No Idea Where to Start with AI?

If you're new here, let me introduce myself. And if you're not new here, why haven't you sent this to your friends who need to know more about youth sports yet?

I'm Doug Freeman. I grew up in Lakeland, Florida. Played junior college ball, then D2, then independent professional baseball. Coached at the junior college level. Started Prep Baseball Florida, then started Groupbook to service hotels and tech partners in group travel. Sold both.

So I've had quite a ride. In my Free Time, I share my insights on youth sports, what you should actually expect, plus business, AI, acquisitions, some culture, and really whatever I think is important or relevant. I'll have some initiatives I want to push, but mostly I want to talk about what's important today, in an ever-changing landscape, from my perspective.

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I get asked about AI more than anything else right now. Usually by a parent who feels behind and does not know where to start.

So let me tell you where I started. Everywhere, all at once, mostly wrong.

I have spent the last couple of years testing everything. Muse, Grok, Manus, Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude. More tools and more experiments than I could possibly write about. Most of it did not work. A lot of it was not even a real product when I was done with it. If you are looking for the guy who picked the one perfect tool, that is not me.

But something happened while I was wasting time on all of it. I got comfortable. And comfortable compounds.

Today I run my life with what is basically an external brain. My tasks, my schedule, my research, my diet, negotiations, follow ups I would have dropped. It is not that any one tool made me smarter. It is that the reps made me faster at everything, and faster at everything makes me better at the actual jobs: worker, husband, father, entrepreneur. Small gains, stacked daily, for two years. It sneaks up on you.

Now here is the question I actually get from sports parents. The information is undeniable. You can learn anything now. But how the hell do you use that in youth sports?

You do not start by becoming a baseball expert. You do not need AI to break down your kid's swing, and honestly you should be careful with anybody selling you that.

Start with the unsexy stuff. Nutrition you can actually understand and afford. A workout plan that fits a school week instead of fighting it. The schedule, the travel, the costs, planned before they ambush you. Complicated ideas made simple, in the order your family needs them. That is where this stuff pays for a parent. Not expertise. Organization.

And one last thing, because it is the part people miss. Today is the worst this technology will ever be. It only gets better from here, and the gap between the families using it and the families ignoring it only gets wider. You do not have to go all in. You just have to start.

Start small. Stay curious. Let it compound.

Surveys put the average youth sports time commitment at about eight hours a week per family. And in another, 84% of parents named scheduling and logistics as a household challenge, ahead of almost everything except cost. Read those two numbers together and the youth sports burnout story changes. Families are not burning out on games. They are burning out on group chats, schedule changes, payment links and driving math. That is a logistics problem wearing a sports costume, and logistics problems are exactly what software eats. The programs that figure this out first will keep families longer than the programs with the nicest uniforms.

AI film analysis is now the default, not the novelty. The software finds the plays for you and writes the summary. Coaches who still scrub three hours of tape by hand are doing it the slow way on purpose.

The six app era is ending. Registration, payments, schedules and video used to be five logins. The platforms are collapsing into one system, and the ones that do not will feel old fast.

The money agrees. Private equity's share of youth sports deals jumped from 27% to 37% in a year, and one sports software company just raised at a $1.3 billion valuation. Wall Street is not betting on bats and balls. It is betting on the software around them.

And the counterweight, so we keep this straight: 98% of parents say sports gave their kid friends, 97% say hard work and commitment, 96% say less screen time. No app makes that list. The game does.

I have engulfed myself in AI as I have perpetual FOMO on new tech and ideas. With that I have only dove myself deeper into the void with the endless possibilities and ideas. With Muse, grok bots, Cue, et as personal AI it felt like a real leap forward. I use Muse now, and with a few pictures and instructions it is actively tracking my diet and workouts and easily tracks calories with pictures. Fun stuff I am down about 8 pound in 5 weeks. Simultaneously, it is negotiating with contractors and helping me brainstorm all of my ideas into meaningful actions.

Though I do like to still think I am in control and providing the critical thinking and questions, but who really knows.

- Doug

P.S. Know a parent buried in the logistics of this life? Forward this to them. That is how Free Time grows.

Own a sports company, or any company, really? I've exited two of my own, and I'm actively helping owners raise money privately or sell. If that's a conversation you want to have, book a call.

Parent in the middle of the youth sports ride who wants one-on-one guidance? Book here.