When we have the ball in our own territory, I have a sideline routine that I do. I don’t do the routine because I'm superstitious, but because there are certain things I need to get done to prepare myself to kick if we end up going for a field goal.

The reason I put it in the form of a routine is so that I develop this pattern where I don't have to think about what I have to do. I just do it.

I’ve probably been doing this for three years. I've tweaked it here and there. But basically, what I'll do is when our offense takes possession of the ball, I'll start to stretch, kind of lie down and stretch my lower back out and just get loose in any areas where I feel like I've tightened up since the last possession. I'll just sort of relaxingly stretch until we've crossed the 50-yard-line.

When we cross the 50, I'll put my helmet on just to have it ready. Once we’re between the 45 and 35, I’ll start to warm up by taking a few practice kicks into the net.

If we get inside the 35, Tommy, my holder, will usually hold three to five balls for me. What I do when I'm kicking the balls is more than anything, just go through my mental rehearsal of what I do when I kick, and also, just try to get my leg loose so when I go out to the field, I'm totally loose and I've hit a few balls.

After I take the practice kicks and it gets to be a third-down situation or even a second-and-long where a field-goal attempt is imminent, I'll move down to the far end of the field toward our end zone and just try to get away from everybody.

I try to be by myself and do some deep breathing, using my breath to help me focus on my center (an inch or two below the navel in the middle of the abdominal cavity), slow my head down, and just sort of relax. But, at the same time, I’m building this internal energy by breathing through my center.

And I may even do the Universal Center exercise where I plant my feet shoulders’ width apart, bend my knees an inch or so, and rotate back and forth at the hip, letting my arms hang completely loose as they fly out from my body with each turn. I do this to relax and generate energy. I also go into soft eyes.

Soft eyes helps me relax and focus. Soft eyes is like seeing without trying to see. I just try to move inside myself because there isn't anything outside of me that matters when I kick and I want to get myself into that little cocoon mentally that I try to find when I go to kick.

So I'm doing this and practicing a few more kicks until they call "field goal."

I watch for my snapper and holder to run onto the field. As soon as I step on the field, I sort of have this mental switch that I turn on because I've had problems in the past where sometimes I'd be standing on the field or the sidelines and I would feel like I didn't have it, like I wasn't there.

When I turn on the switch, there is no ready or not ready. I'm just there and I'm going to kick once I cross that line to go on the field. The switch is on and I'm just focusing on my center.
It doesn't matter what comes up when I’m doing this. I'm not perfect at it yet. Other thoughts will creep into my mind. But over the three years that I have been working on this process, I feel like every year I’ve gotten better and better at just staying on my center. No matter what situations come up while I'm out there, I just stay on my center and go out there and kick.

When the three of us run onto the field, we don’t huddle with the team. The huddle is off to the side. What we do is find our spot where we need to kick from. I run out there and I'll get a call from my center and he'll say, either middle or line so I know where to make my spot.

So I get that call and set up my spot. I stand there in soft eyes for a few moments, taking some deep breaths and wait for the team. As soon as the team breaks the huddle, I start taking my steps back.

I'm a little bit slow and deliberate on getting myself set up and we don't want the line standing up over the ball too long because there’s an increased chance of them jumping offsides. So I get a little bit of a head start on them.

I take three steps back and then two steps to the left to set up. The whole time, I'm doing some deep breathing and I'm in soft eyes, just trying to generate as much energy as I can through my center, focusing on my center with my breathing and my mind.

When I've taken my three steps back, Tommy will call to the side of the rush, "Left, left," or "Right, right." That's just in case there's a bad snap, the line knows which way to break out, they know which way is overloaded. Then I take my two steps over at that point.

Once I’m set up and in soft eyes, I'll take a glance up. It's not like I see the uprights. I just sort of, I don't know, I just glance up. I pick a point on the crossbar a foot off to the right of middle to two to three feet to the right of middle, depending on how far back we are. If there's a wind, I'll pick a different position, but I'm basically lining up on that point.

When I do this, I erase the point from my mind and focus on kicking on a line. That’s all that matters as far as getting a fix on where to kick.

Then I give a little nod to Tommy and he gives a set and we roll. Once the center snaps the ball and it enters my periphery, I go.

As I approach the ball, I have a saying. No, I don’t say it to myself on the field. I don’t even sense it. It’s just what I do. It goes, Concentrate on my center. Kick with confidence. Let ‘er rip.

At this point, I'm in a cocoon. It’s totally internal. I'm just on my center and I'm letting ‘er rip. It’s just my process.

Doug Brien is the placekicker for the New Orleans Saints.