Getting back in shape for the season (Get winded easily)

There isn't a short cut to getting in shape. A kid should never get out of shape. All you can do is do the work you should have been doing all along.

RJM is correct no way to short cut getting back in shape.  My suggestion would be to start running now.  Start with a mile warm up and then follow it with some type of sprint work (intervals, ladder, etc) followed by warm down run.  Maybe a half mile or mile.  

 

We had our HS tryouts last week.  Thankfully my kid made the team.  Looking through twitter feeds afterwards I noticed one kid post "The season starts now".  My thought was the season started in October.  

As I posted in another thread...my 2017 went out for the swim team to stay in shape and lo and behold he was really good at that too!  We'll see how it translates to early season baseball success!!

I was just getting ready to suggest swimming when I read your post.  

 

The best way to get into condition is something that is low impact, yet works the cardiovascular system. Swimming will do the trick and you can stay cool while doing it. As with anything else, don't try to be Mark Spitz in your first outing. Instead build up your stamina over several weeks until the muscles you are not accustom to using, strengthen to the point of no longer being sore after you increase your laps. Before you know it, you will getting a good workout with daily swims to supplement your running, and you will not be sucking wind like you are now.

If you cannot swim due to weather or lack of a decent sized pool, try an elliptical with both leg and upper body involvement. Again you will be working on your conditioning in a low impact manner.

Good Luck

 

 

When son swam a lot in the off season, he noticed that it took a little while to get his "land legs" back once he stopped and started more serious baseball training...took awhile to get up to full sprint speed. Maybe doing more dry land training would have helped? Just a thought.

Since I'm NOT an athletic trainer and have no particular related expertise, take this for whatever it might be worth...

 

In general, I would look into sprints and other quick burst activities... much moreso than running distances or swimming. Run and hop the football bleachers... Run the bases... Explosive type movements.

No quick solutions, but for a healthy teenager, fitness can be improved fairly quickly. My 2017 is a workout fiend so I imposed "no exercise Fridays" during the off-season. Mainly I'm pushing him to eat more and better so he can build some muscle mass.

+1000

It's sounds like you didn't really train in the off season.  With 12 days to go it's a bit late to get 4 months of training in.  However, there are a few things you can do.

 

1) start your baseball activities with a dynamic warmup.  This will get your body ready for activity.  Carioca, high knees, butt kicks, frankenstein walks, arm circles, walking lunges, ladder drills, etc will get your body going and dynamically stretch your body.  Many of these drill have a short sprint element added at the end of the movement (i.e. 10yrd sprint at the end of a 20yrd high knee movement).  A nice finish to this is a series of 30yrd sprints; 1st at 50%, 2nd at 75%, 3rd at 100%.

 

Now you're ready to throw, bat, take infield, outfield, etc.

 

2)Sprint and quickness exercises.  Google SAQ training.  Baseball is a series of explosive movements interspersed with periods of inactivity, it's not an aerobic activity. It's somewhat similar to football.  So look to interval training, running form training, assisted/resisted sprints, parachute drills, pushing weight sleds, etc.  These are useful for baseball and will help with your conditioning.