Let's talk about practice

[Bigfoot]

I roped back in the day. Can't say I was real serious with practice. Lotta Sunday evenings, me and the gang would get together. I'd throw a rope at a dummy a little through week. Never really was any good though. I guess to me it was like you know what. You didn't have to be good at it to enjoy it. I would occasionally hit an open rodeo, or a ropin somewhere.

The kids most definitely practice more than I ever did. They also compete more than I ever did. I wonder how much "practice" a person should do, or perhaps how much is sufficient. I would add, that I have no fear, that the kids are going to burn themselves out by practicing. If the ground will hold a horse up, they pretty well ride. Rope dummies out on the patio every night.

My youngest, (10 years old) practices, but not nearly as much as the twins (just turned 13years old). She is considerably better than the twins were at the same age.

I rope every once in a blue moon. Probably half arena and half pasture. I'm no worse or better, than I was 20 years ago. I also have my horses tuned on daily to.

It all makes me wonder, how much should somebody practice?

 

[callmefence]

Hard to say. Just always try to finish on a good not a bad.

 

[Kingfisher]

Preview — Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. "Practice isn't the thing you do once you're good. It's the thing you do that makes you good."

Very interesting book but you should be able to google his opinion and discovery about "practice."

 

[Bigfoot]

Most practice til they get it right. A winner practices til he can't get it wrong. We're tying calves in the hallway of the stable. My feet are tired. I wonder if I ain't the one that's burnt out.

 

[talltimber]

"Practice" can mean different things to different people. Some guys go to "practice" to drink beer and have fun. Not a thing wrong with that. Some guys take two horses or more, one type to ride for personal roping mechanics practice (also read, old broke finished horses that dont need it, for kids and novice ropers to get decent runs on and not have to focus on riding so much as their own roping mechanics) and other types (their go-to horses and young horses) for tune-ups and horse training.
For someone serious, and competing, you need a practice horse to get your runs on, and a finished, competition horse to just fine tune and free up and that is all. I believe a horse has only so many runs in him. Don't burn a good one out torturing him in the practice pen. I've took my good horse to the practice pen, scored two on him, and parked him. Or make one solid run, freeing him up, even if it's the first run you make, then park him. He was solid and didn't need the wear on his joints or his mind.
Also, a long time ago, used to have to haul two horses every weekend because I would run seventy steers in ropings alone. They don't need much practice during the week after that, just a little loosening up every couple days to keep them from getting stiff.
A lot of area in between those two.

 

[Farm Fence Solutions]

In my experience, it's quality over quantity. My college rodeo coach's family fell on hard times when he was a young teenager. He was a talented bull rider, and even better calf roper and team roper. They had to board the horses quite a ways away from the town where they had to settle in for over a year, and no money to practice or enter in that time. His mother had him to make 50 perfect rides, and 50 perfect runs....EVERY night....in his head. The next year, after they had healed up, he won something crazy like $30k and 75 buckles....back when it was hard to win a buckle. I still use that method to this day, and it works.
As far as quality physical practice goes, the growth of my roping skills was fairly stagnant until I moved in with Brian Fulton. It wasn't a hard line "rule", but pretty much accepted that you didn't rope more than 3 on your good horse in a day. There were plenty of practice horses around to run as many as you liked, but the runs on your good horse were to be reserved for keeping the horse in tune, not the cowboy. For every calf I got to rope and tie down, I probably tied 25 from the post, scored 50, breakaway or knot rope a couple dozen, and it was the same for the steer wrestlers.....lots of chute dogging. Also, I was surrounded by cowboys that were good. Really, really, really good. I had some pretty good horsepower, and just enough skill to draw a check once in a while. The guys I rodeoed with drew a check at nearly every show. I guess my point with this is, the human involved needs lots of repetition with quality instruction. Lots of repetition is not always great for the stick you are hauling on the weekends.

Bigfoot, if you and I golf together every day, we will get a little better. If Rory McIlroy goes with us, we will get a lot better. My first big improvement came when Ronnie Hyde let me in his truck when I was a kid. Get those kids away from the house and in a pen where they don't have much chance of winning.(Same reason the 10 year old is better than the twins at the same age.....think Tuff Cooper) They will improve quickly.

 

[Farm Fence Solutions]

And I've never seen anyone that was serious about it who drank beer while practicing, including me.......and I really like beer. lol

 

[talltimber]

Ronnie Hyde, huh? He still steering with a piggin string and the seat laid all the way back? What year did you go with Ronnie?

FFS, the beer thing was to illustrate the range of intentions/motivation a guy may find in the practice pen. I've drank a lot of beer myself, never in the pen. But, I don't begrudge the social mentality of getting together to throw a line or two and jackass around.

 

[Farm Fence Solutions]

Ronnie Hyde, huh? He still steering with a piggin string and the seat laid all the way back? What year did you go with Ronnie?

FFS, the beer thing was to illustrate the range of intentions/motivation a guy may find in the practice pen. I've drank a lot of beer myself, never in the pen. But, I don't begrudge the social mentality of getting together to throw a line or two and jackass around.

Yes. lol He still pizzes and moans about driving, then squalls about how you drive when you take over. It's been a few years since we've hit the road together, but we live close and still get together once in a while and we build most of his fence. Our daughter is named Ronni, after him.

I don't mind the beer drinkers, because I see the fun in it. I've always been pretty fond of my fingers, and the first ones I found in the arena dirt came from a drunk man's hand. A convincing lesson, I guess. :lol:

 

[Nesikep]

First bull we bought was from an old fellow who did nothing but rope all his life, didn't have too many fingers left, oh the stories he could tell.. This fellow was the late Ty Pozzobon's grandpa, Sam Pozzobon

 

[ropinranger]

Most of the good ropers around here try to practice 3 times a week, 4 if they don't go to a roping on the weekend. 3-4 good runs per horse, usually, score a bunch. One of the really good ones only has two horses, he will run 3 or so on the first one, then 3 or so on the 2nd, giving them a little break between their runs; he does this 3 times usually...his horses are in the best shape around. All of them rope the dummy every night. They do it with a purpose, and don't let bad habits creep in.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

good replies.you can bet those guys that make those text book runs,spend plenty of time in the practice pen..

 

[customcattle]

I grew up rodeoing and went on to college rodeo and held my PRCA card for a few years, mostly steer wrestling, but also calf roped and team roped. Growing up we played basketball through the winter, but as soon as it was warm enough to start roping we were on a pretty strict routine. If we had a rodeo on the weekend, we would give the horses a rest on monday, but would tie calves from the post, rope the dummy, and chute dog. Tuesday through we would rope calves and steer wrestle on alternate nights, and again rope the dummy if we were having any problems horse back, and chute dog. Fridays we would take a break before the rodeo and usually just rope the dummy.
My brother and I were both pretty successful, and in fact he went on to win the college finals in the steer wrestling. The biggest advice I could give came from Roy Cooper. He said "practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect." Work on doing it right every time. If your kids are fighting their heads at something take the time to figure out what it is and have them work on one thing per night. It doesn't matter if you are throwing a hundred loops a night, if every loop is wrong it's probably better not to practice at all.

 

[cappillemper]

I adore horses and everything with them conntcted. I don't enjoy reallly rodeoing but much more showjumping. As for question about practicing, I think that the more the better. To my mind, horseriding isn't some kind of activity where you can't easyly became perfect. That's why I dedicate a lot of time to practice. Luckyly it is possible while there's someone who can always help with research paper so I have a lot of free from collage homework time. What is important, not to stop practicing even after numerous falls ;-)