This video is a free sample of the online coaching course - First Class Fielding - from Mark Garaway

Catching drills are vital, but they can get a bit dull after doing them every session for weeks at a time. In this video Mark Garaway makes it competitive and fun for some fielders, while also helping the coach review technique.

It's simple but astonishly effective: Check it out here:

This video is a free sample of the online coaching course - First Class Fielding - from Mark Garaway. Click here for details

There are few better sights in cricket than a fielder hitting the stumps and performing a perfect run out. Yet we can all do more to improve player's ability to hit the stumps. In this free video, Mark Garaway talks about a simple and effective way to hit more often.

For the rest of the course, a guide to coaching players to become top class cricket throwers and catchers, click here.

EXCLUSIVE: Mark Garaway Announces Guide to First-Class Fielding Skills

Learn Cutting-Edge Catching and Throwing Skills

PitchVision Academy are delighted to announce Director of Coach Education Mark Garaway's first online coaching course, available on January 22nd.

Click here for full details.

We are delighted to have Garas first video coaching guide because his coaching CV in unparalleled. After a career in county cricket he moved into coaching aged 26 at Hampshire Academy, moving though Hampshire up to England analyst, Ireland Cricket, ECB Coach Education and his current role at one of England's premier cricket schools: Millfield.

There is no doubt that Mark Garaway is one of the premier coaches working in the world today. And that means you can apply his experience and advice with your team too.

I'm writing this week's article from a coach travelling from Jalandhar to Delhi. The green countryside is rushing past and there are lots of Millfield cricketers chatting about the wonderful experiences that they have picked up to date on our Indian cricket adventure.

We have played 8 games so far in our 2 squads. We have 4 wins, 1 tie and 3 losses to our name. That's a fantastic effort considering the completely alien conditions that all the players have encountered: Heat, dust, spinning pitches, lots of spinners, doosras, excellent players and lots of travel have provided the challenge to our 29 players. They are doing brilliantly.

The biggest learning outcomes for me have been:

Alan Murdoch was our Strength and Conditioning Coach at Millfield school (he recently picked up a new job with Bath Rugby). He speaks my language, and I used some of his fitness advice to improve batting technique.

When one of the players came into The Bubble and really struggled with balanced at ball strike, the solution to the problem was simple.

This has been the most tragic week for the game in my cricketing lifetime.

The passing of Philip Hughes has shocked and stunned both the International Cricket community and affected even those who do not consider themselves followers of the game.

The final piece in the mental toughness jigsaw is resilience. Players scoring high in resilience have a great ability to bounce back strongly after any disappointment. Their confidence remains bulletproof for a long period of time, which protects them from the ups and downs of self-belief.

These players have a positive attitude towards the future. Resilience high players are focused on finding solutions and taking steps forward: Dwelling on problems is not something you will see in these characters.

These players experience disappointment, but they quickly move their focus on to regaining control and taking positive action.

The next element in our guide to recognising and developing mental toughness in our players relates to "Critical Moment Control" (CMC).

What is CMC? It's often described by the quote "heart in the oven and head in the fridge".

Players high in CMC always make the right judgements under pressure. Not only do they make the right decisions, they also follow through and deliver the goods: Clear mind, clear thinking, and unwavering execution.

These players control the situation with a strong mind: The situation does not control them. They show skilful thinking, skilful risk taking, and skilful execution. Each one is a great player to have around when it comes to finishing games off.

Last week I introduced the 4 elements that define mental toughness. Today we move on to understanding and developing "Inner Drive".

Players scoring high on inner drive are completely self-motivated individuals in any given situation.

When someone says that a player is or isn’t mentally tough I always reply with "what is mental toughness"?

This was a question that was asked to England's best players back in the mid-2000s by Dr Steve Bull and his Sports Psychology team. The findings of those discussions ultimately split the subject of mental toughness into 4 sub-categories: Fight, Inner Drive, Critical Moment Control and Resilience

By breaking the huge subject down, we are able to attribute characteristics that define each of these 4 sub-categories. As coaches, we can make interventions and build strategies into our planning that help to develop and challenge these capacities with our players and teams.

So let's take "fight" and delve a little deeper into the associated characteristics: