As the school year winds down, many students start to get a little tired and start looking pretty hard towards summer. High school seniors are so notorious for this that there is even a word for it: senioritis. Just because you’ve been accepted to a college and cleared for graduation is no reason to let your grades and academic and athletic performance slip. Read on for some tips to help you enjoy your senior year without tarnishing your record.

Avoid the Schedule: Gym, Lunch, Gym, Pottery

Don’t set yourself up for a lackluster semester by not challenging yourself. Sure, badminton can be challenging and so can making a clay pot, but how will these look on your transcript? There’s no reason not to take classes you have been looking forward to all high school in your senior year, just don’t let this be your entire course load. Keep yourself challenged to stay engaged and show colleges that you are a serious student. Consider taking and AP class if you have not already, if you work hard and pass the AP test for a certain subject, you’ve already taken care of some college credits.

Stay Engaged by Doing Things You Love

It’s easy to get bored senior year and try to forget about high school and look at your college years ahead, so find projects that will keep you engaged in your high school life. Working on the school newspaper or yearbook is a great way to do this. These will help you stay up to date and involved in your school. Also, just because you’re graduating doesn’t mean the school paper will stop going out, so being held to deadlines will keep you in the right frame of mind and keep you from slacking off. As a bonus this extracurricular activities are great experience as you build your resume.

Search Out Academic Options

In your final months of school, you may feel like you’ve got high school mastered. So why not take a college course or two early to challenge yourself and stay ahead of the game. Try the local community college for these classes. Many high schools will count this college course credit towards your high school credit and some schools even allow for early dismissal from regular hours to attend college courses. Check with your guidance counselor for your options, you may even be able to knock out a Gen Ed or two. Just make sure your future college will accept these credits, so you don’t end up taking the same class twice.

Stick with Sports, Even if Your Main Season is Over

If practice is the only thing getting you through your day as the school year winds down, then so be it. Just don’t let that fall to the wayside, too. Sports can be a great motivator to go to school, so even if you’re major season isn’t the spring stay involved with any spring sport as an incentive to go to school and stay in school those final days of your college career. Remember, colleges don’t stop looking at you once you’ve been accepted, that final transcript matters, so don’t tarnish it with senior skip days and sliding grades. Enjoy your senior year, just not too much!

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Doug Hix of Youth Fitness Magazine shares some tips for what some think is very easy, but requires skill and attention to detail.

Throwing a baseball appears to be very simple in its nature. Just throw, right? Wrong. Throwing a baseball the right way takes proper mechanics and techniques. Just ask Bud Black. Black, a former Major League Baseball pitcher who recorded 121 wins over his 15-year career, knows a thing or two about the art of throwing a baseball. These days, Black puts his vast knowledge of the game to use as the Manager of the San Diego Padres. During the off-season, we caught up with Black for a few tips on the subject. Below, Black cites the three critical aspects of throwing a baseball.

1.Separating Hands
When you catch a baseball, the first thing to do is remove the ball from the glove, which is called separating the ball from the glove. “Start with your hands on top of the ball or your fingers on top with your thumb underneath, same with your glove arm, thumbs down,” Black says. “So you catch the ball, you separate your hands with thumbs down, fingers on top of the ball and start to make a circle.”

2. Elbow Up
According to Black, the second point of focus is ensuring that one’s elbow is above the shoulder when a throw is made. “A lot of kids who have arm trouble as they move on through baseball do so as a result of not having enough strength during childhood to get their elbow above the shoulder or it’s simply easier to not do so,” Black says. “Throwing the baseball from a low position is simply easier. It takes more work and effort to get the elbow up.”

In this instance, the involvement of a parent or coach to encourage proper mechanics can help lead to future success. “I can watch a kid 5, 6, 7, 8 years old and if they have proper separation mechanics and can get the elbow up, I say, hey they got a chance,” Black says. “If they are athletic, they have a chance to be successful at whatever level they’re competing.”

3. Stride Direction
The third critical aspect of throwing a baseball is proper stride direction. “These days, you see some young shortstops stepping towards the pitching mound and making a throw to first base across the body,” Black says. “There needs to be a stride toward where you’re throwing the ball. Stride to the person you’re playing catch with or stride toward the direction where you want the ball to be thrown.”

Black believes stride direction is an aspect that is easier to fix when kids become older, unlike the first two components. “It is critical to key in on the first two components early in a baseball player’s career,” he says. “Essentially, all three components are critical in my eyes. That is it, you can talk or instruct for hours on those three things. If you get a kid early enough you’re fine. If you have a little bit of athleticism and aptitude, then you got action.”