Are Your Pigeons Too Heavy For The Race?

[Devo1956]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35kUnhP17c4&t=354s

Also and interesting video by Gaby Vandenabeele about his feed exercise schedule.

I can only agree with you Steve, Gaby was a master of his feeding system.

[Murray]

These are very interesting videos from champions of the sport. And I don't totally agree with either of them.
I am not being obtuse. I have just learned that what wins races where I live is quite different.

[NeilA]

I am no expert but I think it you hold a pigeon it should feel that if you dropped it then it would float down like a empty crisp bag then there ok if it feels like it will drop straight or even like a brick then that’s no good

[MIL]

"Buoyant" is the word I think described it best

I liked my sprinters to feel hard, muscular, solid - not "light" exactly but "buoyant" certainly

You show me a heavy sprinter and i'll show you a pigeon that'll get its arse kicked

[NeilA]

"Buoyant" is the word I think described it best

I liked my sprinters to feel hard, muscular, solid - not "light" exactly but "buoyant" certainly

You show me a heavy sprinter and i'll show you a pigeon that'll get its arse kicked

I am now not sure if mine are light or buoyant
Could you describe the difference in the hand please Mike for people like me that could be getting it wrong

[Trev]

"Buoyant" is the word I think described it best

I liked my sprinters to feel hard, muscular, solid - not "light" exactly but "buoyant" certainly

You show me a heavy sprinter and i'll show you a pigeon that'll get its arse kicked

I am now not sure if mine are light or buoyant
Could you describe the difference in the hand please Mike for people like me that could be getting it wrong

I agree mate, not sure I'd know the difference between "Light and Buoyant" either
I can't really describe how I like them to feel other than I just like them to feel right but then I'm not a champion either lol
I do remember the old Leon Boars though, they were enormous and heavy birds but they could sprint, as were the original Wildemeersch birds.

[Anthony webster]

I tell novices if they don't understand
A table tennis ball is light n buoyant
A new potato same size round but heavey
Can't keep it much simpler
Light buoyant with muscle like a pumped up bike inner tube.

[Andy]

A good way of putting it Tony.

[king]

I must have handled 100s of winners and I've been surprised how different winners can be. A birds weight is only part of a bird which the fancier can change. Everything else is genetic. I've handled loads of birds which fit your hand lovely and then seen them beaten by a worst handling bird. There is no perfect weight, only the perfect weight for each pigeon.
Fanciers may get away with sending old birds light to the short races but it's not so easy the further you send them. And YBs are something different all together, many try to race them and get them to handle the same as old birds. This again may work on an easy day, but when the race is harder than expected, many of these fail to return. Birds can fly weight off, they can't fly it on.

Here's something many may not know.
The weight of the Olympic 100m champion has generally increased since the first Olympic Games, from around 60-70 kg (130-154 lb) in the early Olympic years up to 94 kg (207 lb) Usain Bolt.

[NeilA]

That would be muscle though king
You only have to look at sports people now to see that