RIDING A BULL IS 90% MENTAL, 10% PHYSICAL

WITH BUBBA DUNN

Bubba Dunn, a 30-year-old professional bull rider, hails from Alexandria, Louisiana, and wears Mossy Oak chaps and shirt when he rides. To ride bulls, you must believe in your ability to ride a bull when no one else thinks you can. When I draw the name of the bull I'll ride, I block everything else in the world out of my mind. Before I climb into the chute and onto the bull's back, I already have ridden him 300 or more times in my mind. Often in a rodeo, you'll draw the name of the bull on Wednesday that you'll have to ride on Friday night. So, I've got from Wednesday until Friday to think about that bull. During these days, I don't think about anything else other than the bull I'm going to ride. Then on Friday, you'll draw the name of the bull you'll ride on Saturday.

From the time I draw that bull's name until I get on his back, I'll mentally see myself riding him. I try to create in my mind the successful performance I hope to have when I'm in the arena. I'll mentally ride that bull through every jump and each spin as well as every kick and move he makes. I also think about the route the bull's taken the last time he's come out of the chute and where my feet and body need to be as I mentally ride him through that route. Then when I get on the bull's back, I have pre-trained my body to create the picture I've been dreaming in my mind and to react to the movement of the bull as I have in my dream. Mental imaging helped me ride a bull named Gas Hog that really bucked hard. Gas Hog would land hard on his front feet and then turn back under himself, a maneuver that made him very difficult to ride. The first time I ever saw and rode Gas Hog was in Fort Worth, Texas. After I got bucked off and hung up, I thought I knew how to ride him.

Then a few weeks later in Jackson, Mississippi, I drew Gas Hog again. Although I felt I could ride him, when he came out of the chute, he bucked entirely different than he had in Fort Worth where he started spinning to the right. In Jackson, Gas Hog started spinning to the left. I stayed on him, during his first turn to the left. But then he turned back quickly to the right and nearly jerked me down on his head. I got by that buck and was able to remain on him because he went back to the pattern he was bucking in Fort Worth.

When I drew Gas Hog another time later in the year at a rodeo, I thought I had him figured out. When he came out of the chute, the bull turned to the left and then back to the right, just like he did in Jackson. But this time he jumped harder than he'd jumped before. He not only threw me off, he jerked me down on his head and hung me up inside the well. Although you can ride those bulls in your head for days, once you get on them, you never really know what they'll do.

Come Back Throughout the Week for More Free Tips From Bubba Dunn...

Day 1 - Let's Go Bull Riding

Day 2 - How To Get Off

Day 3 - Why I Became A Bull Rider

Day 4 - Riding A Bull Is 90% Mental, 10% Physical

Day 5 - I Want To Be A Bull Rider