• Club cricket stories on the corridor
• Making fast bowling more scientific
• Why you are fielding all wrong
• Being a good cricketer starts off the field
• How much should you drink during exercise?
• "No matter how strong you think you are there's a little Chinese girl warming up with your max"
• Think cricket shots are technical? How's your squat?

Can you call something a trend when you see it twice? If so there is a trend in top-flight cricket at the moment for fitness boot camps.

But are they any good?

What with Pakistan joining Australia as the latest International side to turn to the Army for fitness advice, can clubs learn from this too? (Thanks to Scott for sending me the news item)

It's not often you see something truly innovative in cricket, but Darren Talbot bucks the trend. Darren is a professional coach who doesn't work with county or elite players.

I had to talk to Darren to find out his secrets.

So how does Darren make a living from cricket?

As you probably already know, paid coaching positions have traditionally been filled by ex-professionals working in the elite system at a county clubs or private schools. Some club professionals coach on the side too. Both require a certain amount of cricketing talent and luck to get a break.

To celebrate/complain about the start of the Twenty20 season in county and club cricket I'm putting together a carnival of links about the new format.

To participate all you need to do is write a blog post about twenty over cricket and email me the link.

The post can be anything to do with the format - love, hate, funny stories, international, club level, tips, rants or insight. The idea is to get as wide a range of comments and views as possible.

This post is by by Dr John M Berardi, CSCS

Nowadays there are a lot of misconceptions with respect to protein intake. Should one take in 1 gram of protein per lb of body weight? Or is it 1 gram per kilogram? And, to the non-scientist, just how much is that?

Well, before discussing this issue, I think it's important to explore the difference between protein need and protein optimization. When someone asks the question – how much protein should I eat – they are usually trying to figure out how much protein they need to optimize body composition and performance. But the question, "How much protein does an athlete need?" is a very different one from "How much protein should an athlete consume to improve body composition and athletic performance?"

Wouldn't it be nice if someone could cut through the mist of fitness training to give you a simple template to follow for all your workouts?

That's exactly what Alwyn Cosgrove has done over at EliteFTS, and it works perfectly for cricket training too.

There are two kinds of club cricketers, traditionalists and innovators. In my view, those who innovate are doing far more to improve their cricket than the ones who stick with tradition.

Look at the praise heaped on modern innovative coaches like Peter Moores and the late Bob Woolmer. The ability to innovate is seen as a sign of a success coach at the top level.

This is cricket fitness myth #3, to go back to the list of cricket fitness myths click here.

It's often assumed that because of the long lasting nature of cricket, you need to run long distances to prepare your body. This is often called the 'aerobic base'

But if you study what a cricketer actually does on the field during a match you soon find out this aerobic base is totally irrelevant to game performance.

This is cricket nutrition tip of the week #5 by Dr. John Berardi.

If some people eat one food not on their plan, their failure to be perfect sets in motion a psychological chain of events that leads to frustration and the inability to get right back on the plan. The all-or-nothing mentality sets in and BAM, they're back to nothing. But it doesn't have to be this way. 100% nutritional discipline is never required for optimal progress. The difference, in results, between 90% adherence to your nutrition program and 100% adherence is negligible. So allow yourself the extra 10% wiggle room. This will allow you the freedom to eat a few extra things not on your menu without the guilt and subsequent crash.

This is cricket fitness myth #2, to go back to the list of cricket fitness myths click here.

If you only know one thing about core or abdominal training make it this: Sit ups and crunches are one of the worst exercises you can do for them.

The crunch has a great reputation though. Thousands of sportsmen and women perform them regularly to give them selves the edge during the game and on the beach.