Next Play Mentality
I was riding out of the arena with maybe ninety seconds before my name got called again. I'd just missed — a wave-off, in the main arena at the Southpoint. Everything had felt good, I was focused and aggressive but yet the unexpected happened despite months of anticipation and practice. And I had no time to feel sorry about it. My partner and I were seconds from backing into the box for steer two.
That's a very different problem than the one most of us picture when we talk about "getting over a bad performance." We imagine having a night to sleep on it, or a drive home to talk it through, or at least a few hours before we have to show up again. But in many events, there's a much harder version of this skill — the one where you have sixty seconds, not sixty hours, to get your head right before it's your turn again.
WHY YOUR BRAIN WANTS TO REPLAY THE MISTAKE
There's a reason that missed loop wants to play on a loop in your mind. Our brains are wired with a negativity bias — we're built to fixate on threats and failures because, historically, that's what kept us alive. The problem is that in the arena, that same wiring works against us. The more we replay a mistake, the more we're actually rehearsing it, grooving the very pattern we're trying to get away from.
Trevor Brazile — the winningest cowboy in rodeo history — has talked about this directly. He's said that having a short memory for things gone wrong is one of the biggest factors in his success. Not because he doesn't care about his mistakes. Because he knows exactly how much a mistake is allowed to cost him, and it isn't the next run.
That's the difference between a competitor who's merely talented and one who's dangerous. Talent gets you the good runs. A short memory is what keeps one bad run from turning into three.
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS IN THAT SIXTY SECONDS
Here's what I've learned, both from my own competing and from the research I've studied on mental performance: you cannot out-think a mistake in sixty seconds. There isn't time to analyze what went wrong, extract the lesson, and file it away neatly before your next run. That kind of processing takes longer, and it should — that's exactly why I teach clients how to ‘park it,’ mentally put it aside until after the competition.
What you can do in sixty seconds is interrupt the spiral. You're not solving anything. You're just refusing to let the mistake keep talking.
This is where a refocus phrase and a physical cue earn their keep. Something short — I've got this, next steer, move on — paired with a breath and a physical gesture. A hand on the saddle horn. A slap on your leg. Something that ties you to the present moment and brings your attention back to what’s important now.
It sounds almost too simple to matter. But this refocus strategy works, and it works fast. It’s a pattern interrupt and redirect.
BUILDING YOUR OWN SIXTY-SECOND RESET
If you don't already have one, here's where to start. Pick a refocus word or phrase that feels like you. Pair it with one physical action you can do from the saddle: a fist clench and release, a slap of the rope against your thigh, an adjustment of your hat. Practice it now, away from competition, so it's already a habit by the time you need it under pressure.
Then trust it. The sixty-second reset isn't about pretending the mistake didn't happen. It's about deciding, on purpose, that it doesn't get to run the next sixty seconds too.
Next steer. Next target. Next run. Next day. That's not denial. That's competing like a champion.
If this is something you want to build into your own mental game — a real routine you can rely on when there's no time to think — that's a taste of the kind of work we do together in one-on-one coaching. Book a free discovery call to make sure it’s the right fit for you.
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And if you want more on this, this week's episodes of Cowgirl Up go deeper into the next play mentality, with stories from other athletes. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts.
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Laurie Blickenstaff is a Certified Mental Performance Coach and the founder of Mental Game 101, where she helps competitive women in western horse sports build the mental skills to perform consistently under pressure. She is a competitive team roper and World Series of Team Roping champion, and hosts the daily Cowgirl Up podcast.
