Cricket is a game of multiple components: strength, power, speed, timing, mobility...

The list goes on and on.

But it's back to Vern Gambetta to shed light on the most important factor in cricket performance:

"Balance is the single most important component of athletic ability because it underlies all movement. It is a component of all movement whether that movement is dominated by strength, speed, flexibility or stamina. Problems that you thought were strength, speed, flexibility or skill-related could in fact be directly balance related and are manifested as a lack of strength, speed, flexibility, skill etc. Poor balance leads to poor technical or skill development which often results in injury."

Your reactions will naturally vary from other peoples, but whatever your reaction time, you can improve it by practice.

The benefits to cricket are huge, giving you more time while batting and fielding, so reaction training should be part of your plan to improve your cricket.

There is a lot of talk about England losing the first Ashes Test because they were undercooked. But what does this mean?

There doesn't seem to be clear definition of the term. But underlying the press coverage is the assumption that some English players have not played enough competitive games to be ready for the Ashes.

If your life is like mine you always have more to do than there is time to do it. My own answer to that is the system called 'Getting Things Done' by productivity guru David Allen (more on the basics of GTD here).

How do you feel about training on matchdays?

For many club players the only warm up they do is smoking a cigarette and the only cool down is raising a pint to their lips.

But many others would like to make more of matchdays without dropping in performance. Here are 7 things you can do on the day of a match that will have a positive impact.

It takes, according to Bob Woolmer, 10,000 goes at something before you master it.

That's a lot of practice.

For me this underlines how important practice is for club cricket. As amateur players we are all limited for how much time we can give, but performance on the field is directly related to how much skills training you do. How motivated are you to improve?

As long as it is good quality skills training.

David Parsons is the ECB National Spin Bowling Coach: A job in which he is entrusted to develop a new generation of spin bowlers for English cricket.

He is also a technical and theoretical whizz, always looking for creative ways to give players of all disciplines the edge.

One key factor of this is improving your decision making ability through coaching.

I was recently lucky enough to speak to Neil Rider, manager of the Ashes holding England Women. He's an expert coach with plenty to say on cricket coaching, fitness and psychology: Much of which club cricketers can take into their games.

An Interview With Neil Rider

Can you run us through a typical training session with England?

Have you ever had trouble moving the confidence and technique of your net practice to the middle?

It's a seemingly unsolvable problem but the difference can be put down to one word: Pressure

In the net you can't get out. You can groove your technique as long as you like under no danger and no need to worry about score or what's happening at the other end. Traditional net practice is not specific enough. And we all know how important specificity is.

Club cricket fielding can often be poor. But on many occasions this is less to do with skill and technique and more to do with concentration and awareness. Two factors that any fielder can improve. Here is how to do it.