Dynamic Warm-Up Pays Off for Pacheco

PUEBLO, Colo. – Kaique Pacheco could feel the sweat running down his chest before he even entered the bucking chute nine days ago.

The 2015 Rookie of the Year was being put through an intense dynamic warm-up with head PBR athletic trainer Rich Blyn to help him get loosened for his upcoming matchup against Jammin Jackson’s Handsome Jeff.

Pacheco was attempting to ride at the Built Ford Tough Music City Knockout with a pelvis injury, which Dr. Tandy Freeman described as mild tenderness, and had reached out to the PBR sports medicine team for advice and guidance.

To try and help Pacheco compete in the final PBR Major of the season, Blyn worked Pacheco through a dynamic warm-up until the 2017 world title contender broke out into a sweat.

The warm-up consisted of a series of workouts to increase Pacheco’s range of movement and his blood and oxygen flow to his muscles, tendons and ligaments before he embarked upon the intense workout of riding a bull for 8 seconds.

Pachecos’s warm-up went as follows:

10 Jumping Jacks
10 Seal Jacks
10 Flings (Cross arms and feet)
10 Squats
10 Squat Jumps
10 Lunges each leg
10 Split Squat Jumps
10 Lateral Lunges Each Side
10 Later Bounds Each Side
10 Pushups
5 Clap Pushups

The warm-up payed huge dividends for Pacheco.

The 22-year-old rode his first two bulls on the final night in Nashville to walk away with the Ride Score Championship for $35,000 and 300 world points.

Pacheco earned 580 points overall toward the world standings to take over the No. 1 ranking for the first time since losing the World Championship on the last day of the 2016 PBR Built Ford Tough World Finals.

“The stretching and warm-up helped me a lot,” Pacheco said. “I felt really good. I am happy to ride my bulls.”

 
After his first qualified ride in Nashville – an 87.25-point work of domination on Handsome Jeff – Pacheco let out a loud, vocal yell in the arena.

It was one of the most confident, vocal forms of expression Pacheco has made this season.

Any talk of this injury getting in the way of his pursuit of a world title should be for naught, Pacheco hinted at.

He then followed up that ride with 88.75 points on Nailed to advance to the semifinals.

 
Pacheco was eliminated by Fabiano Vieira in the semifinals after he only lasted 2.55 seconds on Smooth Operator.

“Kaique drawed rough with Smooth Operator,” 2009 PBR Ring of Honor inductee J.W. Hart said. “I thought he rode good. I just thought that one bull had some bad belly rolls to him. Not a normal trip and it got him.”

When asked if he would give a portion of his winnings to Blyn, Pacheco laughed and said, “I don’t know.”

Two-time World Champion Justin McBride said Pacheco’s performance in Nashville is just another reason why he has to be viewed as one of the front runners for the 2017 world title.

“That is why we think of him as the one they are going to have go through,” McBride said. “There is just not a hole in this guy. Whether it is physical, mental, mechanics. He really has it all. Then you put in the factor that he has been there in this situation before.”

Pacheco didn’t use the BFTS weekend to rest his injured pelvis and instead competed at the famous rodeo in Barretos, Brazil, this weekend.

The third-year pro bucked off both his bulls.

Last year, Pacheco went 5-for-5 to win the PBR Brazil Finals event in Barretos.

Pacheco will head into this coming weekend’s WinStar World Casino and Resort Invitational with a 380-point lead on No. 2 Eduardo Aparecido.

The Itatiba, Brazil, native, leads the PBR with 30 qualified rides and a 50.85-percent riding average, and he is back in the driver’s seat after coming up oh so close of that first world title last year.

Pacheco has finished runner-up in the world title race in each of his first two seasons in the PBR.

“He is the guy they are going to have to run down,” McBride said. “He is the most seasoned aside from (Cooper) Davis in that aspect. I think he is the hungriest. He is the one guy that hasn’t won one in there that has been really close.”

Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko