to put up with some of the stuff we see every week. Not least this parade of shame.

We all have our own stories. I got my own back on a cheat this very season to a mixed response. I'd like to hear your tales too.

The worst game I played in last year was nightmare for a different reason. No cheating involved, just a very low standard all round.

In the UK summertime is officially over. For most club players with the passing of BST and the falling of leaves go thoughts of cricket until spring.

That's a mistake. The winter is a great time to make big strides in your strength, endurance, power, speed and even technique.

With only indoor cricket to satisfy your itch for the game, you can focus on building up a base of fitness and skill from which you can rise to the peak when summer comes around.

Are you being as productive as you can be during training? We all want to play better so heading to the gym or net session would seem the best way to up your game. But only if you are doing it effectively.

Sadly many practice sessions are not giving cricketers the results they want. Instead of improving your game you could be putting up barriers to more runs and wickets.

I got an email recently from Jack asking for some help.

"I need to explain why it is important to have fitness in cricket. I have some idea, but it is the specifics that are more troublesome. For example, you need strength to bowl fast, but how and why? You also need suppleness, but again why do you need suppleness to bowl fast. Obviously fast bowling is just one area, there is batting and fielding. Hopefully you can understand where I'm coming from."

Watch the best cricketers in the world and despite differences in technique and style there are constants.

Talent, balance, coordination, strength and technique are all vital but more important is developing these factors as one.Like fingers working together to catch a ball.

As club players we want to make as much of our more limited talents as the elite do. We train when we can and work on our skills in the nets.

But just like training one finger and expecting to improve our catching, netting is not enough.

We need to look at the whole picture.