Picture in your mind a Ferrari Formula 1 car: Strikingly red, super sleek and powerful.

When the Ferrari team arrive at a track for a race the car is ready to do its job of going round a track at breakneck speed. 90% of the work is done far away from race day.

You are a cricket coach, not a strength and conditioning expert. But I don’t care how good your bowling coaching is.  

You want your bowlers to be able to make it on the park every week. And that means at least a basic understanding of modern injury prevention strategies. And that’s true whether you coach 10 year olds, adults or anyone inbetween.

It’s not enough anymore to know what a mixed action is and to stick to the fast bowlers guidelines. Sure, that’s where we start.

If you are not working on strength and conditioning with the players you coach you are missing a chance to improve their cricket.

Yet it's common to not bother. At club, representative and school level coaches avoid the world of fitness. They stick to what they know; skills work with a few high intensity fielding drills thrown in to gas everyone.

That's simply not enough. Not if you want results as a coach.

Judging by the number of questions we get here at PitchVision Academy, a lot of players and coaches have a cricketing problem they need solving. Everyone has something; a technical flaw in the cover drive, not quick enough bowling, getting gassed with low fitness levels and a hundred other things.

We also know that there is a frustrating gap for most of us.

The coaches and experts with the answers to your problems are expensive or inaccessible, or both.

At least they were.

As we are sport-loving types at my cricket club so there is normally a football being kicked around the outfield by a couple of players on the morning of a match. As we are competitive types too, this gentle kickabout tends to become a game with jumpers for goalposts, sliding tackles and elaborate diving in the box.

It might be fun, but is it a suitable way to warm up before a cricket game?

I'm betting it's sore. More bowlers are reporting to their coaches with a niggle or problem, especially in the lower back. Fast bowling coach Ian Pont says he has never seen so many young players with so many problems.

What's worse than having a bad cricket technique?

Chances are you know someone who plays with niggles in the shoulder, hip or back. Chances are it is caused by improper technique. Injury rates are up massively in recent years but it's not because players have stopped trying to bat and bowl with proper technique, it's because their bodies are not letting them.

Long time reader Arvind got in touch about this post:

If sledging were to be accepted as a part of the game of cricket, would we then have to coach it like the other disciplines?

That got me to thinking. Is he right and if so what else should coaches be coaching at club level?

Watch the best cricketers in the world and despite differences in technique and style there are constants.

Talent, balance, coordination, strength and technique are all vital but more important is developing these factors as one.Like fingers working together to catch a ball.

As club players we want to make as much of our more limited talents as the elite do. We train when we can and work on our skills in the nets.

But just like training one finger and expecting to improve our catching, netting is not enough.

We need to look at the whole picture.