Sometimes when I’m talking to a roper, I’ll ask him how his jackpot game is coming. Or I’ll say, “How’s your rodeo game?” Most of the time, he doesn’t realize he’s supposed to have two different games.
One difference between the two is that if you’re playing the rodeo game, you don’t have to catch 100 percent. In fact, a lot of kids have that mentality nowadays. They’re the ones going into the practice pen and setting up to really get after it and make lots of four-second runs. About 70 percent of their practice runs are pretty darn fast, and it feels to them like they had a good practice session. That’s all fine and dandy if you’re rodeoing. Shoot, if you and your partner make fast runs on seven of your 10 rodeo steers and place four or five times, that’s outstanding.
But if you’re a jackpot roper, I find myself talking a lot these days about setting up your practice program so it’s all about how many you catch consecutively – not how fast. When I tell people that, they look at me funny. I’m not saying you need to catch 10 or 20 in a row, but I am saying you have to catch four or five in a row.
It’s about setting up your mental game to where you’re confident that when you back in that box, you will ride your horse correctly 100 percent of the time, and you will take a smart shot 100 percent of the time. It’s not, “I hope this works; this ought to work,” and pull the trigger.
I prided myself that at all my NFRs, I caught a very high percentage of two-footers. So did Rich (Skelton) and Clay (O’Brien Cooper). And we won more than our fair share of go-rounds – it’s not like we just placed. One year I won five in a row. But I wasn’t taking a stupid shot. I’d come around, and if the steer didn’t clean up, I’d take one more swing and a lot of times, that was still good enough to win the go-round.
It’s this concept of discipline and smart roping that’s behind my web site and my Smart Roping training program. I expect when you back in the box that you will not miss. And if you can’t learn to not miss in the practice pen, then you sure aren’t going to master it somewhere else.
I’ve heard guys comment about how they caught 26 for 26 the other night at home. Did they really? I doubt it. Want to know why producers make a mint at the challenge pen at any big roping? Because roping four steers in 36 seconds sounds easy. You’ll ride up there all day long and throw down your 30 bucks again and again.
But the catch is that neither you nor your partner can make a single mistake. So train that way at home! Then you’ll meet the challenge when the money’s up.
Visit SmartRoping.com for more.