I saw an Albert Einstein quote on Facebook the other day that really struck me. It said, “If you can’t make things simple, then you don’t understand them very well.”
And even though our goal in team roping instruction is to keep it simple, I think the better you understand delivery, the more steers you’ll catch. I often use the word “revelation,” which means a deeper understanding of something. Certain parts of your roping demand a deeper understanding.
You need to understand exactly what’s happening between your last swing and your release of the rope. What good things are happening for you? What things aren’t happening that need to happen? Guys like Clay O’Brien Cooper or Jade Corkill or Clay Tryan – they understand delivery so well that only good things are happening almost always. They don’t miss.
I remember when me and Jake Barnes were just kids playing around, we would “no swing” the dummy, and we would “one-swing” the dummy. At the time, we had no idea those tricks were actually helping us, but now that I understand delivery, I realize they did.
To catch a dummy without swinging first, you have to come across real slow and wait on your tip. You have to really know where the top and bottom of your hand are so that you can control the tip as you come across. We were controlling the position of our hand every part of the way.
You can fine-tune your delivery even now by running it back in your mind like a video. The best way would be to put frame-advance on the film, so each frame moved a tiny increment. You would know where your thumb needs to be and where your little finger should be every step of the way, all the way to your target. But you can start on the dummy.
I have a header named Tom who’s been staying with me for quite some time, and I gave him a challenge. I told Tom I wanted him to dedicate everything he does in practice to not missing a steer. Since it boils down to delivery, I told him I wanted him to catch the dummy with no swing a certain number of times each day. Then I told him to one-swing the dummy the same number of times each day – without missing.
Next, I’d have him rope in perfect position from the dummy 10 times without missing. Then I’d have him step back six or 12 inches and rope it 10 more times in a row. Then I’d have him step forward a couple of feet so he was too tight and catch it another 10 times in a row without missing. Then step a foot to the left. Get the picture? Tom is going to develop a deeper understanding of how his arm and hand need to adjust for each different kind of delivery.
That’s just smart roping. Visit smartroping.com for more.