Mean It – Ever since recovering from shoulder surgery six months ago, I’ve been focused on tweaking my game so I can rope faster – and that means changes to my horsemanship, my swing, body posture – everything.
But as I try to change, I don’t want to lose probably the best thing about my roping. I’ve been complimented by partners who have told me, “Hey, if I’m the high teamer and just need two feet, I want Big Al.”
Me and Clay [O’Brien Cooper] and Rich [Skelton] are all in that category. We have caught a lot of two-footers when it came down to a world championship or a win at the George Strait or something.
But you can pride yourself on that too much if you’re not careful and it can keep you from winning in certain scenarios. It’s like being that basketball player who’s known for really driving through the middle and making the layup. But what if he’s up against a team that’s so tough defensively that his only chance is to score on jumpers and three-pointers? If he doesn’t have the full game, they’ll shut him out.
My challenge to you is to know what you’re good at and what you need to improve (other people can usually help you identify your weaknesses). The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. It’s insanity to go put your money up every weekend without trying to improve your weaknesses.
As for me this winter, I spent three weeks at a time practicing on fresh cattle because they’re harder to heel; then using Smarty to isolate things I really needed to work on. I will probably go to the California run, but then come back and spend another three straight weeks of daily practice.
When I compete four days and rest one and practice for two, I kind of barely get rolling again each time and it’s hard to iron out weak areas. But if I can have five good days of practice and one for church and another five good days, that’s a lot different.
There are two types of practice. One is maintenance-type practice that usually involves a lot of steers and people and horses. The other is the getting-better type of practice where you become sharp; your horses work great and by about the fourth day, you’re really retaining some of the new stuff you’re putting into your roping. Then you take a day or two off to let your subconscious retain it and – boom – work your way back up again.
If you practice three nights a week on 20 steers after you worked all day long, that’s barely maintenance practice. The same thing applies to horses – you can’t expect to really work on your horse’s scoring just once or twice a week.
You’ve got to think about training the way pro ball players practice; the way football players have two-a-days in August when they’re gearing up. You won’t be sorry. Visit BachRoping.com for more.