As you say Murray we all have our own ways of doing things and I wouldn’t say anything against what others do. I just like to say the way a think and do things. You say your mind set has developed through being a jockey. I think a lot of the way we do things with our pigeons is down to our own experiences both with our pigeons and other lifetime experiences. Mine are from my years of farming and as a competitive swimmer. With my swimming training I hated just plodding up and down a pool for hours on end. Although this may have helped a bit with technique and for building stamina it done nothing for me. The real important part in swimming races is the start, turns and finish. I would opt out of swimming training in favour of playing water polo. Which I was also a county player in. In this training it was more about short bursts of speed with stamina and fitness included along with the physical side of things.Murray wrote: ↑Sat Jun 25, 2022 8:40 am No one would accuse you of being lazy, Andy, and we all have our own methods.
I have a mind set developed by being a jockey. I know you can educate them to begin quickly and give yourself a bit of an advantage.That's only my way of looking at it. Not everyone thinks that is important.
The pigeons are looking terrific, as always.
I gave up swimming and playing about fifteen years ago due to a shortage of time I had. I was asked to compete for the county in swimming a few years after retiring and although I hadn’t been in a pool for 4 years, let alone done any training, in my first race, 50 meters butterfly I was only 3 seconds off my best time. I had 6 races that day and really felt it by the end lol. When swimming and playing regularly I could compete in 9 events a day and be fine by the end.
The difference here between me and the pigeons is that although I don’t train them they are still flying around home twice a day, old birds on open loft. So effectively training every day for fitness.