It’s my theory from being a heeler over 50 years now that good heeling is determined by your ability to throw your rope at the right time as it’s related to the steer’s stride. When I was just starting to rope, I could see that and recognized that the good ropers who won the most had the ability to deliver at the opportune time of when the steer left the ground in the jump. Their loops went onto the feet before they hit the ground again.
One of the characteristics of successful heeling in that era was ropers “stalling” or “hanging” their ropes. You could see the throw come out of the swing, then slow down and wait, before making the catch off of their judgment of the steer’s jumps.
Today, we’d call what those guys did hanging it or stalling, and the guys in the era before me were really good at it. It was kind of an art, and it looks kind of cool, too. There were also guys who were better than the hanger guys who could coordinate their swing more like someone jumping a rope. They put their swing in time with every jump, and were roping with the timing of the swing versus trying to time steers in just the delivery.
For the last 10 years or so, Jake (Barnes) and I have had some years of trying to teach and explain timing in a way people can understand it. In that endeavor, I realize there are some different factors in play, like how people look at and perceive things. Timing is no different.
Some people see timing naturally, and some people struggle to see it at all. Even if you’re pretty good at timing and you’ve worked on it and developed your timing skills, there are still little adjustments that have to be made as you’re perceiving what the steer’s doing and seeing your shot develop.
There can be some speeding up and slowing down as you’re having to make an adjustment, because you might be a little bit ahead, or the steer might be doing something at the last second to where you have to speed your delivery up a little to get there on time.
At the highest level, ropers are very good at making those adjustments. Their hand-eye coordination, their seeing it and making it all go together is very sharp. They can make adjustments on the fly. Being good at the little details is what makes them as good as they are.
What also has to fit the equation is your ability to fit the horse and how he stops, or how you cue your horse to stop. Because the horse has to fit into that delivery. And sometimes making adjustments at the last second is also kind of an art that the best ropers know how to ask their horse to maybe not stop as hard, or to stop a little more sudden based on that timing equation of the delivery that’s going to fit both the shot and the horse together.
Sometimes it’s hard for lower-numbered ropers who are kind of starting to get the hang of good timing to make adjustments in real time. They need more practice to get comfortable with it. When I learned to heel as a kid, I learned the hanging/stalling it method, because that’s what I saw guys doing.
Once I realized there was a different way, where I could put my swing in rhythm with the run, then I adopted that method. But I think it was good for me to learn the stalling first, because it made me good at being able to slow it down and make that adjustment when needed.
We sometimes see lower-numbered ropers slow their loop down to deliver it, and it just falls beside the steer and they aren’t able to finish the delivery. But when you get good at the hanger/floater style, you’re practiced at finishing the delivery, even though you’re stalling it a little bit.
That’s sometimes a vulnerable area, and why you’ll notice a lot of novice ropers struggle with slow-jumping steers. Even the top ropers sometimes struggle with steers that jump high up in the air and hang, because when that happens, they’re going to slow their delivery down. To catch that steer you have to slow it down, but still bring it in there at the right time to make the catch. Timing unlocks the door to good heeling. Therefore, heeling is really just learning the timing aspects of the game.
—TRJ—
