Mental/Goals

Up • Equipment • Tying • Gathering • Flanking • Ground Work • Horse/Dismounts • Practice • Speed • Nutrition/Exercise • Mental/Goals

Previous Tips on Mental Preparation, Attitude, & Goals

Starting off the rodeo season

Most of you are into the fall rodeo season and it's important to focus on the run at hand instead of letting previous runs interfere with your thoughts/confidence/concentration. Whether your previous run (s) were awesome or less than what you expect from yourself, you need to focus on performing the skills and not let thoughts of doubt cross your mind before making your rodeo run. What you've done in the past is in the past- good or bad and neither will help you if you are not focused on the task at hand.

Warming up & just prior to competing, I focus on what I need to do & see it correctly in my mind. I have a phrase "hustle, hustle, check, step, hustle, flat flank, scoop low & ty tight" that I repeat over & over to myself quickly & I see it in my mind correctly as I say it which helps me focus on the run at hand.

To break my phrase down: Hustle, Hustle is where I'm hustling my horse. If it's a longer run, I add a few more hustles to make sure I don't quit hustling my horse too soon.

Check is where I take a hold of my horse to slow him down before I step off, usually that's just squeezing my finger tips & my horse will respond. Some horses don't need to be checked since they have so much rate in them.

Step is stepping off my horse.

Hustle is where I'm hustling to the goat.

Flat Flank is pushing my goat down square to the ground for a good, flat flank.

Scoop low is keeping the goat's legs low.

Ty tight is where I focus on getting a good solid ty on my goat.

See good runs in your mind before you go! What you see is what you'll most likely get!!Best of luck!

Happy Holidays & Best Wishes for the upcoming New Year!!

Decide on your goat tying/rodeo goals for the New Year. Post where you can see them as a reminder to motivate yourself to work towards your goals everyday. Everyday that you don't work to develop your skills, you are not improving. You don't stay the same- you either get better or you get worse. Take advantage of every opportunity to get better. The day that goes by that you don't work to enhance yourself, is a day that you'll never get back. You want to enter the rodeo arena KNOWING that you are totally prepared, not WISHING you were. Your fate is in your hands. Prepare yourself through technical skills (getting out & doing it!), physical conditioning (nutrition & exercise) and mental toughness (practice thinking positive thoughts about your rodeo and work on believing them!)

"The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand." ~ Vince Lombardi

Train your mind through use of affirmations.

Affirmations are statements that build self confidence and allow you to believe in yourself. By using "I am" statements, your brain will learn to believe and your body will follow. By saying "I am" you tell yourself that you have already achieved this goal. "I will" leaves too much room for doubt.

"I am in better shape that anyone."

"I am totally prepared"

"I am mentally tough"

"I am focused in competition"

"I train harder than anyone"

"I am in the best shape of my life"

"I am ready"

"I am in control"

"I am going to win"

"I am confident"

"I am eating right"

"I have done the most work"

" I am strong"

"I am fast"

"I am the quickest"

"I believe in myself"

"I feel good"

"I am unbeatable"

"I work hard & am smart"

"Confidence is contagious and so is the lack of confidence." ~ Vince Lombardi

Be careful that you don't spend too much time thinking about your competition instead of focusing on yourself. Whether it's a fear if you are fast enough to beat so & so, or if it's belittling them to yourself or with others. The more time you spend talking about someone else or thinking about what someone else does, the more it takes away from you. Re-route your thoughts so that you are thinking more about your game plan; practices, rodeos & with a positive attitude. You train your mind to think the right thoughts, just like you train your body in practice so you are better for competition. Every time you catch yourself thinking about someone else, or a bad thought- CHANGE IT to a positive thought ABOUT YOURSELF! You may get beat occasionally by someone else (because NOBODY wins ALL the time) but don't give them an advantage by beating yourself with 'bad' thoughts'.

"Square your shoulders to the world, be not the kind to quit. It's not the load that weighs you down, but the way you carry it." ~ Unknown

Sometimes when you hit a slump, instead over analyzing every move of yourself, the goat & your horse; you just have to toughen up. Dig down deep inside & get tough. Forget all the extras of standings, times, money, whatever it may be and go back to the basics in practice, then let it all hang out at the rodeo. Get tough mentally. Don't allow yourself to think negative thoughts or talk yourself into defeat. Be a winner & act like a winner!

"Pressure is nothing more than the shadow of great opportunity. " ~Michael Johnson

There are three important elements in any athletic competition;

Technical- the skills required to perform the tasks

Physical- the physical condition one must be in to perform at optimal level

Mental- the state of mind one must be in to perform to optimal level

In practice we work on the technical skills that are needed for goat tying. In practice is where you should think to perform the task correctly, to build muscle memory of the desired movements needed to make to perform the tasks until the desire movements become automatic.

Think about what is needed physically to become a great goat tyer and work on those things to help take your game to the next level. Short bursts of speed, agility (the ability to change direction) & hand-eye coordination are all needed in goat tying. The faster and quicker you are; the more you win. So it's important to find time to practice to improve our physical abilities as well. (lots of great websites for ideas)

If you are technically & physically on top of your game, but aren't on the right track mentally; you will be wasting your time! So it's important that we practice our mental strengths as well. Imagery (seeing the whole run in your mind) is something that we need to practice as well, so it becomes easier to see the desired tasks performed. Focus on the TASKS (How to do it) not the OUTCOME (winning or losing).

"The one thing over which you have absolute control is your own thoughts. It is this that puts you in a position to control your own destiny." ~ Paul G. Thomas

Setting Goals:

You must have a step ladder to reach your ultimate goal & the rungs of the step ladder should be smaller goals that lead up to the ultimate goal. Example: When I was in college rodeo my goal was to win the Nation. So my step ladder of goals would look like the following:

Win The Nation

Qualify for the Short Round @ the CNFR

Make 3 good runs to make the short go

Qualify for the CNFR

Place in the top two in the Region

(goal was to win the region as well)

Make good runs to win/place at the 10 regional rodeos,

so that I would finish in the top 2 in the region.

Make the best run I could at the upcoming rodeo

(if this rodeo was in March & I am practicing in November- I am/was thinking about that rodeo; no matter how far off it was)

Practice that night/day with goals in mind

Each time you practice you must have a goal in mind. Something that will help drive you each day to do your best. If your goals don't drive you, you may need to set higher goals for yourself or re-evaluate the importance of what you are doing.

"Obstacles are those frightening things that become visible when we take our eyes off our goals." ~ Henry Ford

Goat Tying is a great event. It doesn't matter who spent the most money; but rather who spent the most time. You will get out of it what you put in to it. To become a champion, you have to do more than want it. Everyone 'wants it'; but those who are willing to dedicate themselves are going to win the most. It's about getting into the best shape you can physically, spending the time practicing each day, working with your horse the right way, preparing yourself mentally for competition. You must give 100 % every day to become better and to work towards your championship goals. The competitors that truly want to win are working on making themselves better each day, while the others only say that they want to win.