How would one begin to train an athlete for bull riding?
I had a potential client come up to me for a tour (teenager) he is a three sport athlete and one of the sports he does is Bull Riding. How might a trainer go about training someone for that. I figure to work on a lot of balance techniques but still trying to come up with a unique way to train him for this activity.
I’ve been riding bulls now for 13 years my best work outs come from climbing a rope to the ceiling and battle ropes I have a drop barrel very cheap and easy to build to help on my balance along with a medicine ball,gymnastics is a great help for this sport because you have to be both mobile and flexible so you bend not break when you hit the ground.bullriding is a sport that’s mostly mental so have him find his comfort zone and break through it he is going to want to work on his cardio even though it’s only 8 second on the bulls back it’s a wild roller coaster you never know what the animal will do and what your counter move may be push the kid in ever scenario you can my work out never exceeds 30 minutes but I will stay on the barrel for about an hour at a time and watch all the greats like Adriano Moraes,Justin McBride,j.b mauney,silvano alves and even kaique pacheco they all have different ways of riding but if he can compare and combine each one into his own riding style he be one of the next greats so find where he is comfortable and find out how many bulls he has been on and how many he climbs on each week when I got out of high school I was getting on 2 bulls a day mon-thurs and climbing on bulls in rodeos friday-sunday he is going to have to learn mentally when riding injured is worth it or if he is just kidding him self because once he hits the higher level bulls and rodeos in order to be the best you have to learn to ride with injuries and learn which ones he can handle and which ones he needs to take a break with.i know it’s a little off topic but with you not having knowledge on the sport just wanted to shed some light on what to look for because most injuries in rodeo are compared to car accidents from having broke necks to lacerated livers and everything so after all this his dedication to the gym is a must just as much as climbing on every bull the kid can
Hello Mitchell Brusseau,
I also was thinking of a suspended barrel to “ride.” Thinking outside the box, add to all the training ideas with animal communication training, if it is not already done.
Here is a cool idea I like:
http://www.pbr.com/en/news/features/other-features/2014/3/jb-mauney-find…
A google search of bull riding exercises brings up a lot: I like this one, as I believe in a good well rounded workout:
http://bullridercoach.com/how-to-workout-by-wiley-petersen/
I hope this gets you started in the right direction.
Take care,
Natalie aka NAPS 2 B Fit.
Training athletes in sports with the types and levels of forces (centrifigal, centripetal, linear, etc.), accel/deceleration, etc. that are involved in bull/bronc riding requires an understanding of what is happening during the ride. I would take the time to evaluate video of the athlete while riding and video of some of the most successful riders (I would imagine that not to be too difficult to find online). I have never trained a rodeo rider. So, I have never evaluated the sport. If you have a solid understanding of physics and biomechanics, you could do this yourself. It is pretty time consuming. I would require a non-refundable fee and commitment to at least 20 training sessions before agreeing to invest the time and effort into designing a program for bull riding. Unless I thought that there would be a considerable market for this type of training in my area. Without doing the evaluation necessary, I would just be guessing as to possible training techniques.
If you don’t have the background to do the evaluation, I would recommend designing a program utilizing power, speed, quickness, agility, and HIIT training. Focus more on stability training than balance. Balance doesn’t come into play much in bull riding from what I can see ( the rider isn’t balancing, he is reacting and adjusting to the applied forces and has changing/shifting points of contact with bull). Bull riding is definitely not an endurance activity, I would limit endurance training to post season/off season training. Incorporating myofascial release, stretching, icing and other recovery modalities would be good as well.
This is an interesting question. I have two ideas. My first thought was to have him do squats on a BOSU while holding only one heavy dumb bell in his right hand and then a second set holding the dumb bell in his left hand. Then Nancy gave me this idea. If you have a large enough Swiss ball, have him sit on the Swiss ball as if he is sitting on a bull with his adductors squeezing tightly on the ball. Then have him hold on to the handles of a fully lengthened TRX while you gently pull on the other end of the TRX straps in different directions trying to challenge him to stay on the ball without falling off.
Denny
Another thing that he might already do, but you could also do, is take a look at some clips of him riding. See if you can figure out if there’s a “tell” that he’s going to fall, and whether there’s a balance, strength, quick reaction that you could help him improve on by creating a set of related drills.
Maybe compare his films with films of professional or winning riders, and see what is different about their movement than his. Are they more fluid? Are they better at keeping their centers of gravity aligned with the bull? etc.
What does he think he needs to work on?
What is the body type of a world class bull rider (I have no idea, but that might give you some sort of clue)?