2025 Basketball Camps In Des Moines, Iowa

Since 2012, we've had 140,000 camp attendees and we've grown to host 400+ camps each year. We've grown into one of the most popular basketball camps in the entire world.

If you visit our Breakthrough Basketball Camp Schedule page, you can select the state/province and find basketball camps near you.

We also have a Camp Cities page where you can view all of the states/provinces and cities that have a Breakthrough Basketball Camp.

Our focus and mission is to help athletes:

• Dramatically improve their skills
• Develop a passion for the game
• Teach character and life lessons to help them succeed beyond the court - Resiliency, Gratitude, Mental Toughness, etc.
• Develop a lifelong love for physical activity and fitness

We wanted to provide you with different types of camps for different types of players.

This includes beginner basketball camps for players as young as 6 years old.

This also includes overnight basketball camps for dedicated middle school and high school players.

We did NOT want to be a basketball camp that just had free-for-all scrimmages and played games all day.

So instead, we created a learning environment that was fast-paced, fun, and focused on drastically improving an athlete's basketball skills, confidence/mentality, IQ, and decision making.

We have controlled scrimmages that develop specific aspects and empower players to learn the game and develop their basketball IQ.

For example, we might have a scrimmage where the players can't dribble. This forces players to work on their footwork to create space from the defender. It forces them to come up with solutions to pass the ball around defenders. For players away from the ball, it forces them to learn how to move and get open.

We believe this optimal balance of skill development, small-sided games, and controlled scrimmages is the reason we've become one of the world's leading skill development camps.

Our camp instructors also aim to improve each and every player's confidence and mentality. Many players just need that push of confidence to finally start to achieve their true potential.

In addition, we create a safe environment where players are free to experiment, push beyond their limits, and make mistakes. That's how you make serious progress!

Not to mention, sports camps are great environments to have fun and meet new friends.

Additionally, we take the quality of our basketball camps very seriously. If a lead instructor doesn't continuously receive high ratings in our post camp surveys, they will receive immediate additional training. If they don't improve, they won't be able to lead basketball camps any more.

This is part of the reason we continuously get instructor ratings that exceed 9.3 out of 10.

We limit spots because we want to maximize the improvement of every kid! This also ensures that they receive personalized attention from our coaching staff.

We also want to limit lines, so each player gets a lot of repetitions with the basketball in their hands. No standing in lines for extended periods of time.

We do this by adhering to optimal coach-to-player ratios. At the minimum, we aim for 10 players to 1 coach. You might even find the ratios get as low as 5 players to 1 coach.

We also limit the amount of players based on the amount of baskets available. For example, we're not going to stuff 100 kids into a 2 court facility with 4 to 6 baskets.

Our deliberate focus on providing the best camp atmosphere possible often leads to many locations filling up.

We've even had a summer camp fill up in one day before!

So take action if you're interested.

This is quite simple. We only hire lead instructors that have prior experience as a court coach at a Breakthrough Basketball Camp. And they must display excellent teaching ability and leadership traits to excel.

From there, they also receive 1-on-1 training from our experienced coaches prior to leading the camp. Then we have a curriculum and best practices that each coach must follow. This is covered with every single coach.

After a camp completes, attendees rate the camp. For example, if a coach isn't getting AT LEAST a 9.0 out of 10, we immediately schedule 1-on-1 private calls with the lead instructor to provide additional training and solutions.

If it's not fixed by the end of the camp season, they can't be a lead camp instructor any more. They can still work Breakthrough Basketball Camps, but it has to be as an assistant coach. That's because being a lead camp instructor requires a unique skill set!

The camp instructors must perform at a high level, provide a great experience, or they can't continue any more. This ensures only the best of the best can lead Breakthrough Basketball Camps.

Breakthrough Basketball hosts 400+ basketball camps each year. The majority of these are summer basketball camps. You can find a basketball camp in nearly every state across the United States and many provinces in Canada.

We also host numerous Fall basketball camps, Spring basketball camps, and Winter basketball camps throughout the year.

We also host Spring Break basketball camps and Winter Break basketball camps.

We host hundreds of youth basketball camps for kids across the United States and Canada each year.

You will find some basketball camps for kids between the ages of ages 6 and 11 years old which are grades 1 to 5.

And other youth basketball camps for ages 8 to 14 years old which are grades 3 to 8.

We also have advanced camps for older players.

Many of our basketball camps are co-ed where boys and girls can attend. However, players are typically split by gender, age level, and skill level.

There are some locations that host camps specifically for girls and specifically for boys.

We have basketball camps for 7th to 12th graders (ages 12 to 18) and some high school basketball camps that are only for high school basketball players.

Even if your skill set isn't elite yet, we have camps that are for dedicated basketball players. We teach them the elite mentality, the elite work ethic, and the elite skills required to become elite basketball players.

Even at elite basketball camps, we still group players by their gender, age level, and skill level to ensure each player is challenged appropriately.

We have select overnight basketball camps for dedicated athletes throughout the country.

We do not offer AAU basketball camps, but many AAU programs have sent their teams to our camps, because of the elite quality of instruction that they receive.

Many AAU programs have also brought us in to operate basketball camps at their facilities.

There are many factors that will help you find the best basketball camps for your situation.

Are you looking for a basketball camp to improve your skills and have some fun? Then any of our youth basketball camps for ages 6-11 and ages 8-14 work great.

Jeff Haefner and Joe Haefner, the co-founders of Breakthrough Basketball, personally send their kids to the youth basketball camps every year.

Are you a dedicated basketball player that is a little bit older and ready to take the next step in their game?

Then we have camps for middle school and high school players that focus on the ages of 12-18 years old. We also have a few high school camps for grades 9-12 and players in the age of 14-18 years old.

All of our camps group kids by gender, age level, and skill level so the coaches can progress you appropriately.

Basketball training camps, basketball skills camps, and basketball camps are often used interchangeably. These are the same things.