Do your thoughts turn around New Year to losing all the fat you piled on over Christmas?

You want to lose fat but keep the muscle that is critical to success on the pitch. Plus it's important for looking good on the beach, right?

Where do you start?

For a lot of club cricketers, starting is the hard part. There is a huge amount of information available, a lot of it trying to sell some bit of equipment that will be gathering dust in couple of weeks.

Do you know anyone in the strength and conditioning field working with cricketers regularly at any level?

Strength coach and friend of harrowdrive Michael Boyle has a site dedicated to the best in strength and conditioning and is looking to expand it into cricket. I want to help him create this section.

England and Sussex cricketer Luke Wright is well known on the circuit for having 'fast hands' and a lightning blade. With a bit of practice you could build the same reputation in your club side.

If you have played cricket for any length of time you probably have a technique that you are comfortable with, but is it as effective as it could be at producing a fast bat?

If you have ever played cricket for an afternoon or longer, the chances are you have suffered from sore muscles the next day. If you have you know how terrible it is to hobble around like a geriatric for anything up to 2 days.

More seriously, if you play more than once a week this soreness can cut your performance on the pitch: The sorer you are the less power you can produce and the more quickly you become tired.

As you know, I'm a big fan of intelligent, cricket specific fitness work. Running is the cornerstone of this for all cricketers but there is one alternative.

Skipping or jumping rope has been recommended for a while by Physical Therapist Gray Cook for all intermittent sport athletes and that includes club cricketers. While running (and running fast) is highly cricket specific and important this can be replaced at certain times by jumping rope.