Developing your ability to field off your own bowling can make a huge difference to you and your teams performance.

It gives the captain an extra fielder to work with, can take surprise wickets through low catches and run outs and discourage batsmen to go for quick singles. While you could leave it to chance or natural ability, but it's very easy to train yourself to stay on the ball even after you have let that cherry go.

On Saturday night in the bar after the game (washed out after the first innings of course) the conversation turned to coaching methods.

As you can imagine, it's a topic that pricked up my ears on your behalf. There are some very experienced players at my club so I was at the ready to pick up some ideas to pass on.

This guest post is by Darren Talbot.

I had a very interesting conversation this week with Chris Hanson who runs a thriving junior section for East Molesey Cricket Club down by the River Thames in Surrey next door to Hampton Court Palace. A former club of mine, we got chatting about the success of their colts set up.

There is a balance between suggested methods, orthodox and well tried, and the priceless experience of the Masters who know that good cricketers should be able to find their own strengths - Viv Richards

If you ever saw Sir Issac Vivian Alexander Richards bat, you already know what the great man means by that quote from the MCC Masterclass book: Batting to him is about natural expression, not the copybook.

He is right of course. Your own batting is directly related to your attitude.

The complex discipline of sports biomechanics has some surprisingly simple suggestions to improve your batting.

It's often assumed that the skills of batting are natural. Although many aspects are down to talent, anyone can become more efficient by applying simple biomechanical principles to their game.

I am inviting readers to submit their experience, tips and advice on how to improve your cricket. Today it's the turn of Guy, who had an “aha” moment recently. Comments are open for your feedback.

I stumbled upon something the other day that really helped my batting.

For a lot of my playing time I have always started to play a shot as soon as the bowler has released the ball. It was only recently that i realised how little I actually watched the ball. I used to use the bowlers release of the ball as a trigger to start playing my shot and this lead to me placing my foot in the same place, every ball, and only being able to play limited shots.

One of the most common emails I get is from players requesting I help them with their technique. No matter if it's batting, bowling or fielding, my answer is usually the same.

It's an answer that Greg Chappell crystallised for me in a story on his now defunct coaching website:

"A top PGA Tour player went back to his long-time coach, Mr Penick, for a lesson. This man has been playing terribly. Before the slump, though, he'd been a star on the Tour.

Fast bowlers understand the need for fitness more than any other cricketer. But like all sports participants, many bowlers are confused by what is best for them. The trick is comparing the principles to the methods:

The perfect cover drive isn't that important. The techniques are poured over by well meaning coaches striving for the edge. In reality perfecting your technique is not as important as you think.

Any batsman at any level would love to have a cover drive and pull shot as technically perfect as Michael Vaughan. Technique is just a means to an end though. Shiv Chanderpaul got far more runs in the English summer with a much less classical method.