Can AI Coach Basketball? | Danario Edgar of XrossOver Sports

What we talked about.

Sunny Ray sits down with Danario Edgar of XrossOver Sports to ask whether AI can coach basketball. Edgar traces his journey to a childhood spent on the bench, where he wondered why he was not in the game, and explains how his electrical engineering background taught him to backtrack and diagnose problems the way one traces a circuit. He describes the XrossOver vest, a wearable training tool that guides an athlete's arms through dribbling, shooting, and ambidextrous work, paired with an app that gives spoken feedback and keeps players accountable. Edgar says he built the system because one coach cannot be everywhere, and he wants it to reach kids who cannot get regular one-on-one training. He also draws a line on AI's limits, saying it cannot see a player's confidence or a bad day. Along the way he shares how his son and 11 teammates became his first proof, how he measures progress, and how listeners can try the app and a 14 day money back offer.

A vest, an app, and an engineer's mindset: Danario Edgar on training basketball players at scale and where AI falls short.

The questions, and the answers.

How did electrical engineering change the way you diagnose a basketball training problem?

Sitting on the bench, I was analyzing why I wasn't in the game. In electrical engineering you have to understand where a circuit cuts off, so you go through things and backtrack to see why something isn't working. That is how I learned to analyze situations, and I apply the same mindset to basketball.

What can the XrossOver vest teach through movement that a verbal coaching cue can't?

A coach or parent wants what comes out of their mouth to show up on the kid, and that takes time and repetition after repetition. My vest puppet masters an athlete so their hand is in the right place at the right time. It brings confidence quicker and teaches faster than verbal commands do.

How did the first players outside your own training sessions discover XrossOver?

Nobody copies losers, so you have to win at something. My first player was my son, but he can't be on a team by himself, so I had to make 11 other players great with him. Parents noticed and became my mouthpiece. We have won in the city, out of the city, in Vegas, and with kids in China.

When did you realize you couldn't reach more players just by putting in more hours on the court?

I'm only one person, and I was going to China, Ethiopia, Africa, Houston, Detroit. People wanted me everywhere at one time and I couldn't be. So I came up with the vest, which is one to many, and put a system in with the app that verbally gives you the right commands at the right time.

What's the hardest basketball mistake for AI to interpret?

AI is the mind of whoever programmed it, and it won't tell you the why. It can't see a kid's confidence, and it can't see that an athlete had a bad day. We don't all learn at the same time. Figuring out why a player isn't where they need to be takes more than the data.

How do you test whether a better score in the app becomes better play in a real game?

I measure it by seeing that today you were better than yesterday. Many athletes go in without a plan and get bored. If a kid can't make a left-hand layup in January and still can't in June, they're in the wrong learning facility. My players, even the youngest, can go left and right.

Can you describe the vest and what happens during a drill?

It comes in two pieces and covers dribbling, shooting, and becoming ambidextrous. Bands hook to your arms from the back to guide front dribbling, and D-rings in the front guide dribbling behind the back. It keeps your elbow in when shooting, and I added weight you can adjust from zero to 20 pounds.

What should a player or coach try first to judge whether XrossOver belongs in their training routine?

Download the app for free at xovertrainer.com, in the iOS store or Google Play, try it, then get a vest. If you don't get better within 14 days, we give you your money back. I can't stay in a gym and watch a kid do something wrong time after time without correcting it.