Ty and Cole Harris posted a podcast episode with Joe Beaver recently - https://youtu.be/FPDeKZx1Q5o?si=g1zycJtfPWp1lYWj
I think bull riders ought to watch this, mainly because I think it would be interesting for many bull riders to see how calf ropers approach the game at a high level.
If you ride bulls, you should be interested in getting better. This seems obvious, but there are many high-level professional bull riders who have glaring weaknesses in their style that end up costing them a lot. When old timers (disclaimer: I am one) talk about how riders were better in the old days, some of it is just grousing, but there is on sense in which they are correct. In the old days, weaker riders basically went broke. If you didn't stay on consistently, you could not afford to go. Thus, guys had a pressing incentive to improve at least to a point where it was not costing them a fortune. Today, a guy can be reasonably competent at staying on a specific type of bull, and so long as there are enough of those bulls around, that guy can make money. And they may not focus on improving, I don't know.
But, assuming you are a rational person and do want to get better at riding bulls, how do you do that? You get better at anything by doing it. Everyone you've ever seen who is good at playing guitar has spent countless hours with a guitar in their hand - playing it and trying to get better. The same was true for a young Joe Beaver roping and tying calves. That kind of immersive, repetitive practice is obviously harder to do with bull riding. If you manage to spend as much time on the back of a bull as a guitar player spends playing guitar, your career would last a week.
What ends up filling the void is mental reps for most riders. After you get competent at staying on beginner level bulls, you can imagine what it feels like well enough to work on your game mentally. But this is where riders diverge. Your subjective experience isn't exactly the same as the next guy. You may make use of mental reps way better than most - or way worse.
There is a lot of advice out there to think about and try to follow. For the most part, there is a lot of good advice. Guys who teach bull riding know what they are talking about, but most common bull riding advice comes in minute detail because that's really the only way to describe it. But you don't ride that way - you don't execute a set of stock actions or moves. When riders focus too much on one detail, even if it is something they need to be working on, it can be counter productive. Whatever is happening inside rider's minds, most buckoffs even at the highest levels of pro bull riding are due to some basic fundamental thing that you are likely to hear about on your first day at the practice pen.
So let's revisit some basic concepts that every rider should be aware of.
Physically bull riding is fairly simple in general. it is balance and leverage. If you can picture sitting on a bull that is standing still in the arena, the body of the bull is preventing your body from falling to the ground. You have a leg on each side - back straight - your upper body is perpendicular to the plane of the ground, your knees are in front of your rope and you are more or less in a sitting position as you would sit on a chair. For this you don't even really need your hand in the rope, and you can safely ignore pretty much all other best practices - you are not going to fall off unless you lean way over to one side or another. This is the default. Your body weight is balanced to the center line of the bull, and the bull is squarely underneath you.
As the bull starts to move you have to move too, and this is where things get more complicated. But, there is a way to simplify how you think about the whole process. Whatever the bull does in a single jump, your goal is to compensate so that you end up close to that default position when the bull comes back to the ground. As he goes up and/or forward you must reach forward. As the bull comes back to earth the force of him hitting the ground is what shakes riders loose, and that basic default of staying upright (in relation to the ground) with your back straight is your best chance of surviving for the next jump. You do essentially the same thing each jump.
Bulls can throw endless combos at you - one may move forward and go to the left in the same jump. Another may hit the ground and shoot off in an unexpected direction. Some of them want to leave you behind, some want you down on their head. But, if you end each jump in balance and pretty much in the same posture vs the arena dirt, then you are still in the game. Every piece of bull riding advice you will ever hear is about some detail of this compensation process. The bull does something - you do whatever is necessary to get back to balance. You use your riding hand and your two legs for leverage and essentially any and every part of your body to counter being put out of balance.
Once you have been on enough bulls to understand what it feels like when bulls do various things, then you can imagine how to counter anything they do and what it will feel like. If a bull goes straight up and down while starting to turn away from your hand you know what that feels like and you should be able to picture your reaction, or if this is a type of bull that you struggle with, picture the reaction you SHOULD have.
Watching film can help you improve. Time on the back of easy bulls can help. Time on a horse can help, mental reps can help - all in their own way. If you know you have a bad habit, watch film of guys who do it right. Get on easy bulls that try to exploit that. Imagine doing it the right way. Nitpick your form on easier bulls and try to perfect it. This is the tedious work of bull riding.
Things that will NOT help you improve include:
Most buckoffs even among the highest level riders involve basic things, and if you watch the NFR or the PBR Finals you will surely see many riders buck off for the following reasons:
You will see all these same things happen at low level jackpots and practice pens too - among inexperienced riders.
If you can identify what you do wrong on easy to mid-level bulls, then you can work to correct it. If you improve on those kind of bulls, then you stand a better chance when a high-octane bull decides to go psycho on you. There may be riders who face an easier road than you - who seem to catch on to it naturally and don't seem to have to work that hard. Those guys are cool, but mentally you should make it your mission to catch up to where they are and beat them. The way to do that is work harder and improve. No matter where you are or where you started, unless it is 1988 and you are Jim Sharp, there is room for improvement. And it is definitely possible to up your game - there are many examples of guys getting to a pro level in the sport and continuing to improve.
Do the work! Get good enough to stay on a wide variety of bulls, and you will get paid - a lot. Bull riding is hard to do, and the talent pool is shallow. A little improvement can take you a long way.
