The Art of: Kicking a field goal

My last endeavor into the art of kicking a football ended with me spending New Year's 2008 in the ER after falling in Charlie Brown fashion and getting a concussion.

Obviously I was in need of some guidance so I called upon the kickers for Duquesne's football team, Charlie Leventry and Nick Esquire. They were more than willing to help me understand their craft.

We met on Rooney Field in early afternoon and set up with two tees and a few balls to master field goal kicking. I watched the veterans make a couple of 40-plus yarders with ease. They pointed out their technique and what to try to copy. 

"Just being consistent I'd say … once you get the hang of [kicking field goals], you know the fundamentals, but probably the thing you would have to take care of the most is just making good contact." Leventry instructed me.

We set up a tee on the 10-yard line for me to try a 20-yard extra point. My first few attempts were pretty bad line drives that didn't get even close to the height of the uprights. Then Leventry and Esquire worked more on my footwork and made sure I was making nice even strides towards the ball. 

We moved the tee up to the shortest possible field goal, a 17-yard try. I built confidence there and got more height on the ball, but my tries kept going off to the right. Once the duo felt I was ready, we moved the tee back to the 21-yard line.

"This way you can say you made an actual field goal, longer than an extra point," Leventry assured me.

I gathered myself while I took three steps back and two strides to the left I focused on the point they told me to aim at, then I looked at the ball. I took a jab-step forward then planted my left foot just ahead of the ball like they had showed me. My foot swung through the ball and I sent it flying towards the goalpost. While watching the ball fly I thought I had missed again, and then it hooked just inside the right upright just above the cross bar. I celebrated like I had just won the Super Bowl and was greeted with high-fives from both Esquire and Leventry. 

We then shifted our attention to punting. They showed me how to drop the ball on just the right angle to produce a spiral and when exactly to drop it.

"You're lucky you don't have 10 guys rushing at you," Leventry joked.

Every little thing I had been taking time to focus on has to be done in less than 2.1 seconds, an incredible feat for these athletes. 

My first attempt at a punt nearly hit a spectator in the head and went almost 10 yards. After Esquire showed me what I needed to tweak, I got a couple decent ones off. Then I focused and hit one just right sending it soaring into the air and about 30 yards. As if to remind me I was just a novice, Leventry sent a booming punt almost 70 yards through the air. 

Leventry's school-record 51-yard field goal against Wagner at the end of the first half on Oct. 22 this fall made him an expert on getting it done with the pressure of a game on his shoulders.

"You try to think of the fundamentals. For me if I mess up and I don't swing through then I will crunch. You have to stay upright … all your thinking is the fundamentals and staying upright and swinging through." Leventry said.

It might look easy, but it certainly was not, and I woke up very sore the next morning from using muscles I didn't even know I had. Shaun Suisham doesn't have to worry about me replacing him as the Steelers' kicker anytime soon, but I improved from falling on the ground so that will suffice.