Tuesday, May 31, 2022

What's the Lesson? Five Decades and Ten Lessons of Pain and Gain

"When you teach other people, you teach yourself." - Itzhak Perlman

From the firehose of experience, life shares lessons. Recall the scene from August Rush where he assembles his music from city sounds. 

Ask "are we building a program or a statue?" Confidence fosters success. But ego interferes with good decisions. Learn from others' mistakes and successes.

Stories of success and failure endure. 

1. "We will not lose to them again." We lost at home to the twice defending state champions by two. Coach Lane was livid. "The only reason they won was because it said LEXINGTON on their jerseys. You're better than they are but you don't believe it." Their press made the difference. So, every practice we practiced 5 on 7, no dribble, until presses were gifts. In the rematch we crushed them 70-52 and beat them in the sectional championship in Boston Garden in overtime. Coach was right. 

2. "It's the scoreboard, not the scorebook." Up eight, 55 seconds left with the ball and a full shot clock. The local girls should have an easy victory. Five seconds later a player hoists a trey, misses, and the opponents have a chance. Play to win not fatten your stats. Plus, if a college coach WERE watching, she'd cancel you then and there. 

3. "Make the right play." Up 1 with the ball and 31 seconds to go in a critical postseason game with two elite free throw shooters on the floor. The opponent should foul, but they don't have to because our player shoots an elbow jumper with 12 seconds left. The opponents score and win. Basketball is eighty percent mental. 

4. "It's not over." We trailed by eight with 1:59 left, no threes, no shot clock. We steal and score multiple times and ice the game with a pair of free throws late to win by three. It said, WAKEFIELD on our jerseys.  

5. "Time waits for no man." Melrose, with a full complement of timeouts, led by ten with a future WNBA player waiting to enter the game at the table. The lead evaporated in ninety seconds without a timeout expended in a two-point loss. 

6. "Don't get hurt needlessly." Health is fragile. The game was out of reach as our team led by fifteen with seconds remaining. With a few seconds remaining, a player dove and clipped an opponent, taking out her knee. Be a basketball player not a bull in a China shop. Use common sense. 

7. "Be fierce." Melrose led Burlington by 25 with four minutes left, despite Burlington having "taken out" two of our starters with violent play during the game. Melrose cleared the bench; Burlington outscored them 18-0 down the stretch. Burlington parents mouthed off, "we're every bit as good as you." The girls were furious. They begged the coach not to hold back in the rematch, especially with Shey Peddy going for her 1000th point. The coach took a timeout with the team leading 42-12 after ten minutes. "You made your point." Shey scored over twenty in the first half. 

8. "Be hard to play." I chatted with a Wakefield coach before the game. "Melrose is always hard to play, as they have talent and five girls running." Movement kills defenses


Urgent cutting earns an easy two. 

9. "You can't escape politics; keep playing hard." The politician's son got cut and his father was determined to exact a pound of flesh. In a town that had sent the football team to Bermuda for winning a state championship two years earlier, winning was suddenly secondary. Behind the scenes, the politician sought the coach's removal. He tracked minutes and arranged a kangaroo court about team tryouts and playing time across sports. But the team kept winning, thirteen in a row. The coach survived and eventually went into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame. 

10."Respect the game." We trailed the playoff game by fifteen with three minutes left. I pulled the starters, figuratively waving the white flag. The Salem coach left his in AND stayed in full court pressure to try to run it up. 


Lagniappe. Coach Castellaw shares individual shooting drills.
 

As a kid, I'd face the basket (in the paint), toss the ball back over my head, find and catch off the bounce, turn and shoot quickly. 

Monday, May 30, 2022

Be a Sheepdog (Basketball, Coaching, and Life Lessons)

Fergus Connolly shares insight into sport and human nature. His Game Changer and 59 Lessons inspire. From Game Changer:

"When establishing a culture, everything matters.  When it is established, minor things take care of themselves.

  • “If a few players disrespect assistant coaches, cut corners during team training, and cheat on rep counts in the weight room, these aren’t merely isolated discipline problems but also indicators that the players are not fully committed to the team and its principles.  Eventually, these same players will let you down during a crucial game.”
  • “The single greatest benefit is that in teams with strong cultures, minor things are self-managed by the culture and environment, so coaches need speak only when it’s important.”
  • "Trusting the process is always secondary to getting the win."

In his TED Talk, he explains there are three kinds of people - sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs. 

Sheep are those whom we care about. Wolves are those who would hurt them and us. And sheepdogs are those dedicated to protecting sheep.

Everyone breaks sometimes, even coaches. 

- Don't hesitate to ask or to call. "Give and take."

- As Mr. Rogers said, "Look for the helpers." 

- Remember to ask, "what does our team need now?"

Help players become their best version.

  • Take care of business. That includes family and academics. 
  • Inspire players to earn more minutes, bigger role, and recognition. "This is whom you can become." That is how to do it. 
  • Magnify your strengths. 
  • Shoot better...practice your shots.
  • "Quality of the experience" (more important than quantity)
  • Play... competitively.
  • There is something to learn from every coach (what can people learn from us?)
  • There is a continuum among medical, strength and conditioning, and rehab (about performance, best is seldom perfect)
  • Study the game. Ask your coach for suggestions. 
  • "Don't play for me. Play for each other." 
Lagniappe (something extra). 

Lagniappe. Horns into Elbow Get

 

Sunday, May 29, 2022

Sport and Medicine: How Basketball Offense and Kidney Disease Are Alike

Analogies are everywhere. When one organ works poorly, it impacts others. When one player struggles, it impacts the whole team. 

Kidneys regulate 'hydration', metabolic balance, and produce a hormone, erythropoietin, that stimulates red blood cell production. If we are 'dehydrated' they absorb more fluid to try to correct this. 

Kidney 'failure' classifies in three ways: 

Prerenal (inadequate blood flow such as dehydration, low blood pressure or blood loss)

Intrarenal (instrinsic kidney diseases, toxins/poisons, infection, etc.)

Postrenal (obstruction - prostate, stone disease, tumors blocking urine flow)

Basketball shares similar offensive dysfunctions. This allows us to analyze the phases where offenses struggle or fail. Examine where our offense is breaking down in possessions.

Pre-shot (spacing, player and ball circulation, passing, selfishness, turnovers)

Shooter related (shot selection - range/openness/balance, shooter skill, consistency/rushing)

Post-shot -  offensive rebounding

Implications: 

  • "Spacing is offense and offense is spacing." 
  • A game of passing and cutting...
  • The quickest path to better shooting is better shot selection. 
  • There is no substitute for skill growth.
  • Second and third shots are higher points/possession generators.

Lagniappe (something extra). "The main thing is the main thing." What is your main thing? As a developmental (middle school) coach, I focused on player development, which covers a lot of ground. Make every day about player development. 


Side-step three is a vital skill in today's game. 


Lagniappe 2. Need better athletes? Basketball Manitoba shares ideas to improve footwork, balance, and maneuvering speed. 









Saturday, May 28, 2022

The Skunk Works Applied

A SkunkWorks project (also known as Skunk Works) is an innovative undertaking, involving a small group of people, that is outside the normal research and development channels within an organization. Skunk Works is the name given to a secret R&D team at Lockheed Aircraft Corp.

Synthesis

Technical, Tactical, Physical, Psychological 

Milan Lab - Vitor Frade


(From TechTarget.com)

There is always room for improvement. Work back from results to refine and design training. If asked to critique how to strengthen a program, these might help:

1) Retain local talent which is leaving for private schools. Few communities have enough depth to withstand elite talent losses. Share PSAs from alumnae who thrive professionally and personally. 

- Oyin Aderibigbe is a Dermatologist in Chicago

- Sheylani Peddy plays in the WNBA and is a WNBA Champion

- Hannah Brickley is a Nurse in San Francisco

- Karen Maloney is a Director at Wayfair

2) Obsess the product. "Make it. Sell it. Build brand awareness." If you have the goods, use the Sara Blakely model to grow an organization. Keep developing the product - offense, defense, conversion. 

3) Defeat pressure. Full court 5 versus 7 press break with no dribbling (adding constraints helps training). 3 on 4 also useful... 

4) Champion the Four Factors - differential shooting percentage, turnovers, rebounding, and free throws. Mediocre free three shooting costs teams victories and championships. Better decision-making improves all of the above. 

Be a copycat of hard to defend actions (DHO slip)

5) Defend better. 

  • Defense starts with ball containment the first day of youth practice you learn "ball-you-basket." On ball defenders have to stay in front of the ball. 
  • Continues with contested shots without fouling
  • Ends with a rebound 

6) Prosecute early offense. 

  • Get the second pass over half court in transition. 
  • Fill both corners. 
  • Have a rim runner. 
  • Use drag screens selectively. 
  • Consider organized attacks like Pistol Action

7) Train a variety of finishes. "Layups and free throws win games." Here's the link to better free throw shooting

8) Don't give games away. Fall in love with easy. Turnovers kill dreams. Live ball turnovers are especially damaging, crushing teams at both ends. During scrimmages, automatically sub out on a turnover. To stay on the floor, take care of the ball.

Summary:

  • Create Public Service Announcements (PSA)
  • Obsess the product. 
  • Apply the four factors via decision-making.
  • Contain the ball. 
  • Fall in love with easy. Value the ball. 

Lagniappe (something extra). Offense, defense, pressure, competition. 



Friday, May 27, 2022

Coaching Is Problem Solving

The former CEO left three numbered envelopes behind. A month later, problems arise. The new chief opens the first. It reads, "Blame your predecessor." He announces, "we need change because previous leadership left us in bad shape." Things pick up, but issues ensue months later. He opens the second, "Reorganize." He gathers staff, "we're realigning operations and responsibilities." The company improves. But again, there's backsliding in attitudes and performance. He opens the third envelope, "prepare three envelopes." 

Authentic leaders solve problems. Wannabes find and create them. Traffic in specifics that impact winning. 

Promote core values (for home, business, sport). Ours:

  • Teamwork - what does teamwork mean to you?
  • Improvement - track points/possession, shot charts, turnovers
  • Accountability - hold ourselves to high standards (including academics), win quarters
Process overview. "Every day is player development day" for four keys:
  • Technique (skill)
  • Tactics (strategy)
  • Physiology (athleticism)
  • Psychology (attitude, resilience)
Incorporate our philosophies, drill book, and playbook. For example, work on three-level scoring (prioritize shooting), basketball moves (e.g. post, box drills, wing series), and finishing around the basket (either hand, off either or both feet, from either side).

Tactics... have some "Bests" BOB, SLOB, Man, Zone actions 


BOB vs man - complex for my level players


SLOBs... Fake handoff, pivot, drive. with hammer option. Fake handoff with hammer option.


Versus Man Defense... post to wing ball screen PnR +/- slip. 


Zone offense. Staggered ball screen into screen attacking the middle of the zone.

Inventory strengths and weaknesses.
  • Where do our points arise? Transition, sets, special situations, second chance?
  • What is our early offense? (This is problematic for a lot of teams. Drag screen, pistol, etc.)
  • Do our turnovers come from decisions or execution?
  • What are our defensive and offensive rebounding percentages?
  • Analyze fouling. Are we "fouling for profit?"
This could include analysis using "Four Factors" as applied to our team.

MUST/NEED/WANT assessment
  • This helps prioritize training 
  • It emphasizes specifics
  • Reduce to cone down on most important

Intangibles count

Players can't read minds. Write them down. Explain. Repeat. And repeat. 

We shared Jay Bilas' Toughness criteria and distributed Coach Wooden's Pyramid of Success. 
  • Commitment. Are players participating in offseason opportunities?
  • Toughness. Win 50-50 battles, be first to the floor, take charges. 
  • Attitude. We had only one award, voted by players, "Best Teammate." One player who won starts at U of Illinois on scholarship this summer.
Summary:
  • Promote core values.
  • Process.
  • Inventory strengths and weaknesses
  • MUST/NEED/WANT
  • Intangibles count.
Lagniappe. Individual workout drills. 









Thursday, May 26, 2022

Opponents and Teammates Are Our Teachers

The game shares lessons, sometimes painful. One team's heroics are another's heartbreak. 

Learn lessons from teammates and opponents, players and coaches. 

Prepare. Become 'professional' at a young age. Cecilia always arrived early, was meticulous in 'gearing up', stretching, and warming up. Alan Stein spoke of seeing a young player, headphones on, going through a shooting routine thirty minutes before the camp day started. His name? Steph Curry. 

Be consistent. "Don't cheat the drill." Excellent players bring relentlessness to practice. They walk the walk with focus and intensity. 

"Say 'yes'." When given opportunities, say 'yes'. Extra shooting practice? "Yes." Offseason workouts in the heat? Bring yourself and ice water. Asked to participate in a podcast? "Of course, I'd love to." Have a library, drill book, playbook, and teaching file of videos and articles.

"What teammates make others better? How?" Energy, teamwork, and playing hard are skills. "Basketball is a sprinting game." Some guys set naturally tough screens. The defensive guard who patrols the foul line on defense picks up a couple extra rebounds a game. 

"One on one." Build skills practicing against and playing equal and better competition. Discover what works and what doesn't against teammates. Then do more of what works and leave those other clubs in the bag. 

"Thirst for improvement." I had a conversation with my coach, Sonny Lane. He explained how a freshman player asked how he could improve. "Play, a lot." The player listened, became a league All-Star and outplayed a Celtics' future draft choice in Boston Garden. Next, in the sectional championship game, he went 6 for 6 in the fourth quarter at the stripe to send the game into overtime. 

"Get tougher." As an assistant, I saw our team get outplayed, dominated in the hunt for loose balls and rebounds. I told them, "you have to stand up for yourselves against everybody. It is never acceptable to quit on your teammates." Playing with force is underrated

"Get better." In the continuum of technique, tactics, physiology, and psychology, technique (skill) has no substitute. Players must put in the time. There's no shortcut.

"Don't back down." The opponent's guards frustrated us at every turn. They were in our guards' pockets both on and off the ball. Be a copycat

"Pace and space." The New Hampshire state champions (Winnacunnet) faced our powerhouse high school girls in a holiday tournament game. Elite spacing and transition, regularly applied, ran us out of the gym. The running game is no accident.

Master sets. When they needed a hoop, the Pentucket girls pulled another rabbit out of a hat...an Iverson action, horns, and a winning BOB. Have Aces in the Hole

"Find escape velocity." Excellent teams handle pressure both full and half court. Set up advantage-disadvantage 5 versus 7 and 4 versus 5. Vary workouts but stick to your core values and concepts. 


Lagniappe. Shoot, shoot, shoot. 

Wednesday, May 25, 2022

Twelve Questions from Stoics Help Us Understand Basketball (Plus Extras)

Ryan Holiday shares Stoic questions. They deserve our attention, especially as Stoicism has a foothold in professional sports. Stuff trickles down. 

Who are you spending time with? "You become like your friends." Balance time for family. Whom do we read and listen to? We will never meet Abraham Lincoln but learn from his passion for education...and winning (see Team of Rivals). 

Is this in my control? Focus on controllables. Decide what to study and its impact on our process. Mastery follows fundamentals. 

Defense:

  • No easy baskets.

  • Pressure the ball. Attack, create chaos and discomfort.

  • Deny penetration, deny the lane.

  • Good defenses communicate. "Silent teams lose." 

  • One bad shot. Rebounding finishes the defensive stop.

What does your ideal day look like? Knowing our ideal day, work to reproduce it within the context of our time and responsibilities. 

Mine includes watching video. 

To be or to doFind our motivation." Are we building a program or a statue?" Colonel John Boyd (OODA Loops) advocated for doing over being. 

If I am not for me, who is? If I am only for me, who am I? Return to Phil Jackson's, "Basketball is sharing." Care about the person first and stay engaged to help change lives through collaboration and networking. Remind players and families that we enthusiastically write recommendations. 


Help program graduates go places professionally. Help them find canvases to paint.

What am I missing by choosing to worry or be afraid? Chase success not loss avoidance. Fear dampens our experience and diminishes our relationships. 

Are you doing your job? To do our job, we have to know it. 

  • Teach. 
  • Get everyone on the same page. 
  • Check. 
  • Analyze results and revise.
  • Revisit step 1. 

What is the most important thing? "Always do your best." Our best leaves no regrets. Review success and failure; reinforce the former and edit the latter. Our best will vary. 

Excellence exacts a high price. Are we willing to pay it? "Leaders make leaders."

Who is this for? Who is our audience? I write for anyone who loves basketball and loves learning, relating both to other domains.

Does this actually matter? Each of us has a 'this'. Basketball needn't be the most important thing in your life. But it should be while on the court. 

Will this be alive time or dead time? Investing or spending our time? Be present and live in the moment. 

Is this who I want to be? Represent our values. At home, at work, on the court, we shape culture. Urban Meyer at Ohio State defined 'crossing the red line' (onto the field) as where excellence had to happen. We all need our red line. 

Lagniappe (something extra). "Leaders can let you fail and not be a failure." 

Lagniappe 2. It's harder to contain our emotions than to go off on officials, coaches, and others. Mental toughness is a skill. 

Lagniappe 3. Expanding range may relate to 'sequencing' 



Tuesday, May 24, 2022

Coach John Kavanagh, Practice to Impact Winning not Only to Practice

Learn from coaches in different sports. Fergus Connolly introduces us to coach John Kavanagh in his book, 59 Lessons. Kavanagh is an Irish pioneer in Mixed Martial Arts and coached Conor McGregor. 

What are the transferrable takeaways from Kavanagh/Connolly?


  • Find and exploit edges. 
  • Practice must impact winning. 
  • Time is our most precious and finite resource.
Practical applications: 
  1. Edges include size, speed, or skill (e.g. create mismatches)
  2. Situational practice (BOB, SLOB, ATO) informs edges

  • Listen to what players share.
  • Improvement is part of our job.
Practical application:
  1. Ask players what they feel more or less comfortable playing 
  2. Have a personal improvement plan (reading, writing, MasterClass, film study) 
  • Kavanagh, like UNC Coach Anson Dorrance, creates a 'competitive cauldron'
  • Habits and "automatic play" free up "working memory" which is limited. 

Practical applications:  

  1. Make drills competitive ("competitive standard") 
  2. Repetitions automate (developmental actions like box drills, wing series)
  3. Play up (versus better competition, e.g. UCONN women vs men) 

Summary: 

  • Find and exploit edges (e.g. mismatches, team strengths)
  • Make more drills competitive, the "competitive cauldron"
  • Practice must impact winning
  • Listen to players
  • Have a personal improvement plan

Lagniappe. Coach Hanlen with defensive microskills. 

A few of mine:

  • Get statistics on your side (don't gamble excessively and put your teammates at a disadvantage)
  • Limit fouls (show your hands)
  • You don't have to block shots to disrupt them
  • Defense doesn't mean passivity (attack mentality)
  • Take charges via legal guarding position and anticipation


Monday, May 23, 2022

Basketball "Mise en Place" - Preparation Is Critical

Learn across disciplines.  Cooking and coaching overlap. Above is my 'mise en place' setup to make naan...having laid out the cookware, ingredients, and recipe

From Wikipedia (mise en place) - "French culinary phrase which means "putting in place" or "gather". It refers to the setup required before cooking, and is often used in professional kitchens to refer to organizing and arranging the ingredients that a cook will require for the menu items."

The obvious analogy is preparation for practice and/or play. Coaches have video, equipment, drill books, playbooks, practice plans, and other cheat sheets. 


Here's a "shortcut" that I chose some drills from. I haven't edited this for a few years but I found it invaluable. Certain "ingredients" were regulars -

Warmups
  • Lithuania (speed layups
  • Bradleys (high release, close-in shots off a hop)
  • Form shooting
Offense
  • 5 v 7 advantage-disadvantage (full court press breaking)
  • 30 buckets (timed drill for shooters to score at least 30 hoops)
  • Box drills with defense
Defense
  • Shell drill
Combinations
  • ODO (offense-defense-offense situational basketball)
  • 3 on 3 both ends (coach each end)
They served as "core" activities that built skill, pressure management, and team offense and defense

How to improve? 
  • Organization is essential. 
  • Player development is underrated. But the player has to want it. 


  • Coaches know that there is underteaching and overcoaching. 
  • Video (the truth machine) is invaluable.
  • Focus on reducing turnovers, poor shot selection, and missed assignments leading to transition baskets, layups, and free throws. 
  • Make every action in practice impact the score in games (editing). 
What "not in place" factors guarantee failure (inversion)? 
  • Lack of investment in individual skill development (detail)
  • Inability to contain the ball (keep the ball in front of you)
  • Bad decision-making (turnovers, shot selection, selfishness)
  • Poor free throw shooting
  • Undisciplined fouling 
Lagniappe. On ball defense is where it starts. 


Lagniappe 2. Create advantage by targeting weaker defenders. 
Lagniappe 3. Lessons from Chef Thomas Keller that made the man:
  • Organization
  • Efficiency (get the most from our time)
  • Critical feedback (the one unhappy guest helps performance)
  • Repetition (Wooden's EDIR5 explanation, demo, imitation, repetition x 5)
  • Ritual (specific things happen at specific times)
  • Teamwork 












Sunday, May 22, 2022

Basketball: Box Sets (Mixed Feelings) and Possession Enders

How many points do you look to score off sets? I don't know the right answer. Geno Auriemma's UCONN Huskies look for a third of their points from sets. Let's examine a few box sets. 

Stuff doesn't have to be complex to work. 


Clear one block and bring the other around, analogous to LOOP action looking to get a layup. 


This box set begins with a similar clearing action followed by a basket cut, again looking for a layup. Confuse the defense which expects the backscreen. 


If not crazy about the box spacing (I'm not), then use it to set up a horns analog with a ram screen if you have strong pick-and-roll players. 


Multiple actions with cross screens and a back screen has a strong chance of getting a mismatch on a switch. 

Of course, we most commonly see box sets out of SLOBs and BOBs. 


This SLOB could be run as a half court set or ATO. After a slight delay, it creates options for the 5, a three point shot, or a drive for 1. 


The Spurs have something similar in their toolbox. 


SUNY Geneseo ran this STS (screen-the-screener) action against Tufts in the D3 tournament a few years ago to get an open three. 

Box sets have a double-edged sword of spacing issues but can cause defenders to get caught in traffic. 

Lagniappe (something extra). Imagine the possibilities. 


Lagniappe 2. Spoelstra observations, "It's more about the approach, the professionalism, the work ethic and then having the grit and perseverance and mental stability to do that consistently during a long NBA season."

Lagniappe 3. Maybe we don't discuss "possession enders" enough, guys that can end possessions with a score or stop. The analysis for the Celtics last night isn't overly complex... their "possession enders" were a disheartening 23-8 turnover imbalance. It's the Roddy McDowell five second clip (below)... 






Saturday, May 21, 2022

Free Throw Training and Tips to Boost Performance

Even great players need a mulligan. Teams win and lose championships based on free throw shooting. It works for and against us. Have a "matrix" of techniques. 

I was never an elite free throw shooter like James Pauley and other readers. I did make a hundred consecutive twice with my best 144. I won the Sam Jones camp free throw shooting contest by strategy. Go first and make ten. Too much pressure for other kids to do that, plus it shortens the competition for a lot of "one and done" competition. My protege Cecilia finished second twice in the Massachusetts Elks Hoop Shoot. 

 


1. "21" you know the game. One point for a free throw and two for a score off your opponent's miss. Game to 21. 

2. "Swish" or miss. Only count swishes among each ten shots. 

3. Track 100. This isn't the best because nobody takes a hundred consecutive in a game.

4. Plus 4, minus 4. Play as group or individual where each round starts with zero and scores one for a make and minus two for a miss. The team "wins" by getting to 4 and loses at minus 4. 

5. "Haywood" challenges the shooter to make fifteen consecutive to earn a scholarship as Spencer Haywood did at Detroit. 

6. Personal Best. Challenge yourself to equal or defeat your personal best. Keep raising the bar when tracking free throws. 

7. "Family." My identical twin daughters and I would alternate to see how many consecutive we could make as a family alternating one shot at a time. The record was thirty-three.  

8. "Confirm victory." Require a scrimmage, drill, or small-sided game winner to "confirm" victory with a made free throw. 

9. 4 x 10s. During practice, have each pair take four sets of ten free throws. Track and award a daily winner. 

10. Take 3, Run 1. Make three free throws and run either to the baseline or sideline and back. Interrupt shots with running. 

11. PRESSURE. Groups of two shoot. The rebounder can harass the shooter in any way but cannot touch or obstruct the shooter. Imagine what teenage boys say to each other. 

12. COMBO REST. Use three to five free throws to 'rest' during other shooting drills. 


Combine 'catch-and-shoot' practice (e.g. elbow to sideline, elbow to elbow) with conditioning and the free throws provide realistic rest.

Lagniappe. Winnacunnet required players to make 2 apiece to end practice (every player)... 22 in a row. Most teams would never get off the court. 

Lagniappe 2.  


My tips? 
  • Don't freeze at the line. Wait for the ball then step to the line.
  • Line up with the nail. I align the inside of my right foot. 
  • Word (e.g. Draper) on the orange plate. (I used to aim at the center of the four bolts holding the goal to the backboard).
  • Breath out and shoot.