This summer at Millfield School we ran an experiment in improving the power hitting of the 1st XI players.

It was a new concept to us, and I wanted to see how well it would work. Here is what we did; and what we found out on the way.

We introduced “Back-loading” and played around with shifting weight in the set up as a batter waits for the bowler to release the ball.

This interactive diagram is part of a series from Ryan Maron's Cricket School of Excellence. This time we look at back foot defence. To see Ryan's previous tips, click here.

Ryan Maron - the former Western Province player - is one of South Africa’s leading coaches, running his famous Cricket School of Excellence in Cape Town for over 10 years as well as being Head coach of the University of Cape Town.

Here is a drill that provides huge gains in distance, power, placement and tactical awareness for all of your batters.

The inspiration comes from the golf driving range. It got me thinking about how we could apply a similar concept to the practice of batting skills.

Here is the range driving drill.

If you want to improve cricketers you need practice regularly and monitor your performance.

That’s been the challenge of Millfield School and Mark Garaway the school’s Director of Cricket Coaching: even for a top English independent school, that has produced some fine first class players Simon Jones, Craig Kieswetter, Ben Hollioake and David Graveney.

The facilities are excellent, but there are still challenges to further boost the boy’s performances at the school.

This is a guest article from Iain Brunnschweiler, former professional player and a coach at Hampshire and England’s Development Programme.

How many times are you involved in a session which is just 'a hit in the nets', or 'taking a few high catches?

Good cricketers are strong.

They may not look like big chested hulks (although some like Kallis, Flintoff and Irfan Pathan come close) but to bowl quick, put revs on the ball or hit the ball hard you need to have strength.

The pros have strength coaches to plan their every gym visit. Grass-roots coaches and their players may not even have access to a gym.

But that doesn't mean you need to ignore the usefulness of strength training in your sessions.

In the old days if you got an injury you just shrugged, put it down to bad luck and waited for it to heal up.

Some people still do that.

But the clever guys (that's you, because you are reading this) know some things can be headed off at the pass.

You can stop an injury before it happens.

We know this because researchers have looked into the influence of posture on rate of injury. They found that certain postural triggers - the way you hold yourself when moving and still - lead to more injuries.

The most respected coaches are the ones who live and breath what they do.

They have a philosophy which encourages consistency. Player/Coach relationships thrive and grow as a result of the coaches energy, expertise and character.

Most high performance coaches have a simple philosophy that guides them and their coaching to produce results in player development and within competition.

This interactive diagram is part of a series from Ryan Maron's Cricket School of Excellence. This time we look at back foot defence. To see Ryan's first tip, click here.

Ryan Maron - the former Western Province player - is one of South Africa’s leading coaches, running his famous Cricket School of Excellence in Cape Town for over 10 years as well as being Head coach of the University of Cape Town.

Why do kids play cricket? If you know the answer to that then you know the secret to coaching younger players.

I have been coached by several people over the years. I coached my first team in the summer of 1994. In that time have seen many coaches who could answer that question and had access to the secret.

Yet somehow their coaching does not reflect the answers they give.

This is causing young players to leave the game.