DR. WALLACE: I'm a guy who tried out for two of our high school's sports teams the last two years and I was cut both times. I'd really love to play on a sports team at least once before my time in high school is up.

What can I do to increase my odds next year? I'll be a junior and I can tell you that I'm a decent athlete, but I guess my problem is that I'm not great at any one particular sport, even though I can play all the major sports at a reasonable level. — Not on a Team Yet, via email

NOT ON A TEAM YET: I suggest you start by speaking with your school's athletic director and tell him or her exactly what you've told me. This person will have a very good overview of all of your school's various sports games and then maybe suggest one of them that could use a few extra players.

Next, I'd work on your endurance over this summer. Many sports require speed, agility and endurance as foundations for successful participation.

I don't feel that you can do much to change your foot speed over this summer, but you can certainly build up your endurance and even develop further agility than you have right now. Go on the internet and look up various agility drills that you can do at your home or at a nearby park. Do some distance running to build up your overall endurance, and add some cardiovascular training as well.

Finally, if you have any aptitude at all for baseball, consider spending the rest of the summer practicing becoming a baseball catcher! Not everyone wants to try out for this position, so there may be a potential path for you as a backup catcher on your baseball team who can step in in case the regular catcher develops an injury during the season. To do this, seek out a mentor who has played the catching position before who can coach you. Work hard this summer on all of the nuances that make a good defensive catcher, including blocking pitches in the dirt and making accurate throws to second base to stymie potential base-stealers.

I FEEL TRAPPED AND WORRIED

DR. WALLACE: I know that I'm in an unhealthy relationship and I need to exit it, but there's a big problem that's preventing me from doing so right now.

My partner is threatening personal harm (without specifically mentioning suicide) if I were to leave the relationship. This has me feeling both frozen and blackmailed, but I don't want to be responsible for something terrible.

What can I do about this? — Feeling Trapped, via email

FEELING TRAPPED: You need to speak to this person's parents, guardian, relatives or anyone else who knows the person well. This might be a real cry for help or could be a form of manipulation, but there is no way for you to know right now for sure.

Involve as many other people as you can, and tell your partner, who is about to become a former partner, that you will stand by at this time to help arrange counseling and guidance.

Don't promise to stay in the relationship; in fact, don't discuss the relationship at all from here as you can mention that your entire focus is on helping arrange the guidance and counseling that is desperately needed at this point. This is true, and by involving as many other people as you can, this will both help to potentially diffuse the situation, and will likely enhance arranging the help that is obviously needed here in one form or another.

By helping arrange the guidance that is needed, you'll be doing the right thing without having to address the relationship overall. The relationship needs to be put on hold to hopefully commence the necessary healing.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at rwallace@thegreatestgift.com. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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