One of the young coaches in my coaching team, Matt Thompson, recently recounted a coaching session with one of the International players at the school.

Matt and Tom had a range hitting session and it was clear Tom was inconsistent.

Matt's solution was to get back to basics.

He asked Tom what his basics were that underpin his ability to hit the ball out of the park.

Tom was able to reel off his rank order of basics with ease. The outcome for the rest of the session was a series of crisp clean and effective shots that could be placed into most cricketing environments.

The subsequent review bought up a quote from England's latest Head Coach, Peter Moores.

Peter mentions that,

"the basics remain the basics; the only difference is that everything speeds up as you move through the levels towards Test cricket".

He is right too!

Just think about it. The ball doesn't swing any more or less that when you were 12, it just swings at a faster velocity. The same applies for seam and spin. Nick Compton's world class forward defensive shot was in place aged 14, he just needs to apply it faster in Test match cricket.

The basics or the "pillars of our game" remain the same, they just speed up.

So what implications does this have on our coaching approaches to batting?

Get a regular service

We need to keep checking the "pillars of our game" every now and again in the same way as a car gets a service every few thousand miles.

We can do this by getting a consistent, yet independent set of eyes in to have a look or consult video footage to compare and contrast against our own template model.

My Granddad was my independent set of eyes who would do that for me. He wasn't a coach as such, just a keen observer who knew what my best looked like. His observations were crucial to my keeping and batting as I went through my teenage years.

Keep your engine clean

Michael Vaughan and Kevin Pietersen used to get me to throw underarm tennis balls to them every now and again when they were reconnecting with their basic movement patterns on the front foot.

The drills were the same ones as they would have done when learning the game as children.

Yet these two legends of the game were comfortable working with underarmed soft balls in order to refine their balance and contact points ahead of sterner tests.

If it's good enough for them, then it's good enough for you and me.

Ex-England batting coach, Matt Maynard often uses bowling machines on slower speeds (50-65 mph) in order to build the pillars of his young players defensive and attacking games.

His view is that it's harder to wait for the ball and hold your balance against these speeds rather than the "nice pace of ball at 75mph". This pace of ball can often cover up the technical flaws in your game.

Stress test

Once those movement patterns and contact areas have been checked it's time to stress test them against fast moving and fast deviating deliveries.

You created a reference point against slower deliveries in the previous drills and now compare how the integrity of your "pillars" perform under speed pressure.

Sidearm, bowling machine with variation in length and line and throw downs with new balls from shorter distances work well to challenge our "batting pillars".

Review honestly and don't be afraid to take a step back into the "garage" a couple of times before your happy to give your technical motor a clean bill of health.