Coaching Info

Getting reimbursed for a tournament or league you've signed your LBA team up for:

Register your team for the desired tournament and/or league.
Pay for the tournament and/or league you registered for.
Submit the payment receipt to the LBA Treasurer (Zach Ramaekers) via the email address below. Reimbursements will be issued via checks.
- Email the receipt to: louisvillebasketballassoc@gmail.com
Reimbursements are typically completed within a couple days after sending the payment receipt.

Scheduling Gym Times for Practice

For the 2025-2026 LBA season, please email Tony Mixan (tmixer82@gmail.com) and Kaleb Walker (kwalker@lpslions.org) regarding gym availability and scheduling team practices.

Practice Guidelines and Info for LBA Coaches

All practices in the school gyms need to be scheduled through our designated LBA coordinator (Tony Mixan) and LPS Athletic Director (Kaleb Walker) -- see above section for "Scheduling Gym Times for Practice".
An online gym calendar will eventually be available to see all events in the gyms. The calendar will show real-time information and is updated continually.
Do not show up expecting to use the gym just because it looked open on the calendar. Practices must be submitted and confirmed. There are instances where the school may have added activities without updating the calendar, which is why waiting for approval/confirmation is necessary.
Gyms will need to be shared as needed. Contact the coach(es) already signed up as a courtesy and to communicate how the gyms will be shared. We all know how limited open gym times are and have done a good job in the past of communicating and working together.
Practices are to be no more than 90 minutes per team.
A second team practice may be scheduled during a week, but note if your second practice conflicts with another team’s first practice they will have priority if gym availability is limited.
Stay in the hallway or commons area until other practices are complete. Do not interrupt other practices. Please have your players act appropriately while waiting.
Have your team pick up all water bottles/trash/etc. once practice is over.
Siblings are to stay inside the gyms and not be in the hallways during practices.
The last group in the gym on a given day will need to turn off gym lights. Make sure the side door to the elementary gym is not open and undo the latch to the front entry doors to the main gym entry so it remains locked.
The West doors of the HS gym are not to be used.

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USA Basketball Youth Guidelines

The LBA has adopted the USA Basketball Guidelines to help coaches teach skills that better prepare youth for high school and beyond. Visit their website to better understand the fundamentals to teach at each age level.

USA Basketball

Coaching Youth Basketball - What Should You Teach?

By Joe Haefner

Many youth basketball coaches don't know where to start or what to teach. We hope to help you out in this area. Below, we provide some advice on what to teach youth basketball players. We break it down between 3 levels. As you perfect each level, you can advance to the next level to teach more skills & concepts.

All beginner players should start with Level 1 no matter the age. We put ages next to the level as a general guideline. Depending on the age and skill level, you'll progress through the levels at different rates. You may notice that you'll spend 4 years working on Level 1 with 7-to-10 year olds. At the same time, you may be able to progress to Level 2 after two weeks working with a group of 13 year olds who are playing basketball for the first time.

I would advise to go back and start at Level 1 every year. A lot of high school and college coaches start at Level 1 every year. They just progress through the levels more quickly than a youth team. It's a great way to ingrain the fundamentals into your players year in and year out.

We advise to take a couple of hours and write up a master practice schedule for the season, so you can progressively teach them the skills mentioned below. It may take a few years to teach all of these skills at one level and that's okay! For youth players, we want to focus on the long-term development, not how many games they win when they're 11 years old. If you try to progress them too quickly, it will hurt them in the long-run. You want to have a solid foundation first. You shouldn't try to teach them every dribble move in one year or every option in the motion offense. The same way in which you couldn't teach a person calculus if they did not know how to do simple addition and subtraction.

Important Note: Throughout this article, you'll find many links to other articles on the website to explain concepts that we advise to teach. My recommendation would be to read the entire article first, then go back and click on the links to read the other articles.

Level 1 (7-to-10 Year Olds)

Here's what to teach, ordered by priority:

Lay ups - You should practice lots of lay ups with both hands. Your goal should be to get all players to make lay ups with their left and right hands equally well. Teach them to jump off the proper foot. They should jump off the left leg when shooting a right hand lay up. They should shoot off their right leg when shooting a left hand lay up. It will be difficult but work on it. You'll probably need to start really close to the basket, with no dribble, and take just one step to practice the footwork. Once you add the dribble, they should dribble with their left hand when shooting left hand lay ups. And vice versa.
Footwork - Teach them triple threat positioning, pivoting on their left and right foot without traveling, jump stops, and to square to the basket as soon as they catch the ball in a triple threat position. You should spend a lot of time on footwork!
Shooting form - For this age group, we highly recommend using smaller balls and lower baskets. If that is not possible, allow the players to dip their elbows which will give them more strength. To learn more on shooting, we also have the Breakthrough Basketball Shooting Guide.
Ball handling - You should teach your players to dribble with left and right hands equally. Basic dribble moves such as the speed dribble, crossover, protect-the-ball dribble, and back-up dribble.
Athletic & movement skills - Teach them how to run, jump and land, skip, stop, move laterally, squat, lunge and any other basic movements. If you don't know how to teach these movements, ask a professional or PE teacher to show you how. 99% of the time they would be more than willing to help, and they may even come and show the kids themselves.
Should We Teach Basketball Skills To Players Under the Age of 10? - Useful information for all levels of coaches, not just coaches who work with players under the age of 10.
Basic passes - Teach and practice the basic chest, bounce, and overhead passes.
2-on-2 and 3-on-3 - Play plenty of 2-on-2 and 3-on-3 games to teach concepts (no dribble keep away). It gets the players more experience and allows them enough space to operate and use the new skills they have learned. Make sure to use plenty of fun basketball drills & games. For more on this, read Could 3 on 3 Basketball Be the Best for Youth Players?
Offense (not patterned) - Do not use any structured or patterned offenses. First, get them comfortable on the court. They will start to figure things out on their own. Your main concern should be to have them move & not stand still.
Movement - If you use a few basic cuts and maybe screens in your shooting drills at the beginning of practice, then your players will already know how to move in a motion offense. Then you don't have to waste time teaching offense. Just let them play.
Spacing - Once players feel comfortable on the court, show them proper spacing.
Offense (basic patterns) - As they progress, you can start to introduce them to motion offense situations.
Basic cuts & how to get open - If time permits, you can introduce the basket cut and straight cut. I would suggest that you just work these cuts into your shooting drills at the beginning of practice. This will save loads of time.
Defense - Teach the basic stance, defensive slide, and basic off-ball principles. Don't worry about spending as much time on defense. As they get older, you'll gradually spend more time on defense. Focusing on it 5 to 10 minutes per practice would be more than sufficient.
Basic Off Ball Principles - Stay between your man and the ball and always stop the ball if it is in front of you.
No Zone Defense - For this age group, we are against zone defenses for development purposes.

For anyone coaching this age group, we HIGHLY recommend the DVD Coaching Youth Basketball the RIGHT Way (By Bob Bigelow). You'll gets lots of drills and learn exactly how to teach the most important fundamentals to kids the "right way". We truly believe this DVD should be required viewing for all youth coaches.

Level 2 (10-to-12 Year Olds)

You should expand onto more advanced skills for everything mentioned above in Level 1. But remember, if your 10-to-12 year olds are inexperienced, you should start in Level 1. And at the beginning of each season, you should start at Level 1 until those skills are perfected. Then you can progress into the more advanced stuff below.

Lay ups - jumping off one foot and jump-stop lay ups.
Teach more cuts - back cut, curl cut, etc.
Shooting - Continue to focus on shooting form and introduce some movement for shooting drills (shooting off the dribble and off the catch). To learn more on shooting, we also have the Breakthrough Basketball Shooting Guide.
Ball handling & dribbling - teach more dribble moves such as the inside-out dribble (fake crossover), hesitation move, and between-the-legs.
Passing - continue to teach basic passes and introduce some advanced passes (baseball pass and wrap around pass). Use other drill such as machine gun passing and pass and switch.
Passing under pressure - you can use pair passing with a defensive player in the middle running back and forth to pressure the passer. You can use this drill to practice breaking pressure: full court press breaker drill.
Screening - Teach basic screens.
Footwork - introduce jab steps and ball fakes (pass fakes and shot fakes).
Rebounding - introduce rebounding technique.
Basic post moves - drop step and jump hook.
Spacing - introduce more basic spacing concepts.
Offense - keep playing 2-on-2 and 3-on-3 to teach concepts. You can also start to introduce more motion offense situations and play some 5 on 5.
Defense - keep emphasizing and spend a little more time on the defensive stance, defensive slide, and off-ball principles mentioned in Level 1. If you feel that your players are ready, work on more off-ball defense principles.
Man Defense - In our Man to Man Defense System, we provide step-by-step how to build and teach your defense.
No Zone Defense - For this age group, we are against zone defenses for development purposes.

Level 3 (12-to-14 Year Olds)

You should expand onto more advanced skills for everything mentioned above in Level 1 & Level 2.

Lay ups - practice contested lay ups. Also, you could start to teach players, same-leg same-shooting hand lay ups. I know that is against conventional wisdom, but think about it for a second….Your player just blew by a defender or is on a fast break. Do you want them stutter-stepping to give the defense time to recover and contest the shot? So if that means jumping on your right-leg and shooting right-handed on the same side, so be it.
Movement & Cuts - Continue to teach basic cuts and add more cuts.
Shooting - Continue to emphasize shooting form (move to big baskets and bigger balls). Practice shooting on the move off of the pass and the dribble. To learn more on shooting, we also have the Breakthrough Basketball Shooting Guide.
Ball Handling & Dribbling - teach more dribble moves such as the spin move, behind-the-back. Incorporate some double-moves (crossover followed with a behind-the-back).
Passing - introduce some other advanced passes (dribble pass, behind-the-back pass, pick and roll pass).
Passing Under Pressure - You use Pair Passing with a defensive player in the middle running back and forth to pressure the passer. You can use this drill to practice breaking pressure: Full Court Press Breaker Drill.
Screening - Teach Basic Screens.
Footwork - continue to work on jab steps, pivots, and ball fakes (pass fakes and shot fakes).
Rebounding - put heavy emphasis on rebounding technique and spend more time on rebounding drills.
Post moves - keep practicing post moves mentioned above while introducing a few more when the players are ready drop step counter and up-and-under move.
Spacing - advance to higher levels of spacing drills.
Offense - introduce more motion offense situations. You should start to notice that your players are becoming much better at reading the defense.
Defense - Emphasize basics from previous levels and move on to rotations and situations.
Man Defense - In our Man to Man Defense System, we go into great detail about rotations and situations.
No Zone Defense - For this age group, we are against zone defenses for development purposes.

Sample Practice Plan for 7-10 year olds

Sample Practice Plan for 11-14 year olds