The mental aspect of kicking is the difficult part. Physically, we still have to be in shape and perform on the field, but the thing that separates the ones who make it versus the ones who don't is definitely the mental side.
I first learned about kicking under pressure in 1996, my rookie year with the Patriots. I was signed as a free agent by a team that already had Matt Bahr, one of the best kickers around. To win the job, I had to show coach Bill Parcells that I could make kicks when they counted. That process started in training camp.
I learned early that it's very important to approach every single kick you attempt, even those in practice, as if it were in a game.
I have to admit I've dreamed of kicking the game-winning field goal in the Super Bowl many times. That's the fun thing about being a kicker, you never know when it's going to come down to your kick deciding the game.
I don't have to be stressed about it. When people watch videos of teams, they might see a certain player and think, 'If we kick him a little bit, maybe he'll get angry, maybe he'll get a booking.
Most of the time I don't go down when they kick me. I try to stay up, so the referee knows that if I go down it's because they kick me badly.
My size works against me as well, as some players I would just touch and they would fall over to get a free kick.
My favorite kick is the roundhouse. I'm very capable of kicking a tall person in the head with a roundhouse.
I'll get out and do Pilates. I'll get in the ring and do some rounds of kickboxing and grappling and MMA conditioning. There's a lot of unique stuff that I do, too, that a lot of people wouldn't imagine or think about doing, like box jumps. You get a 42-inch box and dumbbells and practice working on your explosion jumping up on those boxes.
Growing up and walking around the supermarket, lollies were the thing that gave me that kind of kick, and you'd expect lots of them. It would be that or a pack of cake mix which got me into food.
