LEARNING RESOURCES
JR NBA Curriculum Resources
Basketball Players Skills Checklist | Ages 6-18
Below you will find four documents from the Jr. NBA that break down the essential skills required to become the best possible basketball player for your age and level. We encourage you to review all four documents to identify any gaps in your foundation and adjust your training accordingly.
When training at home, it’s important to first develop your foundational skills before progressing to more advanced or complex concepts. These documents include simple skill checklists that should be completed and mastered by the end of each age category, as outlined by the Jr. NBA program.
The foundational skills listed use universal basketball language and terminology recognized by elite coaches and trainers around the world. It’s important to note that these are core foundational skills — not a complete list of every basketball move or technique. With so much information available online today, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the volume of content and advice. Our best recommendation: master the basics, embrace the boring, and build your foundation.
When former NBA legend Kobe Bryant trained his daughter Gigi, the majority of their time was spent working on foundational skills — not flashy, advanced techniques seen on social media. The saying “less is more” couldn’t be more true. We hope these documents and tools will help you stay focused and take your game to the next level.
Rookie
Ages 6-8
Starter
Ages 9-12
All-Star
Ages 13-14
MVP
Ages 15-18
Long-Term Athlete Development Model (LTAD)
We use Canada’s Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) model to guide the planning and design of our athletic programming. This model emphasizes training athletes based on their current stage of development and supports growth through scientifically backed, data-driven methods. It is not exclusive to basketball, LTAD can be applied across all sports and physical activities, with the ultimate goal of developing individuals who remain active for life, even beyond their competitive years.
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We’ve provided two comprehensive documents for your reference. The first is "Long-Term Athlete Development in Sport for Life (LTAD 3.0)," the most up-to-date version of the model. The second is "Long-Term Athlete Development Information for Parents (LTAD Parents)."
We recognize the crucial role parents play in supporting their young athletes, so we encourage you to use this guide as a valuable resource. It will help you better understand how to support your child’s athletic development at each stage of their journey.
What is the LTAD Model?
Human development from birth to adulthood is a continuous process. To better understand this process, experts divide human development into distinct stages with specific characteristics; these are called stages of development.
In Canadian sport, experts have identified seven such stages, each with its own physical, mental, emotional, and cognitive characteristics. This is the foundation of our Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) model, which guides the optimal training and competition children need to both enjoy sport and perform at their best.
Why do we need the LTAD model?
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Participation in recreational sports and physical activity has been declining, and physical education programs in schools are increasingly being marginalized.
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The international performance of Canadian athletes has been declining in some sports.
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Several sports are struggling to identify and develop the next generation of international-level athletes.
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Failing to match skills and activities to an athlete’s stage of development has serious negative consequences — and both Canadians and the Canadian sport system have been experiencing these for some time. Just a few examples include:
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​Children don't have fun
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They develop bad habits because of the over-emphasis on winning;
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Their skill development is poor;
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They don’t reach their optimal performance level;
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Many burn out and drop out of sport.
References:
Long-Term Development in Sport and Physical Activity 3.0. Sport for Life. (2019). https://sportforlife.ca/portfolio-item/long-term-development-in-sport-and-physical-activity-3-0/​
