The Perfect Team
Creating the perfect kit.
By Graham Dexter
My definition of a perfect team is one that performs to an
excellent standard on a regular basis. It has to be
reliable in its everyday performance and regularly perform
safely to a consistently high standard and exceed
expectations from time to time. This does not mean that it
is a team comprising of all star performers, indeed
sometimes it is the individual star performer that betrays
the overall performance of the team. The team that performs
in competent unison, seemingly effortlessly, safely and
stylishly, without significant errors is the perfect team
for me. However that is simply my perfect team, each
fanciers must set his or her personal objective from their
own standard and vision of what they consider perfect. It
maybe that other fanciers have other objectives. For some it
is simply to beat the competition; to produce a reliable
workmanlike performance, to produce a graphic advert in
order to sell more stock, or even to set a standard for
others to pursue. Any of these objectives can be achieved
in time when a thorough path towards this goal is followed.
My advise is thus to follow the following pathway.
Research, information and knowledge:
Any fancier embarking on this team building will need to
‘know his knitting’ a well known maxim for people in
business. A team can only be built if the fancier has a
good overall knowledge of what he is trying to achieve, a
sound knowledge of management methods, a good grasp of
training, feeding and keeping the team healthy. Usually
this knowledge and skill is built up during an initial ‘apprenticeship’.
This apprenticeship may have had with it many failures and
disappointments. It will have had some sporadic success and
these are from which we all learn. For the apprenticeship
to be meaningful we must have learned hard lessons which
gives us our motivation to succeed.
Vision and Recognition
The kit master is you. You will have learned what an
excellent team is through seeing one in action or having
exceptional vision of exactly what you want to achieve as an
end result. It is well known that a writer who starts a
story without knowing the end page will nearly always fail
to achieve a good result. It is only when you are able to
recognise what you want, or visualise the finished product
that you will be able to move forward towards your personal
end result.
Observation
The fancier who has the ability to see what is going on
in the team, to be able to recognise the signs of excellence
and also the individuals who are disturbing the team is the
one most likely to succeed. The fancier, of whom I know too
many, that watches the team for only a few moments then turn
their attention to the tea break is sadly not going to make
it. This type of fancier, when they are in another fanciers
back garden, tends to study the construction of the loft,
the breeding boxes, the kit boxes, the feed bin – while the
birds are in the air. These fanciers will never learn what
they need to learn about a team of birds from these
efforts. Although all of the aforementioned curiosities are
valuable – but should be attended to after the kit has
landed or at least flown some time. The fanciers that don’t
pay attention to the team in the air are seldom likely to
become the astute observers that they need to be for
success.
So what’s to look for!
- Flight pattern: are the birds flying in a figure of
eight, what speed do they fly at, are their tails tight
or spread? This helps us know if the birds are in the
right condition – thus are we watching a team ready to
perform, or birds that aren’t really going to show us
what they are made of yet!
- Individuals: Which birds start the break? Are there
any birds pulling the kit in different directions? Which
birds are rolling too much – distracting from the bigger
breaks? Which birds constantly roll from the back of the
team and cause the kit to lose altitude? Which birds
constantly fly above the kit causing the kit to lift too
much? Which birds roll too deep and distract the team?
Are there birds in the team that roll when about to land
thus causing the rest of the team to be unsettled and
more dangerous when approaching to land?
- Markers: Are there birds in your team that act as
markers for the team – i.e. are there some birds that
when rolling deeper are showing you that the rest of the
team are low in body weight? Are there birds that stop
rolling first when you have been over flying the team?
Are there birds that only land early when they unfit,
too heavy or undernourished? Are these birds showing you
that the team needs more feed, less, different? Do you
have a bird in your team that only flies too long, too
high, or doesn’t kit when you are doing something wrong
in your management? Markers are valuable birds the less
observant of us never identify them!
- Quality: How consistent is the individual in the
team, does it perform to a high standard in 100, 90, 80
50% of the breaks? In the break how many birds close
their wings and glide down in the confusion of the
activity without performing properly? How many birds
commence the roll with a clap first, or end the roll
facing away from the kit, or do a loose somersault to
end the roll? How many birds perform to low standard but
always roll on the break? What is the ratio of
reasonable standard rollers to excellent standard
rollers in the team? What is the ratio of frequent
reasonable standard rollers to infrequent excellent
standard rollers?
Acquisition
Finding the right individuals for your team requires a
skilled eye and patience. The team will not be built
overnight. Researching the best resources, by personal
visit, reputation, or help from an expert will save time in
the long run. A hastily acquired individual will cost time
and resources that could otherwise be spent on developing a
good team. Remember that ‘a silk purse cannot be made from a
pig’s ear’. Taking time to acquire and put together the best
team possible for the money and resources available will pay
off in exponentially. Eventually you must be able to produce
your own team and this is no mean feat. Acquiring and
assembling a team is much easier than producing your own,
however, with good observation skills and experimentation is
possible to produce good to high standard performers which
may enhance the team. Selecting birds to be the stock of
the breeding pen is a separate topic, but be aware it will
not always be your ‘star’ performers in your team that will
produce you your best results, and yet neither will it be
those ‘duffer’ with significant problems they just require
culling!
Selection
Once a team is assembled the kit master is responsible
for enabling the best performance from each individual.
Balance is the essential message here. Too many frequent
rollers will lead to highly energetic activity but with no
team performance. Exceptionally high quality rollers may be
somewhat infrequent, a few of these in the team will enhance
the overall spectacle, but too many will lead to seldomness
in performance.
There are several ‘types’ of roller knowing them and mixing
them in a team can be done successfully if done carefully!
Types:
The 5 main types come in a variety of depths and
frequency
- Very Fast
Tight rollers
- Fast Tight
- Fast and Very
Fast Wingy
- Fast Graceful
- Slower Graceful
VFT: In this category one should bear in
mind that it is usual to find more short rollers than deep
ones, and the deeper they are usually the less frequent. The
deep and frequent ones are generally useless for team
performance as they exhaust themselves too quickly and lose
the kit.
FT On the other hand these can be found in
deep and frequent, but one needs to remember with this type
they will use up a lot of energy so they must be very fit to
prevent them losing the kit or landing early. Successful
fanciers with this type of bird are the very keen and
observant ones that are able to balance its need for
exercise to keep it fit and rest to prevent exhaustion.
FVFW These birds are quite entertaining to
watch and come in all depths and frequencies. They are often
quite energetic as they seem to use less energy and
therefore don’t tire as easily as the ones that aren’t
wingy. I think this is because it takes more effort to open
the wing fully when rolling, the wingy ones seem to flick
the wing beat which maintains speed but loses the impression
of roundness. A variation of this type is the roller that
looks very fast but if the observer looks closely they will
see that the bird is in fact not rotating head over tail
quite correctly, but is rolling head over one wing – this
maintains velocity and the visual spectacle, but gives a
slightly lob-sided picture to the careful observer. Please
note that all these, although not the perfect type, are
still quite scoreable for competition purposes, and
certainly most casual observers would not notice the
difference! Not a type I would give any quality points to
though!
FG I have had a soft spot for this type of
roller for years, and only recently acquired a few from Dave
Moseley. Barry Shackleton in the 70’s had some wonderful
examples of these, and in the past I saw some of these in
Middlesbrough in the late 80’s and 90’s at fanciers who
seldom competed. Last year I saw some wonderful rollers of
this type in a near enough perfect team at Chris
Robinson’s. This type is not as quite as fast in the roll
as the other 3 types, but is very close. However I believe
this type beats its wings fuller and spreads its wing
flights in slightly more extended way reaching higher in its
wing arc, thus when propelling itself in the roll it gives
itself a rounder and cleaner shape. It appears that it does
this using less energy than the other 3 types and therefore
is able to perform quite frequently and often deeply without
too much stress. This type instantly reminds me of the high
diver in the Olympic games that seems to perform
effortlessly.
SG As long as this type rolls fast enough
it is a charmer to watch, this type will roll frequently
sometimes quite deeply and fly long times without distress.
It is in a way the best type for competition as it requires
very little management, and is the workhorse of many teams.
However it must have the ‘gracefulness’ without this aspect
it is the worst kind of roller – the kind that is not in
fact a roller at all.
So which should I select for my perfect team? It is
necessary to remember that a very fast roller uses more
energy than a slow graceful roller yet it is possible to fly
all 5 types in one team. The more types you have, the more
astute you need to be to balance the team. Fast deep
rollers need more rest to maintain their frequency, any
excess of body fat will inhibit their performance, the fast
graceful type seem to cope with overfeeding much better and
can carry a limited amount of excess without affecting their
performance. Any roller that is frequent will need ample
nourishment and rest, the blend of styles within your team
is your choice, a lifetimes experiment may not be enough to
get it right, but it can be a rather entertaining pursuit of
perfection. (For me this year my 44th year with rollers, it
seems perhaps a little too long!)
A few examples:
- A team of 15 FGs will look even better with about 5
VFT in it, as long as they match the depth of the FGs.
- A team of 15 FTWs will look much better with 5 FGs
in it
- A team of 15 FTs will look worse with 5 VFTs in it .
- A team of 15 FVFW will look worse with 5 VFT or FT
rollers in it.
- A team of 20 of any type except FVFW with the same
depth factor will look good.
- A mixed type team with different depth factors will
look worse that a mixed team of the same depth.
- A team of FGs or SGs will usually get more points
than a team of FVFWs.
- A team of FVFW should score less quality points
than a team of FT or VFT rollers – but often don’t!
- Most teams of FT or VFT will receive more quality
points than a team of FG’s or SGs. But probably not by
me.
Feeding
Feeding is extremely important because it is through
feeding properly and maintaining exercise that you are able
to see what quality of birds you have. Until the birds are
in the proper condition it is impossible to evaluate them
and therefore put your best team together. I believe a lot
of good rollers are killed each year because their owners
don’t have them in the right condition to evaluate them.
Equally lots of poor specimens are kept because they were
capable of doing a good job on one occasion. If you have to
starve your team, give tonics, or mess with them in some way
in order for it to perform then from my point of view – you
probably haven’t got the right birds! That is not to say
that from time to time your team will need boosting up, or
their ration reducing to get them to the optimum weight and
fitness, but this should not be necessary on a day to day
basis. From time to time you may want to play with bits of
folklore (Epsom salts, Rue Tee, Golden Boost, Brewers Yeast,
Sulphate of Iron etc) to attempt to get that extra 10% out
of them for a competition, but generally they should not
need messing with. Clean water, mineral grit and wheat are
the staple diet of the perfect team. They will require
worming and occasionally some seed (for fat soluble vitamins
–unless this is in the grit as a supplement).
However, one small tip I learned from Dave Moseley, which
has stood the test over the last couple of years – balancing
the team on food. The team will break more frequently
together if they are at the same level of fitness and
weight, to do this Dave feeds wheat to the team in
increasing small quantities until the team begins to leave
food. At this point he begins gently to cut back the food in
equally small quantities until the birds fly for a good
time. Keep them at this ration should ensure that they all
have enough of what they need without as much as they want
to eat . When the team is flying for about an hour on this
ration they are clearly fit and not undernourished thus in a
better state to be evaluated than half starved or
overweight. Remember, once the team is balanced up in terms
of fitness, the time the birds fly should indicate whether
they need more or less food. Clearly be aware of weather
changes, rollers will need more in cold weather than in hot!
Breeding
This is slightly away from the main point of this
article, but perhaps it is prudent to say a few things about
the topic. Firstly breeding a team requires a bit more time
and patience. Once you can recognise the types it is easier
for you to decide which you need in more abundance and
select breeding stock accordingly. There are a few points
to make here:
- Very Fast Tight rollers are difficult to produce!
Along the way you will have rollers that are too deep
and crash, birds that drop early, and birds that burn
themselves out before they are two years old (become
deep and sloppy as yearlings, or become more and more
seldom as they get older). You will need to breed more
rollers each year if you decide to go this route, unless
you get very good at it very quickly or are very patient.
For those that have these and manage to maintain their
stud I’m sure its deeply satisfying.
- All other types that last are produced by selecting
your stock birds wisely and by following a breeding plan
that follows the principles of line breeding. Outcrosses
will not produce these types consistently!
How should I select stock?
Some simple rules here are:
- Get good advice from the original stock supplier as
to what to pair to what
- Watch the birds in the air and select the
type you want first.
- Watch them for as long as possible before stocking –
so you can –
- Avoid birds which are too deep
- Go for style before depth or frequency
- Avoid birds which are infrequent or you notice don’t
always roll in the break
- Avoid birds which drop early, or hang outside of,
above or below the kit
- Don’t use birds with a fault you don’t like just
because its excellent at something else
- Don’t try to ‘average out’ a pair. A short and a
deep does not give a medium – more often it gives one
short and one deep or two short or two deep!
- Use your 4 best rollers and feeders rather than 4
good and 16 mediocre.
Basic notes on training.
Rollers that are bred from good stock don’t take much
training at all. Once the youngsters begin to fly ensure the
only place they land is on the landing pole or loft top.
Ensure youngster are fed what they need to build proper
bones and muscle, but at all cost prevent them becoming
overweight or emaciated. Fly youngsters once or twice a day
but use your observation skills to ensure you are not
exhausting them by over flying or losing fitness by under
flying. Sometimes youngsters that are very active need
flying less to allow them to get stronger, and sometimes
they need flying more if their fitness is suffering or less
because the rolling effort is making them tired. On the
other hand lazy youngsters are often a problem, as they
cause the rest of the team to drop early and thus their
fitness suffers. Fly the lazy ones more often with other
teams if possible, take them a ride out for a 1 mile fly
back until they get on with it, and if all this fails (and
don’t wait too long) send them back to the manufacturer with
a note!
Selection and De-selection:
A good fancier will have a second team in training from
which s/he can take reinforcements or replacements when ever
the team requires support. Some individuals in the team will
need resting, or an injury or illness may require the team
member to be substituted. Therefore the second team must be
as close to a clone of the first as possible. As any
football follower will know it is rather silly to replace
the first team centre forward with the reserve team goalie!
If you know your two teams thoroughly, you will know which
are the front birds, centre and back birds. It seems
logical to only replace front pigeons with front pigeons –
indeed front pigeons can be a replacement for any of the
team, but clearly back position birds will do little good
for your team if a front bird is needed.
De-selection can also be needed for birds that develop
temporary faults – for example a white cock bird of mine
gets much much deeper in the roll when he goes into the
moult. Although he doesn’t leave the team too much, he does
spend some time out. He also is prone to land earlier than
the rest, although he will always do 30 minutes or so, he
does tend to disrupt the team a bit. Once the moult is over
he shortens up and goes back to his position in the centre
of the team. I have a red chequer cock which flies in the
second team which is a central pigeon and substitutes very
ably for him. Very occasionally a first team member may
develop a strange habit which distracts the team – landing
away, dropping early, flying above the kit, pulling or
drawing the team away from its best flight pattern, flicking
over instead of rolling, or just stopping performance. The
cause of this can be numerous, perhaps the most common is
the moult or the bird pairing with another of the team.
Resting the bird or birds for a month or six weeks will
usually tell you whether this is a temporary or permanent
development. Clearly demoting to the second team is
necessary until such a determination is made. It would not
be fair to condemn a bird before returning it to fitness
with the second or third team first.
Some members of the team may need to be de-selected
permanently, for example after a silly knock resulting in a
stiff tail one of my favourite bronze chequer hens never
regained her sharpness, the team suffered a lot from her
absence until a suitable replacement was found. As birds
get older they may need to be replaced, especially if they
have been sound for three or four years and some progeny
from them is needed for the future. Others will be lost via
falcon attacks, even if not killed and taken many are maimed
and unable to fly or perform to their former standard.
Sadly sometimes birds have to be culled from the team
because they are too much the ‘star’ and not enough of the
team player. The very deep roller that returns to the team
reliably then rolls again is no doubt a star, but if this
star is disrupting the team effort, losing the cohesiveness
or general concert performance of the team – then sadly s/he
will have to go. Last year I had 2 such rollers in my team,
splitting them into another team halved the problem and
doubled it at the same time. Whereas I only had one bird
out of the kit most of the time, I had the same irritation
in both of my good teams! Perfect in the roll, but not
helping the team. Of course you could argue that if I had
bred another 18 of these then I would have no problem, or
that the 18 that didn’t roll as deep were the problem…..well
in theory perhaps but practically the team has to take
precedence over the stars!
When changing the team either substituting birds you fancy
are better than the current ones in the team, or
de-selecting ones you think are not helping or could be
better, try to do this one by one and over some time not in
rapid dramatic changes. The team will need time to get to
know the new member, as will the new member need to get to
know the team. Also the substitution may have unexpected
consequences not foreseeable or surprising – good or bad.
Time to evaluate the effects on the team needs to elapse,
and your thorough observation of the effects calculated over
time.
As most experienced fanciers fly in their competition team
more than the required number – for easy removal of the
excess, please bear in mind that too many extra birds may
lose you the advantage of the excess. A team suddenly
depleted of 3 or 4 members may respond badly and produce
poor results. A better plan is to have only one extra bird
and be sure that you watch that bird to ensure it does not
become central to the teams’ performance. A nice steady
centre bird is easier to lose from the team than a frequent
‘showy’ front pigeon.
On a final note in regard to selection and de-selection,
remember that the reliable everyday workers in the team –
especially the shorter rollers are often taken for granted.
My advise would be don’t deselect them until you try them
out in the stock loft!
Maintaining Performance
Remember even the very best team cant stay in tip top
performance mode for ever. The very best teams can be
maintained in peak performance for about 12 - 20 weeks.
Eventually the team will need rewarding with a long rest.
Frequent periods of one weeks rest and careful monitoring of
fatigue levels in the birds can forestall or postpone the
inevitable loss of vigour, but eventually the team will lose
lustre and have to be given a complete rest. Good food
copious bathing and plenty of space would be the ideal. Of
course this will inevitably result in some egg laying
activity, but hey it is a holiday.
When the holiday is over be careful how the team is returned
to full fitness. Reduce the weight of the team gradually and
return them to a weight and diet similar to the old regime
before trying them out again. Expect little performance at
first, don’t despair if the kitting and performance are less
than normal at first. In my experience it takes about 3
weeks for optimum performance to return after the long rest,
about 3 flies after a short rest.
Succession Planning
Lots of fanciers seem to be able to maintain a good
standard of excellence for 3 to 4 years, very few for longer
than that. If you look at the competition results it shows
how fanciers emerge into the top positions for a period and
then are lost. I believe this is because of an over
dependence of one or two teams and one or two producing
stock pairs. The fancier gets a bit complacent about being
able to always put out a good team, and doesn’t notice the
team depleting before their very eyes. A few Peregrine
attacks, sickness, stock birds getting older, a key hen
going barren, a key cock bird dies or becomes infertile,
stock is stolen, a flyaway happens. Or simply as I did long
ago forgot that my own stock was more important than helping
others with theirs!
If fanciers wish to remain on the top of their game and last
for more than a few seasons they have to take a few lessons
from the ones that have. Bob Brown, Ernie Stratford, Bill
Barratt and Ollie Harris may not have had the same vigorous
competition that most UK fanciers now have, but they kept a
high standard going for many many years. They did this by
being ruthlessly selfish, and generous when they could
afford to be so. They calculated who should benefit from
their stock, so they had a reserve backup (being fed and
cared for by someone else) should they need one. Their
succession planning was never neglected, they always had
breeding plans which would open up the next generation with
some solid (I know this will produce) and some experimental
pairing (might even be better) calculated to maximise their
potential for the next 3 or 4 years ahead. Masters of
success like George Mason, who relentlessly year after year
continues to rise to the top, have clearly modelled
themselves thus!
Final Thoughts
Finally, when I imagine my perfect team I have come to
realise that its my perfect team. Each
fancier will have their own dreams fantasies or visions of
what theirs would be like. After waiting 44 years to see a
‘proper’ quality full turn, I finally saw 2 with 30 seconds
this March over my own loft. Despite all the splendid teams
I have seen over those many years I had never seen the
perfect break before – so it is only now that I feel
qualified to write this article. Although I realise that
many more of you could have written this article before me
as you didn’t I don’t feel to arrogant in doing so. To those
of you that have had a perfect team and therefore know all
this stuff I say I hope you weren’t too bored by it, and for
those of you who have yet to achieve your perfect team I say
– have patience! Best wishes,
Graham Dexter
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