CREATION OF A CHAMPION
Different types of Champions
The higher the level, greater the number of competitors and the number of achievements the more esteemed the Champion.
What is a Champion?
A Champion is something or someone who performs above the norm, achieving higher standards, setting new trends and records for others to strive to improve.
Natural ability alone is not sufficient assurance that any performer will or can become a Champion in his/her chosen field of competition.
Most modern time Champions are created by professional trainers and coaches who are experts in the art of specialized training, nutrition, motivation, physiology and psychology.
Potential Champions are identified by these experts at an early age at games/matches, races, training sessions or camps and through discussion and agreement placed in a specialized training facility or academy.
At these specialized training facilities professional trainers and coaches test and grade the individuals into different training levels according to their natural ability and current level of expertise.
Individuals are then placed on the most suitable training program to ensure the individuals' progress is attained and maintained. Regular monitoring is carried out and progress reports compiled. Regular discussions between trainers/coaches/mentors and trainees are conducted to ensure sound relations and the achievement of training objectives.
Many times it will become necessary to make alterations to the original training program in order to accommodate the required specific needs as identified by the evaluation program.
Human competitors, athletes and sportsmen can communicate with their trainers/coaches/mentors and this makes training much easier for both parties. Human athletes and sportsmen are mainly influenced by the lucrative wealth they can earn by outstanding individual and team performances. Humans also have the advantage that they can perform as individuals and are not hampered by the gregarious effect.
Pigeon Champions
In pigeon racing you will find the following champions: Loft, Club, Combine, Concourse, Association, Federation, National and International champions where all the birds are liberated on the same date, time and race point.
Pigeons, like most other bird species are by nature Gregarious and do not like to be alone. The flock offers safety and protection against many hazards such as predation, anxiety, loneliness and stress. Racing Pigeons therefore generally fly home in flocks until they reach the safe well known area of the home loft.
Many follow loft mates or other flocks of pigeons from different areas because they are too scared to fly solo and are lost because they are either too tired, poor quality, badly trained or just too plain stupid to find their way home again.
A champion racing pigeon can only be a champion if he/she is able to negotiate the race solo. This means that a champion racing pigeon is actually a freak of nature, a wonder, a rarity and also a rebel because he/she is not influenced by the gregarious effect. This bird is and operates as an individual, which is truly very rare and unique amongst pigeons or most birds.
It is my humble opinion and experience that the only way to increase the number of your solo fliers (get a pigeon to become an individual performer) is to train them individually as youngsters. Remember the age old saying "You cannot teach an old dog new tricks" Training is the only method that can possibly assist the racing pigeon to overcome the Gregarious instinct that the majority of them possess.
Many fanciers believe that single up training teaches the pigeon to memorizes the line of flight or the route home. This is very far from reality but still a very good and sound practice because it forces the pigeon to alter its attitude and to overcome the fear of being all alone in the wide blue sky.
Some pigeons will stay with the batch until they reach the familiar surroundings in their area near their loft and then break away and race solo over the last few miles to their home lofts. This does not make them solo flyers or champion racers.
This method of solo training assists the pigeon which is near the edge of solo flying more than others, because it gives them the confidence required to overcome the fear of solo flying.
Some pigeons that are solo flyers demonstrate this ability in the races while they are still young and we are then very surprised when a certain bird is the first arrival from the race. It, however, takes another two or three races before we realize that this bird is a solo flyer and potential Champion.
One of the most important advantages of this training program is that you can identify your potential champions at an early age before the start of the racing season and not only during the racing season.
This, however, does not mean that all pigeons trained to fly solo will overcome their fear of being alone (the gregarious effect) and will therefore have to be culled. It does, however, allow you to identify your potential Champions at an earlier stage resulting in many advantages by saving time, money, frustrations and disappointments.
One can now spend quality-time on those loners you have discovered because you will have fewer pigeons to concentrate on. This will result in you saving on everything such as food, grit, training, hygiene, time and effort. We pigeon fanciers can thus create our own Champions. Granted, the pigeon in question must come from quality breeding and you, the creator/breeder of that pigeon should know through your breeding experience as a fancier which of your breeding pairs breed racers with the natural ability to win races.
It is up to us as fanciers to identify our young birds with that Natural Ability to become Champions and to place them on a specialized training program to help them to become better racers and a possible future Champion. We do not have the luxury where we can rely on professional coaches and trainers to do it for us. We have to do it ourselves and it would have been much easier if we could only talk to our pigeons!
SPECIALIZED TRAINING PROGRAM
Train all your youngsters to your favorite 25 mile training spot until they perform to your satisfaction from this spot.
This can become a time consuming exercise, but very few if any became a champion without some extra effort, sweat and tears. Repeat the ritual from the 25 mile mark and now liberate your team in Groups of (5) five. Keep record of every bird in each group of both the liberation as well as the arrival times. Always allow sufficient time between liberation of each bunch, to ensure that the different bunches liberated does not clash (does not pick each other up).
Repeat the training from the 25 mile mark and now liberate them in pairs. Make sure (do everything within your control) to ensure that none is able to join up with any of those liberated before. Again, and every time, keep record of each and every release/arrival to ensure success of this very interesting training venture. Change the pairs around for each liberation to identify possible ("passengers") and train from 25 miles. Until you are satisfied that you can identify the solo flyers.
To save time, find a road running from South to North 25 to 30 miles west of your loft and liberate your pairs on this road at 6 to 10 miles distances between each pair. In my case this road is in a westerly direction from my loft because we race from a West/South-westerly direction. It would be to your advantage if you could find more similar roads from 10, 25, 40, 50 and 60 mile distances in the correct direction from your loft location.
Draw a straight line from a point 10 miles north of your most westerly 60 mile training point on your chosen training road/route (running from South to North in my case) to your loft, and one from a point 10 miles east of your most southerly training point to your loft.
These two added 10 mile distances at both ends to widen the angle is done to compensate for the prevailing winds blowing.
Divide all your chosen roads/routes from 10 to 60 miles into 6 to 10 mile liberation distances by starting where the line from the most western training point crosses the chosen road/route up to the point where the line from the south crosses the same road/ route.
By changing the pairs around you will soon identify the passengers who rely on the others to take them home. I keep on pairing the passengers together to eliminate the possibility of any mistakes on my part. If they still persist returning late, they are doomed. Remove any trainees not performing according to your expectation from the program.
Remember we are searching for champion material and any members not making the grade should be discarded as they only slow down and increase the time and costs of the training process. Now start releasing them single-up.
When satisfaction is reached at the 25 mile stage I move on to 50 mile, and carry on increasing the distance to 60-70 miles. At the last two training tosses from the 90 to 125 mile distance they can all be released together depending on the time available, the state of the molt and weather conditions. Correct data of these last two liberations is also very essential for the final assessment and evaluation.
Recording all single liberations and compiling progress reports is very essential. The new electronic clocking system is a definite winner and very helpful in supplying the arrival times of each trainee at the loft. This ensures that correct data is available for each trainee and simplifies the assessment and validation process of the training program. The only problem is the possible loss of electronic rings.
I stop the training at the 125 mile mark and then remove all the passengers left over from the loft. They had more than sufficient time to become solo fliers. The parents of all the passengers are then also evaluated and paired differently or discarded if deemed necessary.
As yearlings they are trained with the old birds until we reach 75-90 miles and then they receive three single up training tosses from this same distance to sharpen up their solo potential for which they have been selected. The last two weeks before the first race I organize to get them into combined training tosses. This is to get them used to overnight conditions on the Transporters and mass liberations.
Remember the proverbial saying: "You cannot teach an old dog new tricks" My advice is, start them as young as possible training them to fly solo to overcome the fear of being alone away from the safety provided by the flock/mob/batch (Gregarious Instinct) A champion should never be afraid to stand up to be counted.