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Racing Pigeon Digest Featured ArticleTRAINING Since I published the second edition of "The Pigeon Racing Sport" (The "Pigeon Bible") I have had several requests to sell pigeons. The reason for that is my method of very little training. I guess that a lot of flyers do not like to wear out a truck training their birds. There is, however, more to it than acquiring the "right birds". I am not in the pigeon selling business. I do not keep sufficient pigeons to pursue the pigeon selling business. A bird that has given me a lot of enjoyment will die of natural causes on my loft. In June 1981, I relocated from Wichita Falls to the greater Dallas area. Of course I had to build a new race team. During the period 1981 - 1986 I did not do any training at all. The first young bird race was the first time that my young birds went into a crate. My old birds also did not see a crate again until the first old bird race. In the middle of the 1986 OB series I had to stop racing due to work obligations. When I stopped racing I had already won three combine races in the NTC. The North Texas Concourse with over 100 lofts competing included Campbell Strange, who certainly brings quality birds to the races, Ricky Smith and other well-known and respected flyers. We did not have a favorable location. No other member of the DRPC won a combine race during that time. In the local club, the DRPC, it was usually a contest between Ricky Smith and myself for first place. Ricky and I are two complete opposites as far as training practices are concerned. The obvious conclusion is that both methods can work. It becomes therefore a matter of preference. Most flyers do not show up in the race results unless they train very heavy. Many have tried to do without heavy training but revert back to their old method after one season because of the poor results. The European flyers think that we, the American flyers, are crazy. Some have tried heavy training with no improved results. They quickly discard a "useless" effort. No, American flyers are not crazy. American flyers have adapted to their race environment. There is a reason for everything and this apparent discrepancy in training results also has its reasons. To explain this, I have to refer to some things that have happened and will support the explanations as we go along. While I was in Wichita Fall, TX we had a Texas Center Race in 1980 with the release point near Houston. Any Texas Center member can compete in this race. One of the most experienced and better older flyers in the Wichita Falls club did not want to enter any birds in that race because of the high losses. His experience was that the losses during a Texas Center Race were always heavy and his advice was not to risk loosing good birds. When I heard this, I entered every single bird that had not earned a solid spot on the race team for the following year. I did not lose any birds and clocked them all in very good race time. The old flyer was however right, the club losses were high. The question you must ask is: What is different with the Texas Center Race compared to a regular club race? The difference is that the birds must home over a 180-degree front (Half circle stretching from eastern Louisiana, southern Oklahoma and western New Mexico). The better birds orient and start on their way home in various directions. Too many birds follow and take off in the wrong direction and are lost. They followed the wrong birds. There is a reason behind my madness. I send all my birds with the slightest question mark because I wanted to find out which ones were the followers and which ones flew their own race. I don't worry about loosing followers. The followers do not return or show up late. In the "Racing Principles" there are two sections that relate to this issue. The two related sections are the "Racing Environment" and "Racing in Holland and the USA". These two sections really answer the training question but I will clarify this some more. Let's first take a look at the US racing environment and what characteristics this will create in the birds. Most clubs ship and release their own birds independently, usually less than 300 birds in a race. Most clubs are not part of a combine. What is the consequence? All the birds fly home to a relative small area in the same direction. One single bird, the fastest one to orient, takes off for home and the majority of the rest follows. This one bird sets the initial tone for the race. Few of the birds orient themselves initially. The slower birds and the ones that tire easy fall off the flock. They are physically inferior racers for the distance are in poor condition. The flock might break up into smaller flocks along the way. Each flock will have its leader and a bunch of followers. The leader is forced into the leadership position by default and not because of personal initiative. The flocks go on together until they reach "recognition territory" and recognize landmarks. The birds now break away from the flock and go the last miles alone. They know now exactly where they are. They have been there many times on the training tosses. They recognize the terrain. The flocks splinter apart as they come closer to home and more and more birds recognize landmarks. The untrained birds have no landmarks. They loose the race in the last 50 miles unless they have superior orientation, leadership and breakaway capabilities. They have to know where they are without landmarks. They have to race their own race. Training tosses give the birds the opportunity to establish their landmarks. That is the major benefit of heavy training. Do you see what has happened? A bird with relative poor orientation capability can win the race. The emphasis has shifted to a "physical performance bird" rather than a combination of physical and mental capabilities. The importance of the bird's orientation capabilities has been decreased. See how well this relates to the Texas Center Race episode. Birds with lesser orientation capabilities were easily lost. Many flock followers end up far away from home and never return. In this kind of a race the birds with superior orientation, leadership and breakaway ability become the winners. During my time in Wichita Falls, TX, one flyer moved to a town 20 miles east. He rarely showed up in the race results until he moved back to Wichita Falls. The difference of 20 miles off the main drag made him far less competitive. His birds most likely made a detour via Wichita Falls before orienting themselves and going home on their own power after they were defeated. The birds did not have the independence and breakaway ability to do this early when they could still win. They waited until all the flocks were splintered apart and they had no other choice left. I have tested my beliefs several times by entering some un-flown, untrained birds in 300 mile races. I bet on the flock doing the work and carrying them till nearly home. They can finish 30 miles by themselves. It worked. I did not lose them. They did not win the race but I clocked several of them in very good race time. Some even placed in the top 10% in the combine. In Holland I counted on the birds coming home very late or losing the birds in this type of experiment. That is exactly what happened. Another example is the typical old bird performances in clubs that "fly around the clock" More than 90% of the old birds on the race results are yearlings. Have you ever asked yourself the question why the outstanding old birds from the previous year have lost their ability to win? Why would they suddenly become bad birds? I asked that question many times when I flew my first old bird series in the US and noticed this. I had expected to see about 50% of the prizewinners to be 2 years old or older. Why would you not build an old bird team that consists out of the best racers you bred over a 5-year period? A team like that has to be better than what you can breed in a single year. There is only one logical reason: The experience is that the birds do not perform in different directions. They only perform in the direction they were trained as young birds. I looked further because I like old bird flying better than young bird flying. Eventually one flyer who I highly respect (Ricky Smith) gave another answer. His answer was: I have tried several times but over the years I have had only one bird that was capable of winning in more than one direction. (He was a heavy trainer) Note: This is the type of bird that I look for to build with. This is a superior bird that has what it takes. That answer really provides the solution. That answer really translates into: "It can be done but most birds are not good enough. Most birds lack one or more important quality". Then the next question becomes:" Why are most birds not good enough?" Take a look at the Dutch racing environment. (I do believe that I am qualified to talk about this since I raced 20 years in Holland.) Here is where the difference with American pigeon racing environment shows. The Dutch birds are not released at a local club level. The National Pigeon Racing Organization (NPO) collects and releases the birds. The transport trailers have predetermined pick up routes and collect the birds at the various clubhouses. The transport trailers eventually all meet at the release point. The mass releases of 40,000 birds and up require different characteristics from the birds. The province Noord Brabant, where I used to live and race, is divided into three sections for the releases. This is done to reduce injuries to the birds during the release by limiting the releases to about 60,000 birds per release. The flock followers cannot become good birds. How do you pick the right birds to follow home out of this release? Luck might be with the bird once or twice but not often enough to make it a good bird. Since Holland is a small country the race front is small compared what we have in the US. On a typical race day we would see thousands of birds flying over. A bird that is drawn five miles off the course is a looser. Add to that the chances that the bird follows birds from the Belgian and French releases while they fly over these countries and you see the demands that are placed on the bird's own abilities. With mass releases the good birds fly their own race. They learn very quickly that when they are following it takes much longer to get home. At the end they still have to find their own way home. They can do it much faster by relying on their own abilities. They have well developed orientation capabilities and do not need assistance when navigating their way home. They also have the leadership ability and the independence to break away from the flock. They take advantage of the flock in the early part of the race but are not afraid to go their own way. As a result of the two different race environments, two different types of birds are developed. The American race environment promotes the development of birds with superior physical assets. The Dutch race environment promotes not only the development of physical assets but adds to that the development of superior orientation and leadership abilities. Good Dutch birds can compete and win in both environments. The reason for this is: it has more features included in the selection process. These features can help the bird based in many race environments but they never become a handicap in any race environment. The physical requirements exist in all race environments. The requirements for the mental features are however much more demanding and an absolute must in the Dutch competition (or any competition with mass releases). This is not a matter of who are the better pigeon flyers. It is a matter of circumstances that the pigeon flyers in the US cannot change. Obviously many US flyers are willing to work hard and put the effort in to win. The racing pigeon sport in the US is however not big enough to create the same racing environment. The pigeons that become winners in the races survive and become breeders, adapted to the race environment. The winning birds will always adapt to the race environment because it is really nothing else than survival of the fittest if you keep the best performing birds. It is nature's way. We cannot determine if the winning bird won because of superior physical capabilities alone and if the bird still has the right mental capabilities. A certain percentage of the winners will be physically superior (speed, stamina and endurance) but lack the intelligence. On the other hand a certain percentage of the winners has more than physicals assets and can match the best in the world. The question is: How do you determine the difference? Will my birds perform better if I do a lot of heavy training? For the best birds it will not make much difference. The lesser birds will probably produce better results. The loft as a whole will probably perform a little better. Knowing this I will still not switch to a heavy training program. The reason for this is very simple: Once I start heavy training, I will not have much choice left. In a few years I will be in the same boat as everyone else. The selection of the best birds will be based on the "American way" of racing and training. The number of "good birds" I breed will rapidly increase because I am in reality lowering the standards. I would be removing the mental requirements. I want birds that are natural born racers. I want birds that are born to race for me. These are much more difficult to breed. They must have all the talents needed to win on their own power. They must also have superior leadership, breakaway and orientation capabilities. My father used to say, "Every breeder pair that produces one good bird is a good breeder pair. Most pairs will never produce a good bird". I used to wonder why I bred so many more "good" birds in the US than I used to do in Holland. Until a sound foundation is established I hope for one good bird per 100 youngsters (1%). This can go up to 10 - 15% once the stock loft with proven breeder pairs has been established. My biggest concern is to not lose the mental abilities. Very little or no training is one of the methods I do use to make sure that they are still there. When I started with "American" birds in Wichita Falls, TX in 1976, it took me three years to breed one single bird that met my requirements. I lost a large number of birds on the early races but I ended up with a few reasonably good birds. I must admit that along the way I wondered if American flyers were so much better than the Dutch flyers. The first two years in Wichita Falls, TX, were the poorest performance years of my life. The other club members constantly encouraged me to start training more. They all said that if I would train the birds like they did, I would produce much better results. I am, however, somewhat stubborn and stuck to my methods and beliefs despite the poor results. It was sometimes very difficult because I do not like to lose. After my imports arrived in January '79 I flew the young bird races that year with their offspring and only three "American" birds. No, they were not expensive imports. They came from my father's loft and I knew that they would respond to my handling because we raced together in Holland for 20 years. Because of my father's work obligations I used to do 95% of the pigeon work. They were birds that were developed to race for me. I had 30 young birds to start and had 30 young birds left after the last race. My training program was again three tosses from respectively 5, 10 and 25 miles. Nearly all birds (25) were diploma winners. The imports had the qualities I needed and moved me immediately to the top of the club. The following OB series the club organized a 100M training race and that was the first time that my birds saw the crate again. They came in two hours late. The following week, I was teased unmercifully to pool my birds. I guess I was considered an easy target after the poor training race performance. I had not pooled my birds before because I race for the fun of it and the non-mandatory pooling was is of the things I like about American pigeon racing. I did pool two birds for the next seven races. With two pool birds you can win all the pool money if the birds are good enough. After that there was no more pooling. The reason as one club member expressed it: "Why should we bet against you, we could just as well give you the money before the race". Except for the one 500 mile smash race (80% of the birds lost), I had won all the pool money. My birds returned late after 4 days from that smash race. My race team consisted out of 12 yearlings. Two were not raced because of broken flights. Of the 10 birds that were raced, 7 placed in the top 8 birds in the champion bird competition. The race results appear to indicate that I became suddenly a much better pigeon flyer. I certainly did not become a better pigeon flyer overnight when the Dutch birds arrived. My handling methods did not change. The difference is in the environment in which the birds were developed. Can you switch to the very light training method? You can but you must be prepared to put in some awful seasons until you have selected for "complete" birds and have recovered the mental capabilities (assuming that they are still present in some of the birds). That takes more than one year. Because it takes so long, most of the flyers that tried failed. They simply were not willing to suffer the losses and defeats for several years. They simply stop too soon. There are usually reasons why things develop a certain way. If you analyze and understand why it happens, you can compensate or find alternatives. Heavy training is a compensation method to make less talented birds perform better. It gives the birds that can keep up with the fastest flock a chance. For the real good birds it makes no difference. Heavy training works in the US because of the racing environment. It does not work in Europe because the racing environment there is different. I have no problem if others beat me because of their hard work. They earned it. Handling the birds in a way that they perform better is part of the sport. Training is just one of the tools. Everyone can do it if they choose to do so. To be honest, I admire the flyers that put all that hard work in to excel. Many American flyers work much harder at winning than their European counterparts. I do believe that many American flyers would be top flyers when competing in Europe. They have adapted very well to the race environment and can also adapt to the European race environment. From what I have heard, a well-known US flyer tried the American training method in Belgium. It is not a surprise that it did not work. Since I don't like training but enjoy pigeon racing, I look for an alternative. I put in three lousy years, at least by my standards, but progressed steadily. By the third year I had moved from the poorest flyer (I clocked two birds the first YB series) in the club to the top 30%. During that time I developed one good bird and a few decent birds. My estimate is that it would have taken 5 - 6 years to develop a good loft without the imports. There are many ways that can lead to success. My way is not the fastest but it is the way I enjoy the sport the most. My goal is and has always been to develop an old bird race team that consists of the best I can breed over a 5 - 7 year period-- an old bird team in which every single bird is capable of winning in all directions, with very little training. We did not start out trying to develop a family of pigeons that requires little training. It was really born out of the race environment or circumstances we had to contend with. We lived less than 10 miles from the Belgian border and it was prohibited to take birds across the border. We could train the birds to a maximum distance of less than 10 miles. Training often is also useless since the birds roam more than 10 miles when they are let out to exercise. For all practical purposes our training program was limited to getting the birds used to the crates. It taught me however that heavy training is not an essential requirement for good race performances. Is my analysis correct? To answer that question consider the following facts:
The answer to both questions is the same. In our race environment in the US it is very difficult to select for the few additional features that give the birds that little edge. How do you select for mental characteristics if the race results do not tell you if the bird is a leader or a follower? This is a problem that the US flyers have to contend with. In contrast the Dutch pigeon flyers can use the race results (and far more race results) for this. The race results tell the story. The selection process is easier and more dependable for them. Winning is not free. In one-way or another you must pay the price. It can be in the form of hard work like heavy training. It can be in the form of accepting the agony of defeat for several years while developing your birds. It can be in the form of money by buying the right birds. As always the choice is yours. Make the choice that allows you to enjoy the sport the most. |
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