What to Do With a Basketball Player's Summer in Regina
Summer is when players either get noticeably better or quietly lose a season's progress. Here is the version that works without wrecking the holidays.
- Ten weeks off is long enough to lose most of what a player built over a season.
- One camp week plus one session a week is a full summer plan, and it is not much.
- HoopLife sessions run every week of the summer, unlike most youth sport here.
- Protect the fun: open gym and pickup matter as much as the coached hour.
Ask any coach when players actually change and they will tell you the same thing: over the summer, in both directions. It is the longest uninterrupted stretch a young player gets, and it is also the one where most of them do nothing for ten weeks and arrive in September behind where they finished in June.
The good news is that the version that works is smaller than parents expect.
The whole plan, in four parts
1. One camp week
Summer camp is Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM — five full days and thirty hours, for $350. Thirty hours in a week is more coached basketball than most players get in three months of a season, which is why a single week visibly moves a player.
Ages 7-17, capped at 32 and split into age groups. Bring a packed lunch.
2. One session a week, all summer
This is the part that is unusual here: our weekly sessions do not stop for summer. Same three age bands, same Beginner and Advanced split, same groups of eight, every week of the year. Girls Only and 3x3 run right through too.
3. Open gym, whenever they want it
$10 to drop in, free with a membership. Unstructured play is not filler — it is where a kid decides basketball is theirs.
4. Ten minutes a day at home
Handles and shooting form. Small and daily beats long and occasional, and it is the cheapest improvement available. The drill list is here — it works on a driveway in July as well as a basement in January.
What not to do
- Do not book every week. A burned-out twelve-year-old in August is a worse outcome than a rusty one.
- Do not train only alone. Skills built without defence do not survive contact with a real game.
- Do not skip the whole summer and plan to "get serious in the fall". September is where you find out what June cost you.
A realistic summer, week by week
Camp week: thirty hours, one week, done. Every other week: one coached session, one open gym, ten minutes a day at home. Two weeks off entirely for the lake, the trip, whatever your family does. That is a genuinely good summer, and it fits around a holiday rather than replacing one.
Then a Fall league season starts the week school settles in, and everything they built lands somewhere.
Booking it
Camp weeks are the first thing we run out of, and spots are limited to 32 per camp. If you know which week you want, that is the one to sort first: summer camps are here. Everything else can be added as you go — the live schedule shows what is on this week.
Frequently asked questions
Do basketball programs run in the summer in Regina?
Most stop. HoopLife's weekly sessions run every week of the year including summer, alongside full-week summer camps.
How much is summer basketball camp in Regina?
$350 for a week: Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, five full days and 30 hours, ages 7-17, capped at 32 players.
How much should a player train over the summer?
One camp week plus one coached session a week and ten minutes a day at home is plenty, with a couple of weeks off entirely.
Will my child lose skills over the summer?
If they do nothing for ten weeks, usually yes. A small, consistent amount of work prevents almost all of it.
Not sure where your kid fits?
Leave your name and email and a HoopLife coach will help you work it out. Or start with the $10 Get Started package: a planning meeting with a Director plus their first session.
