Teeny tiny pat on the shoulder.

YES. Today I practiced kicking again for a few hours and I had quite the turnaround since the mental breakdown I had a little while ago with it. Not only did I see some improvement, but I definitely realized something I was doing wrong which I consider a HUGE success. Ha ha, I absolutely love it when I am able to point out my own faults and mistakes! Now I know exactly what to work on, and when my kicking doesn't go right I know what I can fix. Before kicking a field goal, I usually try and calculate in my head exactly how many steps I should take back, what angle I should be at, and the number and size of strides I need to take before kicking the ball so I build up enough momentum and have enough power to accurately kick the ball. Sometimes, in this calculation I've finally noticed that I am overestimating where to position myself so I end up way too far away from the ball. Today I tried to focus a little more and be a little more exact as to where I should position myself, and it made all the difference. I even started playing "around the world" field goal kicking style and had success in it! I'd say I made over ten field goals today, which is a nice progress compared to the negative amounts I have made in the past.
I need to remember where I began in this journey to learn how to kick field goals. First of all, before any sort of practice with this, I haven't even had much experience with kicking in general; I played soccer until I was about 10 years old and then completely dropped it (although it seems like a really fun sport...I wish I played it more!). When I first took a shot at practicing any sort of kicking, I could barely get the ball off the ground. HA, I remember when I first tried to attempt drop kicking, I ended up flat on my back...Charlie Brown style. I practiced in all sorts of conditions. I don't think I'll ever forget kicking the ball around (horribly, it was an ugly sight) in the middle of my school's quad and in the middle of pouring rain, and hearing people laugh and holler at me from different dorm windows. Totally embarrassing, but I still ran around in the mud practicing kicking anyway. And drop kicking in the snow was almost impossible, but for some reason I thought if I practiced it enough times I would see some sort of improvement. But I did one heck of a lot of research for all sorts of rugby kicking, just like I did when I wanted to play scrumhalf and researched tips and drills for passing, and I think that really helped. I also had some help from a few teammates who are really great at kicking, and I think with these two knowledgeable sources and a ton of practice I made baby steps. My first successful drop kick was like a miracle, and now I do all the drop kicks for our team! I definitely have an incredibly long way to go, but even getting the ball off the ground is progress from where I began. And the same goes for field goals; they have taken me even longer than drop kicking to see progress in. Even up until our first game last fall season, I could not make it ANYWHERE NEAR the posts even if you lined me up right in front of them super close. It kills me that we lost that game by a very very small amount, an amount that could have been made up if I had made my field goals. I did not make a single field goal the entire season, and even in the spring I never made one. But I still continued to practice-practice-practice-practice-practice-practice-practice. I even marked out a tree behind one of our school's buildings that was the perfect high of rugby posts and aimed over that (probably killed a few birds in the process...it's fine). I got some books with really fine tune details about where and how to position your foot in field goal kicking, and I started making progress. I one day had a freak accident field goal that turned out being perfect, and from there I at least thought that it was even possible for me to make a field goal. But after that I started to really get into the calculating part of field goal kicking, and focusing on every aspect of it. And that's when I started to get almost 50-50 with my kicking. I was able to make a decent amount of field goals, but it was definitely a gamble and not consistent. But from the constant amount of practice I put into it, I FINALLY had some success with it in the alumni game. I made all three of my field goals in a game situation, and I'm really proud of myself even though it means nothing at all and most of the kicks were fairly easy and near the posts. So a little while ago when my kicks went back to being dismal, it was infuriating because of the past amount of effort I have put into it! But I guess it shows that no matter how much practice I have put in before, does not mean I can suddenly stop and put it to rest. Today was great, but I can't think that it's okay for me to take a break from practicing kicking. Especially since my wrist is still bummed out and I have no time to play on a real team, it really is one of the only things I am still capable of practicing that is rugby related.