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.

Whether you love it or loathe it there is no doubting how useful and versatile the push up is when done correctly. If your goal is strength, power, fat loss or injury prevention there is a press up for you. That's why it drives me mad when I see coaches dishing out press ups for dropping a catch. Exercise is about enjoyment, not punishment.

What makes the press up so good for cricket?

The big advantage in press ups for me is the improvement they provide in shoulder stability. Stable shoulders are resistant to injury. If you bowl or throw the push up is for you.

This is where the press up beats the bench press hands down. The press up forces the stabilising muscles around your shoulder (rotator cuff and serratus anterior) to work where the bench press can't. The bench is great for upper body pushing strength but can't hold a candle to the push up for shoulder stability and, by extension, injury prevention.

On top of this, the press up forces you to stabilise your core as you perform the exercises. We have all heard about how important a strong core is and doing press ups is an excellent weapon in your core training arsenal.

How many press ups should I do?

As we often tell you on miCricketCoach, the answer depends. In this case on 2 factors:

• Strength. The stronger you are the more press ups you need to do to get a training effect. As you know, we need to overload our muscles to improve performance. If you are a beginner and can't do one press up you can 'deload' by doing them on your knees. If you can do more than 20 with strict form you can load up by raising your feet on a bench, wearing a weight vest or putting a resistance band around your shoulders.
• Goal. The press up is very versatile and you can adjust it to your goal. If you want to use it for weight loss or shoulder health the more press ups you can do the better. If you are looking more to strength you want to keep the number in the 1-10 repetition range. This may mean making the exercise harder by adding weight. You can also make it a power development exercise by adding a clap.

It's a common mistake to think that the more press ups you can do the better in all cases. This usually leads to repetitions done with bad technique. It's far better to do 10 strict push ups than 100 bad ones.

The press up is a powerful exercise for cricketers. Don't forget to balance out any pushing exercises like this one with pulling exercises like chin ups or inverted rows to balance your strength and power too.

Do you like to do press ups? If so, how do you use them?

If you want a more comprehensive guide to reducing injury risk and increasing cricket specific fitness, check out county strength coach Rob Ahmun's guide on PitchVision Academy.

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 grip is essential to play all the shots, and causes problems if not done correctly. The way to test if your grip is good is to put a piece of sting on the ground and take your stance with your toes along it. If you cannot swing the bat right along the string, you should change the grip to do so. Another point is to not hold the bat too low, so the top of the handle doesn’t get it the way of your forearm while driving.

Your head should be positioned along the line of your feet, as opposed to leaning over. If your head it leaning over to the offside, you will start to hit around the ball and you are in danger of missing a straight ball. Your head may be slightly forward, over your front foot. This will help you getting your weight over the front foot while driving, stopping you from driving in the air.

This is also called playing straight. This is especially important when you are playing yourself in. Going by this motto is useful in more than one way. First of all, as you are playing with a straight bat, you are increasing your chance of hitting the ball. However, if you are always looking to play straight, you naturally see balls that are not straight. This means you can judge what to play and leave better.

If you are blocking the good ball, then logically you must hit the bad ball to score any runs. When you have played yourself in, and you are just starting to accelerate, you should be punishing anything loose. This is not as complicated as it sounds. The loose balls are the ones too full or too short. If the ball is slightly short and straight, or going down the leg side, is should be a four ball and should be belted, preferably on the floor. If the ball is over pitched, on a half volley, just lean into it and use your natural weight to hit it for four, with your foot to the pitch of the ball. If runs are needed early on, anything bowled on your pads should be runs too. However, this does not mean throw the kitchen sink at it. To hit off your pads, your just need to lean into the ball, keep the bat straight (as opposed to hitting across the line), and a flick of the wrists will send the ball boundarywards.

Image credit: pj_in_oz

If you want to learn everything there is to know about technique, check out Gary Palmer's interactive coaching courses. Gary is a coach with over 20 years experience teaching players to become first class cricketers. For the first time he has put his drills online, only at PitchVision Academy.