I decided to look at the factors that affect the stability of bull rider while he is making a ride. The first thing that I looked at when looking at the stability was the riders base of support and a bull riders base of support is pretty sturdy because he is sitting on the bulls back. Now when the bull starts bucking the bull rider uses his free arm, legs, and feet to keep the line of gravity within the base of support and when the line falls outside of the base of support the rider is most likely going to get bucked off.
During the ride the tries to keep his center of gravity as low to the bulls back as possible because the higher the center of gravity gets the more likely his to get thrown off. That is why most bull riders are 5’10” and under you hardly ever see very many bull riders over 6’0” tall. While we learned in class that the greater the mass the greater the stability. Bull riders do not really follow this rule because they feel like it is more important to be able to move and react quicker because just sitting there with the greatest mass will not work when you are trying to ride a bull that is bucking.
Now onto the finally aspect of stability and that is friction and bull riders use lots of different things to increase the amount of friction against the bulls back. The most important thing they use is a bull rope which they grab onto with a glove rubbed in rosin, then they have the jeans they wear plus the chaps they wear of the jeans, and finally they have the spurs which helps them get a hold with their feet while the bull is bucking. Most people thing that bull riders just grab on and try and hang on for 8 seconds but the great ones actually use biomechanical analysis to improve their riding skills.
