Are you being as productive as you can be during training? We all want to play better so heading to the gym or net session would seem the best way to up your game. But only if you are doing it effectively.

Sadly many practice sessions are not giving cricketers the results they want. Instead of improving your game you could be putting up barriers to more runs and wickets.

I got an email recently from Jack asking for some help.

"I need to explain why it is important to have fitness in cricket. I have some idea, but it is the specifics that are more troublesome. For example, you need strength to bowl fast, but how and why? You also need suppleness, but again why do you need suppleness to bowl fast. Obviously fast bowling is just one area, there is batting and fielding. Hopefully you can understand where I'm coming from."

Watch the best cricketers in the world and despite differences in technique and style there are constants.

Talent, balance, coordination, strength and technique are all vital but more important is developing these factors as one.Like fingers working together to catch a ball.

As club players we want to make as much of our more limited talents as the elite do. We train when we can and work on our skills in the nets.

But just like training one finger and expecting to improve our catching, netting is not enough.

We need to look at the whole picture.

What would your perfect facility be like if you had unlimited resources? Scott at Straight to the Bar asked something similar recently and it got my mind racing.

I’d like to know what kind of thing you would like to have unlimited access too. Leave a comment with your own views.

Here is my dream set up for a club side:

I should be very angry at Inzamam-ul-Haq.

For nearly 500 international games over 15 years Inzy has been single-handedly proving that you don't need to train hard to score lots of runs. He is the antithesis of the spirit of this blog.

Actually he's the most wonderful exception to the rule to the rule since IT Botham last missed a net session for extra quality time with his bed.

A couple of seasons ago the cricket club I play for were in trouble in the league.

With one game to go the first team needed a win to avoid a fate worse than an England Twenty20 performance: Relegation to the depths of the third division.

We were confident victory could be ours. Home advantage and a weak opposition gave us the upper hand. The first team all turned up for extra training on Thursday. The captain demanded the selected team arrived at 11:30 the morning of the match (start time is 2pm) for practice and warm ups.

Thanks mainly to Shane Warne, strength and fitness is not the first this you associate with successful spin bowling.

It's reported that Warney's idea of a balanced diet is a cheeseburger in each hand. Sadly for you and almost every other spinner in the world, you are not as good as the great Aussie leggie. So you need to make the most of what you do have with a fitness plan that makes you better.

Being fit as a spinner has a number of proven benefits that can be gleaned from just 2-3 workouts a week:

An average club cricketer might spend a few hours a week improving their game.

You might play a couple of games, go to the gym and train in the nets regularly.

What about the rest of the time?

What you do outside of this time also has a huge effect on your performance. Getting the edge and playing good cricket at any level requires good intense training. It also needs attention to the other hours in the day.

This idea is often known as the 24 hour athlete.

Mohammed emailed me recently with a question. 

"I'm fast bowler, however my stamina is very low. After 3 or 4 overs I get tired quickly. Can you please tell me the exercises and nutrition that I should take in order to improve my stamina and reduce my belly?"

This is a common question, especially with bowlers. Not having the capacity to bowl at your best must be frustrating. It certainly is for the rest of the team.

What is fast bowling stamina? '

"It is beyond belief to see players miss months with a hamstring pull. That is appalling and alarming. There is either gross negligence, incompetence or a completely flawed rehab and training methodology."

Vern Gambetta's views on hamstring injuries in baseball can just as easily be applied to club cricket. Here is how you can reduce your chance of those missed weeks and recover from them effectively.