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.

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.

Do you have a talent for cricket?

There is a growing theory that natural ability may not be as important as you think.

Talent, they say, is merely your desire to pursue your goals with single minded dedication.

Has your cricket club got a coach?

I'm talking about the senior section here, not the colts or youth teams. If not, have you ever considered why not?

I know that at the clubs I have played the answer to both questions is 'no'.

Coming back to playing cricket after some time away from the game is hard work.

A lot of cricket specific movements are not reflected in real life and bowling is, frankly, an unnatural thing to do. That means returning can cause players to perform below their best and be very sore after their first few games.

Although there is no way to get around this, you can reduce the worst effects by some careful planning.

You may or may not have heard of Darren Rowse. He has been called many things, but what he does is takes lessons from life and applies them to his job.

Darren recently drew a comparison between practising tennis and practising blogging (he's a full time blogger) and came up with 10 ways to get better at blogging by practising. And just as those 10 ways work for tennis and blogging they can work for cricket.

Is there another sport with as much waiting as cricket?

Waiting to bat, waiting for the bowler to start their run up, waiting for a bowl, waiting for a declaration...

No wonder cricket is seen as a lazy game even though it's a power sport.

If you want to improve as a player you have to learn to deal with all this waiting around both physically and mentally.

Cricket Mind Games

Cricket is a fun game to play. Especially when you are doing well, but sometimes it's not quite as easy to get up in the middle of winter to go for a run or make it down to nets twice a week.

We all have times where we don't want to do it (even me).

Whenever I get a little low in the motivation stakes I try these tricks to get me back into the swing of things.

You can't help but admire Mark Ramprakash. Playing for Surrey, he finished the summer with an average of 103.54 and still had time to go dancing.

The Independent asked him how he did it (the batting, not the dancing) and his answers provoked some thought:

1. Some teams always play for the draw. Too many times a captain will blame the opposition for a boring draw. There are very few sides who deliberately aim to go for the bore draw. More likely, neither captain has taken control of the game enoughto keep it close. The answer: Be prepared to take a risk. You will play in a lot less draws.