I ‘m delighted to announce that Kevin Pietersen’s online coaching courses Keep Calm and Smash It are now available exclusively on PitchVision Academy.

As you know, back in January we announced KP was revealing his methods in his first ever online coaching courses. And since then it’s been a feast of KP action on the site as a preview to the main event.

Now the wait is over: Keep Calm and Smash It courses are now available.

Click here to enrol.

The team announce your chance to win a feast of Kevin Pietersen prizes this week. Click here to enter.

But it’s not all grabbing swag. There is also a host of advice from David, Burners and Mark Garaway. The importance of “bench strength” is discussed in the light of India, Australia and Sri Lanka in a very heavy period of ODIs.

Readers’ questions are answered on choosing a captain and how to perform again after a good performance. Also, ECB rep level coach Paul Williams guests with some advice on coaching talented youngsters from the club game. 

In the first of three articles on sweeping spinners, I look at the hard sweep: The ‘normal’ sweep where the ball is hit out towards the square leg boundary along the ground.

Many commentators are very critical on the shot and its use in any format of the game.

Every club at every level craves a genuinely quick, aggressive fast bowler. They win games.

Some say it’s the luck of the draw: talented young bowlers are born, not made.

No one is born to be a bowler. Every successful fast bowler in history had to learn how to bowl fast and accurately. That means you don’t have to wait for God-given talent to arrive at your club. You can mould the young players you already have into demons.

In England, I was bought up being told that you should not hit against the spin.

You can't hit with control and the bowler will end up getting your wicket, they used to tell me.

Every time I hit an off spinner for 4 between mid off and extra cover I was told it was risky.

But I reckon that in all my batting career scored 2000 runs with that one shot.

Today’s article is a guest post on technology in coaching from Bala of criccube.com, republished with permission.

Cricket coach Darren Talbot has been thinking about how to make the most of a short English summer for kids still in school

The summer is far too short for colts cricket here in the UK and it’s causing a problem.

Matches start at the start of May and end when schools break up in mid-July. Kids are getting barely 3 months of competition. Certainly in my area this is unlikely to change anytime soon.

6 whole weeks of potential cricket, including the whole of August and how much is played? 

PitchVision batting coach Gary Palmer has been causing a bit of a stir.

After years of experimenting and developing he has come up with the ultimate batting session.

A batting session that is so effective and so complete he has been showing it to open-mouthed coaches at several first-class counties.

But here is the kicker; it teaches you to bat in a way that has never been taught before.

Gary calls it 4 Angles, and it’s the only session you will ever need as a coach or a player.

Just as with the pace bowlers in a previous article, we are concentrating on drills and progressions in pre-season. This week it's the turn of the spinners.

Bowling from the Delivery Stride Drills

Coach Darren Talbot laments a wasted chance in this article. To find out more about Darren Talbot Cricket Coaching click here.

Around preseaon clubs plan their senior and junior winter net training sessions.

Maybe you are doing it now.

One of the biggest issues is finding a venue as there are still nowhere enough indoor net facilities to cope with the demand from clubs, schools and individuals.

But why do we do nets?