From Setter to Sports Dad - Bullyball, AI, and Learning a New Game

16 Feb 2026

The Sport I Fell in Love With

I played volleyball in high school and college in India. That was my sport — I fell in love with it very young. I played as a setter and sometimes as a right-side hitter. If the team had another good setter and we were running a 6–2 (setter comes from the back row), I’d swing from the right side. Otherwise, it was a 5–1 — and that meant I got to control the tempo of the game.

Playing as a setter was cerebral for me. It was like chess:

Read the block
Manipulate the defense
Use sleight of hand to change direction at the last second
Turn chaos into structure

It was about geometry — angles, timing, positioning.

Naturally, I assumed my son would pick volleyball. His name is Aadhityan — he calls himself Aadi.

But I should have known better. He is almost completely opposite to me (pretty sure he got that from my lovely wife 🙂).

Aadi, being the independent young man he is, chose basketball. He started in 6th grade, playing on a half court in the community park. No plan. Just him, a ball, and a rim. He made it to middle school 6th grade team, thats when we realized he can play, we still weren’t convinced. He is a confident young man who can talk with conviction to sell his idea, he convinced both me and my wife to let him play in an AAU team.

Here’s the problem: I have never played organized basketball in my life.

My understanding of basketball was limited to knowing what a 2-pointer and a 3-pointer were. Growing up in India in the 1990s, I had a Chicago Bulls jersey — probably fake. The only player I knew was Michael Jordan.

That was the extent of my basketball education.

Introducing “Bullyball”

My son is now 14 years old, in 8th grade. He’s 6’1” and heavy set — built like a varsity junior. His coaches describe his game as:

“Bullyball.”

I had no idea what that meant. I had to Google it.

“Bullyball,” as I learned, isn’t reckless or mean. It’s about using size, strength, and physical presence to impose your will on the game:

Lowering your shoulder and finishing through contact
Sealing your defender before help arrives
Creating space not with deception — but with force
Establishing deep post position and daring someone to move you
Sprinting the floor and making smaller defenders feel you every possession

In simple terms:

It’s playing through people, not around them.

That’s when it hit me.

My son does not manipulate space the way I used to.

He occupies it.

Aggression + Intelligence

I didn’t want him to abandon his aggressiveness. That’s part of who he is. It’s his edge. It’s his confidence. It’s what makes defenders uncomfortable.

When he runs the floor hard and seals early, you can feel the tone shift. When he finishes through contact, You can see he is getting more confident and the trash talk comesout. There is a presence to his game that you can’t teach.

But I also didn’t want him to rely only on force.

Because I’ve seen what happens when force meets force.

Against smaller teams, bullyball looks unstoppable.

Against teams with equal size and strength, it becomes a test of nuance. That’s when you need:

A counter move
A read before the move
A hesitation
A spin
A kick-out at the right moment

That’s the part of the game I connect with: the cerebral layer.

I don’t want him to become softer. I want him to become smarter.

I want him to understand why a move works — not just that it worked.

I want him to recognize when the defense is loading up early. I want him to see when the weak-side help is cheating in. I want him to know that sometimes the smartest play isn’t pushing harder — it’s shifting direction.

The challenge? I’ve never played organized basketball. I don’t have the language. I don’t have the lived reps. I don’t instinctively see pick-and-roll reads the way a former point guard dad might.

When I tried to talk about “playing smarter,” it sounded abstract. And Aadi doesn’t respond well to abstract.

He would dismiss me saying, “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Which… was fair.

Leaning on What I Do Know: AI

That’s when I leaned on something I do understand well.

AI.

Not to make him robotic. Not to strip his identity. But to give structure to our conversations.

I record all his games — every possession, every seal, every sprint, every missed rotation.

One evening, after a tough game against a bigger team, I uploaded a few of his games into Gemini.

I wasn’t looking for praise.

I was looking for clarity.

If I couldn’t coach from lived basketball experience, maybe I could architect better analysis.

Designing the Prompt

I stopped trying to “sound like a basketball dad.”

I stopped pretending I knew more than I did.

Instead, I leaned into something I do understand — structure.

Clarity comes from better questions.

So instead of asking, “How did he do?”, I gave Gemini a role:

A Lead Video Coordinator.

Here is the exact prompt I used:

🎯 The Film Study Prompt

Role: You are a Lead Video Coordinator for a high-level basketball program. Your goal is to provide a comprehensive “Player Impact Report” for a specific player across the entire duration of this game footage.

Player Identification:

Name: Aadi

Jersey Number: #20

Team Color: Orange with black undershirt and black leg sleeves

Physical Profile: 6’1”, heavy set (8th grade / 14 years old)

Objective: Scan the entire video and provide a breakdown of #20’s performance. Focus on the following key areas:

Statistical Impact & Timestamps

Offensive Highlights

Defensive Highlights

Turnovers/Misses

Off-Ball Movement & Work Rate

Spacing

Screening

Transition

Defensive IQ & Communication

Help Defense

Rebounding Positioning

Ball Screen Defense

Physicality & Stamina

Endurance

Contact Balance

Final Summary: Provide a Coach’s Grade (A-F) for Effort, Execution, and Basketball IQ, followed by three specific things he should work on in his next practice.

Why so detailed?

Because vague feedback creates vague improvement.

If I wanted him to keep his aggressiveness and add intelligence, we needed specifics.

Not:
“Play smarter.”

But:
“You’re upright against equal size.”
“You’re late recognizing weak-side help.”
“Add a face-up counter.”

I uploaded the full game length video to gemini for analysis. You can see his highlight reel here. It was a low scoring game, his team won 38-34 Aadi scored 10 points and grabbed 8 rebounds. He is number 20 in Orange jersey team with black undershirt and black leg sleeves.

The Scouting Report

What came back looked like something from a real program.

📝 Scouting Report: Aadhtiyan “Aadi” Malaikannan

Profile: 6’1”, heavy set | Class of 2030 (8th Grade)
Position: Power Forward / Point-Forward

Executive Summary:
Aadi is a physically dominant interior presence who excels at the “dirty work” required to win games. His 10-point scoring effort and late-game conditioning mark him as a reliable anchor.

Technical Evaluation

1. Interior Scoring

Elite strength at the rim
Polished drop-step (27:52)
Soft touch on putbacks (07:55, 26:07)

2. Physicality & Screening

Makes solid screen contact
Holds deep seals

3. Defensive Impact

Strong verticality
Secures inside rebounding position

4. IQ & Motor

Out-sprints opposing bigs (07:23, 26:51)
Rarely lost defensively

Development Goals

Add 15-foot face-up jumper
Become defensive vocal leader
Improve lateral quickness

When I read it, I had mixed emotions.

Part of me smiled — not because of the praise — but because it described him clearly.

Another part of me focused only on the development goals.

That’s the setter in me.

He Verified Every Timestamp

When we sat down together, he didn’t blindly accept it.

He verified every timestamp.

We scrubbed through the footage.

27:52 — Drop step? Check.
07:55 — Soft putback? Check.
26:51 — Transition finish? Check.

I smiled.

Because I always tell him:

“AI can make stuff up. It’s up to you to verify.”

Verification builds thinking. And thinking builds ownership.

The Quiet Shift in Sports Analysis

I love good sports analysis — particularly in cricket. I enjoy watching Ashwin (maybe I’m biased since he’s an SSN alum) and PDoggs break down the game.

So what does a sports analyst or video coordinator actually do?

Break down film
Tag possessions
Identify patterns
Highlight strengths and weaknesses
Provide structured development goals
Translate raw footage into actionable insight

That’s exactly what Gemini helped me approximate.

It didn’t replace:

The coach’s authority
Game context
Human judgment
Emotional intelligence

But it accelerated the analytical layer.

It democratized film study.

Years ago, only elite programs had video coordinators producing structured scouting reports.

Now a sports dad with an iPhone and curiosity can approximate that workflow.

That’s not replacement.
That’s augmentation.

Wrapping Up

I’ve been using Gemini to analyze Aadi’s games since December. When I later came across Matt Shumer’s viral article about how AI is transforming analytical work, I paused.

Not because he had new insight.

But because I had already lived a small version of it in my living room.

AI isn’t replacing expertise.

It’s making structured analysis more accessible.

I’m still not a basketball expert.

But I ask better questions.

And maybe that’s the real shift happening.And AI sitting quietly in the film room — helping both of us think a little deeper.

Models are evolving at a rapid pace. This kind of analysis was not possible 6 months back or were not accurate enough to be useful

Gratitude

None of this happens without coaches who volunteer their time, energy, and weekends.

A huge thank you to David Murphy and Steve Seo for coaching and mentoring Aadi and the entire CYO CCOP team.

Youth sports at this level runs on people who care — who show up early, stay late, teach fundamentals, correct habits, and build confidence. The structure, discipline, and opportunities they provide are the real foundation.

AI can help us analyze.

But coaches build the culture.

Thank you for investing in these kids.

Malaikannan The Deep Learning way of life