Youth Basketball Playing Time Guidelines by Grade

Youthbasketball123 is a website designed to provide ideas, drills by gradebooks, teaching tools, basketball jokesguest blogsbasketball quotes, and so much.

The most trusted resource in basketball in America is USA Basketball. it develops players, coaches, national teams, and olympic teams. It has great basketball minds and a great tradition.

It also has many great ideas for coaching youth basketball. An extremely valuable one is how to allocate playing time based on age. We support these guidelines 100% and feel leagues should adopt these so all teams and players are on a level playing field.

Click on the grade for a full post on playing time for each grade.

Kindergarten (Ages 5-6): Equal playing time.

1st Grade (Ages 6-7): Equal playing time.

2nd Grade (Ages 7-8): Equal playing time.

3rd Grade (Ages 8-9): Equal playing time.

4th Grade (Ages 9-10): Equal playing time in periods 1-3. Coaches discretion in the fourth period and each extra period.

5th Grade (Ages 10-11): Equal playing time in periods 1-3. Coaches discretion in the fourth period and each extra period.

6th Grade (Ages 11-12): Equal playing time in periods 1-3. Coaches discretion in the fourth period and each extra period.

7th Grade (Ages 12-13): Coaches discretion throughout the competition.

8th Grade (Ages 13-14): Coaches discretion throughout the competition.

USA Ages

Ages 7-8: Equal playing time.

Ages 9-11: Equal playing time in periods 1-3. Coaches discretion in the fourth period and each extra period

Ages 12-14: Coaches discretion throughout the competition.

Grades 9-12: Coaches discretion throughout the competition.