Built by a Parent Coach.
For Parent Coaches.

The Story

My name is Alistair Perry. I hold a Bachelor of Science degree and competed as a professional athlete earlier in my life. But basketball was never my sport — until my daughter made it mine.

When she was six, she watched her older cousin play a game and fell in love. She begged us to let her play. Within a year it was obvious she had something special — not just talent, but an unusual willingness to work. She wanted to get better, every single day.

Thrown in the Deep End

In her second year, there were no coaches available for her team. So I put my hand up. I had no basketball coaching experience. I had no idea what I was doing. I fumbled through that first season on instinct and good intentions.

But I knew from my own sporting background that there had to be a better way. So I started learning. I attended coaching clinics. I purchased courses from experienced coaches. I read peer-reviewed research on motor learning, skill acquisition, and biomechanics. I watched hundreds of hours of coaching content from the best in the world. Slowly, I got better. My teams got better.

The COVID Setback

Then COVID hit. For two years, competitive basketball disappeared. For a young player who thrived on competition, it was devastating. But my daughter did something remarkable — she spent those two years working relentlessly on her shooting. Every day, rain or shine, she was in the driveway putting up shots. When competition returned, she came back a different player. The work had paid off.

Overcoming the Odds

My daughter faced another challenge that many young athletes deal with but few parents understand: the Relative Age Effect. Born in October and small for her age, she was consistently younger and physically smaller than her peers in the same age group. Research shows that later-born players are systematically overlooked in talent selection — coaches unconsciously favour bigger, more physically mature athletes.

This led to some painful selection disappointments along the way. Being overlooked when you know you can play is hard for any young athlete. But in the end, those setbacks built resilience and a work ethic that talent alone can't provide. She responded to every disappointment by working harder, and her performances eventually spoke louder than her birth date.

The Result

Today, my daughter holds a full-ride athletic scholarship at a Division I university in the United States. Last year, she was invited to the NBA Basketball Without Borders international camp — a recognition reserved for the top young players globally. Her journey from a six-year-old who fell in love with the game to an international-level athlete took years of hard work, the right coaching at the right time, resilience through setbacks, and a willingness to invest in development.

Along the way, she had team coaches and personal coaches of wildly varying quality. Some were exceptional. Some were a waste of time and money. I include myself in this spectrum — my early coaching was poor, but I improved significantly as I gained experience, studied the science, and learned from better coaches than me.

Why I Built HoopsAI

I spent a lot of money on basketball development over the years. Private coaching sessions, shooting programs, skills camps, online courses. Not all of it was worth the investment. And I had the advantage of knowing how to evaluate what was working — most parent coaches don't.

HoopsAI is the tool I wish I had when I started. It takes everything I learned over a decade of coaching — the science, the methodology, the hard-won experience — and makes it accessible to every coach, at a price that doesn't break the bank.

What Makes Us Different

Every practice plan generated by HoopsAI is built on the Constraints-Led Approach and ecological dynamics — the same methodology used by professional development programs worldwide. Our shooting program is informed by peer-reviewed research on biomechanics, motor learning, and skill acquisition. And our AI doesn't just generate generic drills — it learns from your feedback to deliver better sessions every time.

We combine the latest technology with real coaching experience and rigorous scientific research to provide the highest quality coaching tools to everyone, at a price that makes sense.