This week's winner of the Cricket Show podcast question competition is Wilson. He wins a free coaching course from PitchVision Academy.

The winning question was,

"I want to know when to bowl variations during an over."

Listen to the panels answer to his question here.

This is a guest article from Matt Thompson, Cricket Performance Director at Cardiff Metropolitan University. For more of Matt's work, find him on twitter and read his blog.

Picture the scene. It's time for training. You, as a batsman, have your regular opportunity for a constructive practice session with your coach or fellow team mates. Before you put your pads on, consider what does constructive actually mean? What does it look like for you?

Too many times at club, academy and university level, "constructive" takes the form of the batsman playing a glorious array of inappropriate shots without a game context in mind, inevitably squandering their wicket on a host of occasions.

I would be lying if I said I’ve never had one of these before myself as a player!

That is not constructive. So what is? Following on from David's article on having clear goals at open nets, here is one example of what "constructive" looks like.

Welcome to the PV/VIDEO Digest, your highlights summary of the weeks best videos from PitchVision Interactive

You can share these videos by email or onto facebook, and post your comments right here: From serious analysis to Friday fun. Here are the top videos uploaded from PitchVision systems around the world this week.

Coach Gary Palmer wants to know your opinion on how to train playing the short ball.

Are we pushing the boundaries of safety?

It's time to stop inexperienced and underage people feeding short pitched deliveries on bowling machines.

How do you train when the coach or captain says "do what you like, just get something meaningful done"?

Modern coaches are all about giving players freedom to train. This means you need to be self-reliant as a player and work out your own training, even at group sessions. Yet often I see players given freedom and unsure what to do with it. They end up with a half-hearted warm up and getting a few throw downs under the guise of "getting my eye in".

We can do better than that.

So, the next time you have to direct your own training, if there is a coach there or not, here is what to do.

We know the importance of targets in winning games of cricket these days. Breaking things down to make them feel easier is a proven step to success. So, what are some good targets to set for teams?

I'd like to get your feedback on what you feel has worked for you in the past, so please leave a comment below. Here are some of may favourite targets and some of the pitfalls of relying too much on them.

This week's winner of the Cricket Show podcast question competition is John. He wins a free coaching course from PitchVision Academy.

The winning question was,

Welcome to the PV/VIDEO Digest, your highlights summary of the weeks best videos from PitchVision Interactive

You can share these videos by email or onto facebook, and post your comments right here: From serious analysis to Friday fun. Here are the top videos uploaded from PitchVision systems around the world this week.

Conventional thinking is a double edged sword.

A lot of orthodox ideas have found their way into cricket because they are effective. If you tell a batsman to dig in and play straight you are onto a winner because generally this advice works. It's worked for literally hundreds of years, especially with players of a certain type.

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