If you could boil preseason training down to its most basic and important elements what would you be left with?

The answer is the following 4 ingredients that anyone can mix together to improve their game in the shortest possible time. Think of it as your cheat sheet for what to work on in preseason.

That’s something which is especially important for those of us with limited time to train.

How strong should you be? Well, that's relative, but here are some general benchmarks.

There are two types of fielders; people who are allowed to field in the slips and those who aren’t.

This is more down to the fielder’s reactions that their ability to catch.

The edge that flies straight into the body is regulation for the slip fielder, but many club and Academy cricketers struggle to react to catches either side of their body simply because of the variation in the pitch.

The more variation in the pitch the greater variation in the carrying edge.

It’s junior fielding lesson number two: walking in with the bowler.

Unfortunately, you often see a least one fielder in every side who doesn’t do it; and it makes a massive difference.

But you can go one better than walking in; you can trot in.

Walking in keeps momentum going forward.  Move continually towards the ball prevents a quick single or allows you to cut the firmly struck ball off before it is past you.

Tennis balls: bright, light and fluffy; obvious descriptions.

But what is not discussed is how much harder they are to catch than cricket balls when at speed.

Cricketers won’t admit this because everyone knows a cricket ball is one of the most dangerous things in the universe, but it’s true!

Because they are so light and have high rebound properties, they take more skill to catch than a heavy and hard cricket ball.

From the 6 year old beginner to the established Academy cricketer, here the 5 most common mistakes I see everyone making in the field from time to time.

Maybe they are small but all are crucial as a mistake has bigger consequences.

One of the keys to being a good fielder is that you stay focused through the day and don’t let these mistakes slip in. Never think you are too experienced or confident to make them. Keep your concentration in the field and work to support your bowler.

Runs and wickets are limited as a way of seeing how well your team is doing in the field. There is no easy way of seeing where the psychological momentum lies.

At least, there wasn’t until some bright spark in the England setup developed ‘Match Play’

Match Play is used to judge how well a team is performing as a unit in the field without comparison to the opposition or the conditions.

It concerns the mental boosts or falls found during the game and how this affects the confidence of both sides.

It’s quite the feat of fielding skill and power to slam the ball into the keeper’s gloves from the boundary edge. But in real life, there are precious few who have such a bullet arm.

But it’s not just about covering a bad arm: the relay throw is also a tactical fielding technique.

As you know, a relay throw is any throw where two fielders team up to return the ball to the stumps.

This drill is part of the PitchVision Academy fielding drills series, for more in this series click here.

Purpose: To practice a range of fielding skills at once under pressure; the pickup and underarm throw, running and throwing and chase and return.

Description: The wicketkeeper rolls a ball out in one of the 4 angles shown below. Each roll has a different reaction:

This drill is part of the PitchVision Academy fielding drills series, for more in this series click here.

Purpose: To practice fielding against drives as well as grooving batting drive technique.

Description: Players are split into teams of 6. The batting team are aiming to score as many runs as possible from a bobble feed from the coach.

We all accept the importance of a warm up to prepare your body and mind for the game if you play any serious level of cricket from school upwards.

We looked at the hour or so that our case study club, Watsonian CC, took to warm up in a league match in Edinburgh.