Every team has one.

The staunch one. The guy who says bowlers should always bowl at batsmen in nets. It more realistic and anyway, nets are more for batsman than for bowlers.

This is frustrating. You know how it goes. The batter who is timid in the middle feels like KP in the safety of the net. There are wild swings, switch hits and all manner of unreal shots. You know they would never be played in a match.

Your practice is wasted.

Worse; there is nothing you can do about it while the staunch one looms over you telling you to pitch it up and give the batsman a chance to work on driving.

And besides, you want to give your team some batting practice too. It's not like you are totally selfish.

Do you fight hard against the staunch one to get time to bowl at a target, or do you give up an resign yourself to being a bowling machine?

In fact, you can keep everyone happy quite easily with a simple trick.

What image do you make in your mind when you think of cricket coaching?

You might be thinking of a coach working in the net with a player. Throwdowns, cones and poles, plenty of discussion and demonstration of technical pointers. This is a common sight. You would not be wrong.

But perhaps a more important picture is one that is often missing at club, school and academy level.

Is there anything more tragic than the talented player who wastes his ability?

This person plays effortlessly when everything is working, but too many days on the pitch are missed with low scores or average bowling spells. If you can sum it up in one word it's "enigmatic".

Maybe you are a person like this.

You can feel that you have talent, but you are frustrated by your inability to consistently and drain every last drop. The route to becoming a cricketer feels frustratingly just out of reach and the difference is simply tapping into your genetic potential.

Here's what you do to get the most from your talent.

How do you train when the coach or captain says "do what you like, just get something meaningful done"?

Modern coaches are all about giving players freedom to train. This means you need to be self-reliant as a player and work out your own training, even at group sessions. Yet often I see players given freedom and unsure what to do with it. They end up with a half-hearted warm up and getting a few throw downs under the guise of "getting my eye in".

We can do better than that.

So, the next time you have to direct your own training, if there is a coach there or not, here is what to do.

It's a simple and effective training method to add "filler" exercises to net sessions to help with fitness training. You know the type of thing; adding in press ups and sprints between balls to increase fatigue and bump up fitness. Here is a perfect example. We have done this kind of work for years.

I'm sure if I asked you to name a few simple things players could do, you quickly think of exercises like press ups, chin ups, squats and lunges. How about we add a few more into the mix that will also prevent injury. Plus, it gets a bit dull doing lunges, so why not mix it up?

Naturally, you won't want to run fillers at every nets you do. It depends on your goal for the session, but the fact is that these movements tick a lot of boxes: They save time, they reduce injury and they test your technique under fatigue. If you want to do those things, get going!

Andrew Strauss reminded today of a brilliant bowling machine drill which we were introduced to by Shiv Chanderpaul.

Why do some people pick up cricket skills better and faster than others?

Talent? Maybe.

Grit? Possibly.

Knowing yourself? Absolutely.

Don't panic, I'm not suggesting you disappear for 7 years on a journey of discovery to confront your guilt and become a Ninjitsu master like Batman. Learning how you learn is simply a matter of trying things until you find the methods that click with you most quickly. Everyone is different, so keep trying; you'll find several that work.

You want to become a better cricket player, and there is no shortage of advice. The problem is, how do you work out what tips, tactics and techniques work best for you?

I was chatting to Matt Dawson - Head Coach at Cricket Asylum - about the problem of young net bowlers "messing about".

I'm sure you recognise this: The session starts well but as attention span wanes, young bowlers tend to start entertaining themselves. The try to distract each other, run in while finishing a conversation or decide to "bowl leg spin" all of a sudden (and it goes into the side netting).

Of course, fun is a key aspect of training - especially in teenage players - but training time is limited and for most the goal is also to get better at cricket.

So how do you deal with it?

Matt's answer was insanely simple.

Everyone wants to finish their season with some strong performances so they can w̶a̶l̶l̶o̶w̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶n̶o̶s̶t̶a̶l̶g̶i̶a̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶o̶n̶g̶ ̶w̶i̶n̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶p̶e̶r̶i̶o̶d̶ help their side complete their targets.

I know that many of your players will feel that this is completely out of their reach as they are stuck in a mid-season slump with the ball or the bat. Without intervention, a player relies on luck to get them back into form yet with appropriate mental and technical a player can be back on track for a late season purple patch.

Here are some mental tips that have worked for me with players as they go from slump to superstar.