As the old saying goes, "Fail to plan and you plan to fail". What happens when plans don't pan out the way you want, and where does that leave the instinctive captain who works on hunches?

Take South Africa as an example. The one day side were criticised during the 2009 Champions Trophy for being too rigid in their plans. Critics pointed out that when Plan A failed, Plan B was... to keep trying plan A.

There is plenty of evidence that club sides do. Take the UK Club Twenty20 finals of 2008. The losing sides all shared the same mistake: They had a plan of pitching the ball up and bowling stump to stump. When the plan failed there were precious few variations. Slower balls and bouncers were barely seen.

Perhaps both Graeme Smith and the losing club captains would have been better to ditch the crafted plans and do something crazy instead. Let's look at the evidence.

All good cricket sides work to a plan. The better teams have well developed plans. At club or school level this probably won't extend to video analysis of the opposition, but it does mean everyone knows about roles.

'Roles' is a simple way of saying that everyone in the team knows what they need to do. So the opening fast bowler might know his job is to bowl as fast as possible and take early wickets in a short burst. The medium pacer at the other end knows he has to balance out the expensive pacemen with a miserly spell. Each player also knows what everyone else should be doing.

The only way you are going to do that is by having a plan.

On the other hand, ask experienced captains about their finest moments and they will always think back to the flash of brilliance that was instinctive and outside the plan. Mike Brearley reveals several stories of instinctive captaincy in his online captaincy course.

It can't be random though, every good hunch is based in some kind of common sense, even if you are quite sure what it is when you act.

This 'think-on-your-feet' method works just as well (or badly) as elaborate plans, but only if you know what you are doing. As the old butcher said to the new butcher who was asking him how he could measure 2lb of meat without a scale: "My trick is being a butcher for 40 years".

In reality we know that you need a plan, but you also need to be flexible enough to break away from the plan and go with your gut. The more experienced you become the better you get at knowing when to ditch things and try something new. Restricting yourself to either method is cutting off half your options.

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Want to be a better captain? Learn from the best with the interactive online course Cricket Captaincy by Mike Brearley.

Its well know that when you bowl fast you put your body under enormous strain: The front leg can take up to ten times your body weight on impact. It stands to reason that you need to be strong to prevent injury.

That's why you fast bowlers are the keenest to hit the gym. You know a weakness is far more likely to lead to an injury and strength training is the best way to make your body strong enough to cope with bowling long spells on hot days.

But like fast bowlers, not all fitness work is the same.

It's only natural to assume that as the front leg (left leg for right arm bowlers) takes the most impact, you should train that leg more. It needs to be stronger. The problem is your left leg is already stronger than your right. It becomes so just through bowling: A simple case of overload in action. So to try and make your strong side even stronger will increase the imbalance between the left and right legs.

The reason that is a negative thing can be traced back to 1992 and a little known study. Researchers looked at the difference between the left and right side of the body and found a significant statistic: If you have a 15% or greater difference you are more likely to get injured.

That means, paradoxically, you need to train your weaker areas more to make up for the natural imbalances your body undergoes while bowling.

Reverse (or balance) training

You start with a simple principle: keep the good areas good and bring the weak areas up. This will vary from bowler to bowler but the basic idea stays the same:

• Improve the mobility of both ankles. Here is a video from Bill Hartman that shows you how.
• Improve the strength of the the knee flexing muscles with strength training. Use single limb exercises like single leg squats to bring the right side up to the left side. You can train the weaker side up to three times more than the stronger side.
• Improve the mobility of the hip. Focus on bringing the right side of the hips by training them 2-3 times more than the stronger side.
• Train the upper body with more 'pulling' movements. Use chin ups and rows. This will increase the strength of the muscles in 'reverse' and balance out the strains of bowling.
• Use core stability rather than core strength. Core strength is where your midsection moves against resistance (like a traditional crunch). Core stability is when your midsection stays stable while you move. A great way to do this is with the Pallof Press. If you are weaker on one side, train it more.

It may seem strange to spend more time working on the strength and mobility of your weaker areas, but remember the more balanced your body the less likely you are to get injured.

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