5 Mental Performance Tips for Breakaway Ropers with Kelsie Domer and Taylor Munsell

Kelsie Domer and Taylor Munsell know the mental side of breakaway roping well, having competed at the top levels of the sport and missing more times than they’d like to admit.

But with those lessons comes wisdom and perspective about how the mental game plays into breakaway roping. In this Roping.com blog—pulled from this brand-new video—learn how two of the best in the business navigate the ‘down’ times.

Tip 5: Remember it takes time to build up your mental game

Taylor Munsell: “It takes time to get good, mentally. I used to lose my cool pretty badly when things didn’t go well, but now, things don’t go well so often that I have gotten ok with it. And people are like, ‘You don’t want to be a good loser.” And yes, I don’t want to be good at losing, but I want to be good at getting over a loss. I go into a rodeo with the intent of winning, but also making the best run I can on what I drew.”

Tip 4: Hone in on your weaknesses

Taylor Munsell: “I’ll rope with people, and they’ll say, ‘Don’t run this calf, he goes hard right.’ And I’m like, ‘What do you do when you go to the rodeo and draw one that goes hard right? Do you just score him?’ And they get offended. But I want to be good roping one that goes left, right and stops. I don’t want to feel like I have a weakness. And when one shows up, I go home and work on it.”

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Tip 3: Focus on what you can control

Kelsie Domer: “I try to focus on what you can control, which in the rodeo world, can sometimes be very little. But if you focus on what you can control, it gets simpler. But if you’re like, ‘Hey, I just watched Taylor go 1.8, and Martha go 1.9—you can’t control what they do. So heck yeah, cheer for my friends, and then focus on what I’ve got going on.’ I’m going to try to win, going to try to control my start and rope the calf in the chute.
If you start worrying about them more than yourself, you start beating yourself. Stay true to you, because then you can make those runs more simple.”

Tip 2: Things going wrong? Don’t reinvent the wheel.

Kelsie Domer: A couple of years ago, I missed like seven or nine in a row. Like flat missed ’em. Then, I hit a pretty good lick. I won Ellensburg, split Filer and Walla Walla. I stay my course. Yeah, if I am doing something wrong I’m going to fix it, but I start changing all these things and change the wrong thing?”

Kelsie Domer’s 3 Tips for a Solid Breakaway Mental Gameplan

Tip 1: You should expect to win

Taylor Munsell: “I don’t think I have ever done something and thought, ‘I didn’t think I could pull that off.’ You should expect to win every time. And when it doesn’t work, you troubleshoot and adapt. Don’t dwell on misses or losses, learn from ’em and move on.”