Good practice/training.

[Murray]

If It was doable, and I realize with the shop it possibly isn't, I would get as many little tosses as possible into them starting now. 2,5,8 miles it doesn't matter.
Then the week leading up to the first race I would find a nice point about 15 miles from home and go there every day, Sunday to Thursday. Hamper the whole lot for the first race on Friday.
I speak from experience, if your YB races are short hops like that that sort of prep give them the idea to jump out and go.

[king]

If It was doable, and I realize with the shop it possibly isn't, I would get as many little tosses as possible into them starting now. 2,5,8 miles it doesn't matter.
Then the week leading up to the first race I would find a nice point about 15 miles from home and go there every day, Sunday to Thursday. Hamper the whole lot for the first race on Friday.
I speak from experience, if your YB races are short hops like that that sort of prep give them the idea to jump out and go.

The saying around where I live was, the shorter the toss the bigger the loss. I know many fanciers around me who lose the vast majority of their YBs from very short tosses. And those fanciers who have the largest teams suffer the worst. When racing my first YB toss was always from at least 7 miles. The 2nd was from 12.

[NeilA]

I think I would take them to that 34 miles point 10 plus times so there doing there own race before they go with others
That way there brainwashed to do ir
Make sure they do it in 38-40 mins

I've not read through this whole topic yet, I'll catch up with it over the weekend, but this certainly seems to be the way the top sprint fliers in our club/Fed seem to do it too.
I used to train a lot back in the day but since starting back up again I've not played much attention to it, I've got lazy !! I've not been too bothered due to my birds being on open loft and only really being interested in the longer races, however I am starting to realise that if I want to get in the mix from the shorter races too then I need to put more effort in.

Hi Trev
I think your right
I will go 4 miles 3 times , 10 miles 3 times
Then around 18-20 miles around 12-15 tines before the first race
I then go to that distance every night Monday to Thursday for 4-5 weeks before they fall apart ( non darkness)
It’s a lot of effort after work but I do think it’s worth it for sprint races as they are brainwashed to break for home as where I live I have to get them away from the drag
In Andy’s position I would get them to pretty much 34 miles ( his first race point) many times as I could so they are again doing it close to a mile a min as that’s his first race point
People here go 40 miles a day with babies I don’t have the time for that and in my fed I don’t think there is a great need for it

[MIL]

If It was doable, and I realize with the shop it possibly isn't, I would get as many little tosses as possible into them starting now. 2,5,8 miles it doesn't matter.
Then the week leading up to the first race I would find a nice point about 15 miles from home and go there every day, Sunday to Thursday. Hamper the whole lot for the first race on Friday.
I speak from experience, if your YB races are short hops like that that sort of prep give them the idea to jump out and go.

The saying around where I live was, the shorter the toss the bigger the loss. I know many fanciers around me who lose the vast majority of their YBs from very short tosses. And those fanciers who have the largest teams suffer the worst. When racing my first YB toss was always from at least 7 miles. The 2nd was from 12.

The very finest YB fliers I know adopt the exact opposite policy of this

[MIL]

I do thank and appreciate members for their advice.
Yes Neil I am looking at sprint racing now and I do want to get back to winning again. I probably haven’t got the right birds at present to do this but I don’t really want to go down the path of having to buy in a lot of new stock. I wouldn’t really get any enjoyment out of doing it that way. I would rather test and select from what I’ve got. You would be very hard pushed to get any pigeons in the combine results multiple times as there are hardly any pigeons from any member that achieves that. Every race this year has been won by a different member. This year I started out with high hopes and was enjoying the racing but because of all the personal problems over the past couple of months things haven’t gone to plan.
The next problem is the young bird program.
I have 9 youngbird races. 5 are from 34 miles, 2 from 57 miles, 1 from 102 miles and the longest 128 miles. How do members suggest I approach such a crap program? The bulk of the birds with the combine will be going 20 miles North of me and with the 3 counties probably about the same 20 miles South of me. I do only have 14 youngsters.

Andy

In order to best answer this can I ask what your intended goals are please?

If it's just experience, or to be compettive then the advice would differ (i agree its a woeful programme for you)

[Devo1956]

Every thing is routine when training young birds, so after their first stages of flying around the loft, and trapping when called. Basket training is needed, myself i would leave them in a basket overnight in the young bird section. then release from a short distance from the loft. Not long after this, they start to range and maybe go missing for up to 1 hour. This is all good education for getting to know their homing zone. Once they have done this, time for the road work to start. I would take them to a location that was safe to release around 5 miles, keep them at that point for around 5 days and move them on in distance to 12 miles and repeat for another 5 days. this would carry on from 20 miles then once they were at 35 miles. road training would then end before their first race. If you have the time to double up on training, even better it's all about knowing your birds are ready.

Dont forget, Feed to win.

[Murray]

If It was doable, and I realize with the shop it possibly isn't, I would get as many little tosses as possible into them starting now. 2,5,8 miles it doesn't matter.
Then the week leading up to the first race I would find a nice point about 15 miles from home and go there every day, Sunday to Thursday. Hamper the whole lot for the first race on Friday.
I speak from experience, if your YB races are short hops like that that sort of prep give them the idea to jump out and go.

The saying around where I live was, the shorter the toss the bigger the loss. I know many fanciers around me who lose the vast majority of their YBs from very short tosses. And those fanciers who have the largest teams suffer the worst. When racing my first YB toss was always from at least 7 miles. The 2nd was from 12.

Yes, It used to be you could go 5 then 10 then 20 miles, boom boom boom....
Try doing it now with your babies. You will have none left.
It seems to be true in Australia, Europe and anywhere else pigeons are raced. And before anyone jumps in and announces that they go 200 miles for their first toss, or something, yes people do still go up the road first time. But it's going to bite them in the bum at some point.
No, I don't know why either. But I reckon I have a fair idea.

[Trev]

It is great to read everyone's posts and opinions, it never fails to make me smile at just how different we all are with approach to getting the birds race ready. Since coming back into the sport in 2017 it is certainly becoming more apparent just how much things have changed over the years. In club and Federation racing there is certainly more focus on the sprint races whereas 20-30 years ago the short races for most fanciers were only warm up races for the big ones.
Training certainly does seem to be massive part of being consistently at the top these days, I think this defiinately shows in our Federation when you see that members right across the Federation from East to West, a spread of 60+miles, are clocking at the same time. This means that, from the shorter races in particularl, the birds are splitting almost straight out of the crate, in my opinion this isn't happening without training hard. How far fanciers choose to start from is very different, we have one club member who starts training his youngsters from just a couple of miles along the coast, several times in both directions, before taking them North. He will then do this in 5mile stages, again several times from several different locations but similar distances, right up to about 50miles. He is young and keen, and does this every morning before work and again in the evenings after work. Another starts his straight North at just a couple of miles right up to around 50mile's, he is retired !! While others start around the 5mile mark and only go to around 30miles, but all do train regularly and carry on once racing has started. I imagine others in the Federation are very similar in their approach, it is certainly easier for those with plenty of energy or those who are retired.
I gave mine their first toss on Sunday from about 10miles, I'll do another post on this, I was hoping to go again today but it looks like the weather has other ideas for me

[MIL]

Training certainly does seem to be massive part of being consistently at the top these days, I think this defiinately shows in our Federation when you see that members right across the Federation from East to West, a spread of 60+miles, are clocking at the same time. This means that, from the shorter races in particularl, the birds are splitting almost straight out of the crate, in my opinion this isn't happening without training hard.

Training might play a pat in it - but these birds have got to be healthy and well motivated

Without that, a well trained bird is nothing

I know a bloke training 3 times a week at 50 miles and his performances are shiyte

[Andy]

I do thank and appreciate members for their advice.
Yes Neil I am looking at sprint racing now and I do want to get back to winning again. I probably haven’t got the right birds at present to do this but I don’t really want to go down the path of having to buy in a lot of new stock. I wouldn’t really get any enjoyment out of doing it that way. I would rather test and select from what I’ve got. You would be very hard pushed to get any pigeons in the combine results multiple times as there are hardly any pigeons from any member that achieves that. Every race this year has been won by a different member. This year I started out with high hopes and was enjoying the racing but because of all the personal problems over the past couple of months things haven’t gone to plan.
The next problem is the young bird program.
I have 9 youngbird races. 5 are from 34 miles, 2 from 57 miles, 1 from 102 miles and the longest 128 miles. How do members suggest I approach such a crap program? The bulk of the birds with the combine will be going 20 miles North of me and with the 3 counties probably about the same 20 miles South of me. I do only have 14 youngsters.

Andy

In order to best answer this can I ask what your intended goals are please?

If it's just experience, or to be compettive then the advice would differ (i agree its a woeful programme for you)

Hi Mike. I would like to be competitive with the youngsters and are going much more for sprint racing nowadays. I only have 14 youngsters and the youngest 3 are still squeaking, but are flying well with the older ones. I don’t do darkness. As has been said if I am going to be sprint racing they will probably only be any good for 2 or 3 years.
I have a couple of issues especially this year. Racing wise we have been racing with 2 different “combines”. Racing from the same race point the different combines will take completely different lines of flight for the majority of the birds entered. One lot well north of me the other well south. Also the races are so short.
On top of this I have other personal issues that is making things difficult at present. With losing our mum and Roxanna’s aunt within a fortnight of each other a month ago things have been so up in the air. Roxanna is executor for her aunt so we have lots going on there. Our plans for the future are a bit unclear at present but as it stands once both estates are sorted out we are going to sell our property and shop and move away and retire. This would obviously mean moving the pigeons and having to break them and to a degree start again. This could happen within the next couple of years.