“I always watched Kurt, and I video when guys like Harvey Jacobs is roping. “I want to watch the best,” Merritt said. So how do you learn something only a few can teach if you don’t have many left-handers to tap nearby? Watch videos of other successful left-handed heelers and pay special attention to the position they ride, Merritt said. They’re right-handed and they’re the greatest in the world, but it’s hard for them to teach so they want them to switch over.” The problem is (right-handed ropers) have not done it. “Some guys tell left-handed heelers to just learn to heel right-handed,” Shugart said. You still have to understand the plane of your rope and the delivery.”īutton Shugart, of Borrego Springs, California, who in his day won rodeos like Red Lodge, Montana, and the Texas Circuit Finals, has taught clinics and shared his wisdom with many other left-handed heelers, understanding the unique struggles they face. “Kurt said to get a mirror, and to swing a rope in the mirror,” Merritt said. Merritt went to Hall for help some 25 years ago, and the advice the former PRCA heeler imparted to him stuck. The force is coming up against your body, and you can get jammed up in the corner.” “As much as they know, they could only tell me the fundamentals of the swing but didn’t get the intricacies of the angles or don’t understand the difference of the centrifugal force of your swing. “I’ve gone to schools and been around some of the best guys in the world,” Merritt said. Hall has helped other lefties find their groove without switching sides, including the USTRC and World Series of Team Roping’s Sponsorship Director Lory Merritt-now a 5.5 heeler with a $100,000-win at the Reno Rodeo Invitational under his belt. If the steer is making the corner, you have to be on the outside of the arc to see his feet… The pros could help with mental stuff, but they couldn’t break it down with you like they would another right-handed guy.” “You’re coming around the outside of the corner. “Roping left-handed defies all of the rules and laws of physics,” Kurt Hall, who once carried an 8 heel card roping left-handed, said. They can’t just show up at any school or clinic to get advice, and, often, their best bet is tapping other left-handed ropers-a subset of the population that is rare at best. Left-handed heelers might run into trouble when it comes to finding help to improve their roping. Charles “Lefty” Wilken was an early all-around hand inducted into the PRCA Hall of Fame for his skills with his horse and his rope in his left-hand. Another lesson they repeated, though, is that roping left-handed doesn’t have to be an uphill battle if ropers work on finding the right help, learning to ride the correct position, buying or making the right horses and keeping a positive mentality. The intricacies of heeling left-handed can only be truly mastered by those who do it-something the lefties we surveyed emphasized again and again. The articles that populate this magazine every month are targeted at right-handed heelers, and most professionals and clinicians can only theorize about swinging a rope in their non-dominant hand. There’s no doubt about it: left-handed heelers don’t exactly have the same resources to improve their craft that right-handed ropers do.
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