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Set up your target. Stand 15-20 feet (6.1m) away from your target. Create a loop in your lariat and hold it in your dominant hand. Slide your hand away from the eye by at least 18 inches. Hold the excess coils of lariat in your other hand. Raise your dominant arm overhead, holding the loop, and begin to swing. Maintain your grip on the loop and the spoke. Twirl the loop at a speed fast enough to allow you to control its direction. Choose the correct moment in the swing to throw the lariat. Jerk the lariat taut after it lands on the target.
There are a variety of different targets you can use to learn how to rope. A post A plastic steer head secured to a post or stand A roping dummy A box This gives you ample room to swing your lariat without accidentally catching the target before you throw it. Lean your weight on the balls of your feet, as if you are sitting on a saddle with your feet in the stirrups. The size of the loop depends on personal preference. Run the end of the rope through the honda, which is the eye in the rope that slides the loop open and closed. Some ropers prefer to start with a small loop and allow it to grow in size while they twirl it overhead. Other ropers prefer to start with a large loop of approximately seven feet in diameter and keep it that size while twirling. When you start twirling the rope overhead, you do not want your hand to be too near the eye so that the loop moves freely. However, do hold a bit of the excess slack in the same hand as your loop. This helps you to keep the loop open. This stretch of the rope is called the "spoke." Leave enough slack to give yourself room to lift the loop above your head, twirl it, and throw it. At least six feet of lariat between the two hands is recommended. Hold the coils in such a way that they will easily slip off of your hand when you throw the lariat. The twirling of the lariat is the hardest part to master, because many people have a hard time learning how to make the twirl happen with their wrist. Move only your wrist, not your whole arm. Think of your wrist as an axle, as if the rope was a wheel revolving around your wrist. Correctly twirling the lariat with the wrist allows the rope to slide through the eye a bit so that the loop widens. This is especially necessary if you choose to start with a small loop. While you are twirling, you do not want to let go of these two things. They should already both be held in the same hand, per Step 4. Your grip can be loose enough to allow the loop to widen, via excess slack rope sliding through the eye, if you start with a small loop and need to make it bigger as it twirls. A loop that moves too slowly overhead will lilt and fall, and you will not be able to control where it goes. This is important as you prepare to throw the lariat at your target. Although you twirl the rope with your wrist, the throw is completed with your arm. There is an ideal time to throw the rope. Wait until your swinging wrist makes its way from back to front; as it is doing so, take a step forward. Bring your hand forward and down to shoulder height, with your hand facing the target and your palm facing down. Extend your arm to its full length, and release the loop to soar at the target. It is best to do this with the same hand that threw the rope, as your other hand is holding the excess rope (or, in some cases, your reins, if you are on horseback). Do this by turning your throwing hand over the rope, grasping it with your four fingers, and sticking your thumb out toward your body. Then pull the slack taut back toward your body.