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WORLD STANDINGS February
19, 2001 (UNOFFICIAL) Bootlegs: On the first business day following a rodeo that adds $1,500 or more the secretary either calls or faxes in her results to Ranch Headquarters. The unofficial standings are calculated on Monday afternoons. However, once the actual paper work shows up and Ranch Headquarters refigures the pay-offs sometimes errors will cause the standings to change dramatically. Just one DR counted as a TO or vice versa can sometimes make a pay-off pay either fewer or more places. Canadian rodeos are not required to adhere to the bootleg deadlines. Because of that time lag, in the busy summer months, Canadian bull riders often have more money won than is showing in the PRCA World Standings. United States bull riders vying for NFR births refer to this as the Northern WHAMMY. Rodeoing: This time of year guys make big moves just because guys don’t have much won. The hardest places to win are the BIG 4 winter rodeos not because they are tough ridings but because it’s hard to draw something. The other difficult thing is having to be gone from home for so long and really not getting on that many bulls. Too much time and too much money spent but you almost have to be out there rodeoing until Houston. Some of these guys you might not have heard much of but they are for real. Several of them have a year or two of going down the road seasoning which is now paying off. Even the young kids have lots of bulls under their belt. Patience is important for the new guys high in the standings. It is pretty easy to go to chasing points to early in the season… get broke…. disillusioned…. and have to go home and work. After Houston, a guy should have his name in the hat at the biggest rodeos and only go get on the ones you can win on (don’t blow your budget on frivolous travel going coast to coast), make sure you GO TO the TOUR rodeos since the money won at the finals counts as championship points…. you might place on about anything and you need every TV op you can get, and work a few circuit rodeos if there are any. Entering far off rodeos where to even break even you have to catch a top hole isn’t worth the stress or the risk on your nest egg this early in the season. You may have to do it in the summer and fall. So stay home… get a life…. rodeo intelligently and WAIT. Work the big bull ridings. Test yourself against the best. Make some money. Work on your riding. Watch the NFR and PBR tapes—lots of technical problems in all but a few of the guy’s riding styles. They are making it on talent and try—just imagine what they (you) could do if they/you corrected those faults. Bull riding isn’t rocket science but it does involve physics. Technical flaws in a guys riding really show up at the NFR and the Bud Light Cup where you have ranker bulls. And riding rank bulls is where the BIG money is and should be. Got some time on your hands? Go spend some time with guys like Denny Flynn, Bobby Steiner, Ronnie Bowman, Gary Leffew, Lyle Sankey, Butch Kirby, John Dodds, Sandy Kirby, David Glover, Myrtis Dightman, Cody Snyder, Charles Sampson, Ted Nuce, Nicky Wheeler, Jim Sharp, Adriano Moraes, Troy Dunn (take a boat), Norman Curry, Lee Markholt…. Pete Gay, Terry Don… Tuff… Donnie…. Branger…. Custer….Lambert….Bobbie Berger…. the Johansens, Terry Holland, Beagley, Wimberly, Jordan, Gulden, Wegner… the Garstads…. Gene Lyda, Duane Howard…. the Stantons… Jack Ward…. Jerome Robinson… Bob Roberston…. the Roberts ….Randy Magers… Phil Lyne…. Spankey Brown…. Doug Brown….Wacey Cathey, Art Ray, Vern Smith…. Wally Badgett, John Bland, Barney Brehmer, Leander Frey, go drag out Ray Wessell or Richard Rule…. get Quintana deported back here from Australia. Hey … take Ty down to the practice pen with you. He’s got it figured out. The thing is… like coaches in other sports…. as a player some guys might not have been great but they understood the game. And some great bull riders really couldn’t tell you why they rode good or sometimes their style was so unique that it wouldn’t work for anyone else. But still…. there are some basic things that you must master. I know I’ve forgotten a lot of people who rode bulls good and would be happy to help a guy. I apologize to the families of anyone I mentioned who is no longer with us. They are alive in my memory. Shoot --there are a lot of guys—those are just some that I knew or admired who understood the technical side of things. Find someone you admire and think your style kinda fits and go see them. Increase your knowledge. Watch tape… get on practice bulls…use psycho cybernetics….. get your head into your career. No matter who you are or how much you’ve won…. you can and must get better. All this “I’m going to be World Champ” positive thinking is fine but it is going to take a lot more than that. You are in business…. the bull riding business. Too many guys are half-assing their careers away. Either do it or don’t do it. 100% …. 100% of the time or do something else less danged dangerous. But anyway… back to having a little money won and being patient. You can have $0 won going into June and make the NFR. And if you make the NFR—you can be the World Champ. If you can have $10,000-$15,000 going into June—it will be a lot easier but you need to have 65-75 rodeos left AFTER the 4th of July run. You’ll need that many not because you will GO to that many but you may need them in order to draw enough good bulls. Too many guys spend too many YEARS of their lives out there in rodeo LA LA Land… away from home and family….kinda sorta chasing a dream but really just living the nomads life…. winning enough that they don’t have to go home and work…. no responsibility … wine, women, and song…. Hey… it’s your life. On the other hand, if you really are a professional bull rider then it seems to me that a more effective plan might be to really get serious, set goals, plan, work hard, be smart, be responsible, and maintain a regular life too. There has never been a better time to be a professional bull rider—IF you are good at it. Whatever it takes YOU GOTTA GET GOOD. I see way to many guys who have been out there for 5-10 years and haven’t improved at all. If anything they have gone the other way. They turn-out, only get on little spinners, make excuses, get lazy, don’t try…. and they are wasting their lives and at the same time adversely affecting lots of other people’s lives—the people who love them. Every one of them has or had enough talent. Another strategy would be to stay in your region, drive, and go get on about everything. In the March-May…. just plugging along at $1,000-$2,000 added rodeos, picking up small checks and day monies, a guy can get his riding and confidence in shape…. and build up a stash of both money and championship points. Starting at Reno—it’s time to get serious and rodeo full time. BUT… it is important that you are ready physically and mentally… you have the money to do it right… and you have saved enough rodeos that you can double up in key weeks of the season. As expected some of the young veterans made a move this week. NOTE: PRCA must be broke… can’t afford larger type or ink on the standings faxes they send us. We’re just guessing at some of the dollars won. Check the PRCA website—hopefully they can read their own stuff. If you figure it’s gonna take $55,000-$56,000 to make the NFR, you’ll need to average $1,000 per week. We’re in the14th week of the season.
Bryan
McDonald
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