Breaking it Down by Speed Williams – March 2026
My entire life has been spent running roping scenarios through my mind and trying to eliminate mistakes and wasted motion during a run. Many of my clients are successful businessmen whose job it is to eliminate expenses. In my world that is misses or failed runs.
In the beginning I caught a lot of flak for the way I headed. I used a smaller rope with more body and had a very tight swing. That swing developed from riding a lot of horses at my father’s place, and a few that ducked… hard. So, I had to learn to use my legs when I was riding to control the horse and not let him know when I was going to throw. Even in the beginning I tried to film all my runs because when you watch the replay, it seldom looks like the way it played in my mind.
When trying to eliminate wasted motion, the things I specifically look at are: what does your hand do in your swing? What does your body do during the run? Does your left hand help you throw, or does it control your horse when you throw? Your left hand is such a factor in all roping disciplines – heading, heeling or breakaway.
I grew up heeling, won a lot, and made the NFR heeling when I was 20. Once there, I watched and thought, “Man, there’s a lot more room for improvement on the heading end than the heeling.” I went home and decided to change sides and work at heading, though not with my dad’s blessing. He thought headers were a dime a dozen and that everyone could catch and turn a steer. It was important for him to let me head… since he owned all the head horses. My heading far exceeded anything I dreamed about being able to accomplish.
After having my kids, I quit rodeoing and started online training with speedroping.com and teaching private lessons. I never stopped studying team roping and to this day I still learn things. I see people come for lessons who do things I’ve never seen before. It happens less and less, but now and then I see someone with a new delivery or angle.
The other day I got a text from Wesley Thorp. I’ve helped Wesley since he was 13 or 14 years old. I used to get a lot of texts from him, but since he’s become successful, I don’t get as many. The other day his text read, “Man, my heeling doesn’t feel right. I’m a little off.” He sent me a couple of videos and after watching them, my question was, “What have you been doing?”
The most common thing I see that will change things up for top heelers is when they’ve been riding a horse that’s not very broke. It happens to great ropers all the time. You start changing your swing, your angle, the speed of your rope, the delivery. Wesley was doing all five of these differently. If everyone could improve as fast as Wesley did, the sport of team roping would have a lot more competition. He immediately understood what I was showing him on the video.
Doing one differently can affect the whole run. I’ve heard this from clients who are professional golfers, when one thing goes off script it can begin a chain reaction that affects everything else.
Gabe certainly enjoyed having Wesley here to rope with and making full contact runs. I want to clarify – when Wesley sent a text saying it didn’t feel right, he wasn’t missing or roping bad. He was still catching; it was just harder to accomplish. High numbered ropers know very quickly when it doesn’t feel right, but they rope and ride well enough they can get by.
I’ve dealt with this with both of my kids, especially Hali. When her foot was hurt, and she couldn’t put weight in the stirrup it changed so many things about her runs that I didn’t recognize her. I had trained her from the beginning, so I had to understand where and why the change started and how to get it lined out.
For any young people still in school who read this article, I can’t stress enough the importance of Math. It affects daily life more than you can imagine, especially in rodeo where time becomes crucial in your daily life and your success.
Hali and I will be holding a Breakaway clinic at our place in Comanche April 24th & 25th. We’re taking 12 girls, and tuition is $1,500 per person. We have stalls, RV plugs and a covered arena. For more details visit speedroping.com or email me at justaroper@gmail.com.
