WHO SAID VELOCITY WAS DEAD?
By Marshall Duncan
It seems the velocity in performing rollers has all but disappeared. Don’t get me wrong, you still see fast pigeons all the time, but it seems that the emphasis on velocity and style has taken a back-seat to FREQUENCY, FREQUENCY, FREQUENCY! Granted, frequency is a must, without those turns, you could never win a competition. But what good is the extra frequency, if all the birds in the kit are merely rolling, rather than spinning with high velocity and showing good style along with proper wing placement? I consider one of the biggest travesties of the sport, is to breed and promote frequency only, and to forget about the magnificent sight of that true spinner, really giving it his “ALL” and enjoying it! If you’re still not quite with me yet, try to visualize a bird literally spinning in place for about a second or so, and then starting to fall, spinning for about 30 or 40 feet or so. And Oh, to see the majority of the kit follow suit and do the same thing simultaneously, what an awesome sight to behold!
I’ve been raising rollers for over 25 years now, and I’ve seen spinners come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. One of the biggest misconceptions I’ve heard to date is that a pigeon of a certain color is going to roll faster than a pigeon of another color. Or that a certain color has to be bred to another color to produce roll. There’s only two rules to this aspect of the sport, and that is, “roll-is-roll” and “spin-is-spin”, and you have to be able to differentiate the two. Remember, the more balanced and acrobatically built your pigeon is, the better chance you have of him performing to his optimum level of performance. But color has no bearing on this.
No matter what anybody says, I still stick to the understanding that a bird has to enjoy rolling, for it to ever become a champion, or ever be a part of a winning team. If the bird is not enjoying the roll, he will resist the roll at every chance he gets. Resistance is the worst enemy of any sport, especially in rolling pigeons. When you have a kit of birds that enjoy rolling, half the battle is over!
Now for the other half of the battle! I’m not going to get into eye-sign, because there’s at least ten aspects to the eye, and that’s an article in itself. I’m also not going to attempt to define feather, expression, size, type, or balance, all of these subjects, we can address at a later date. At this point, I’m going to speak generally on the mental and physical attributes of the performing roller. The ability for a pigeon to roll is MENTAL. It’s a trait that is definitely carried in genetics. When a bird spins, this is also a MENTAL characteristic, passed down genetically. If your birds don’t spin now, it’s not something that’s going to magically appear, either you have it in your bloodlines, or you don’t. So now you have a bird that not only likes to roll, he likes to spin!, but we’re still only at the mental state. Don’t think that only small birds spin, because I’ve seen big birds spin and small birds roll. And I’ve seen small birds spin and big birds roll… remember, the spin is MENTAL, not PHYSICAL.
Now, lets move over to the physical side of the equation. Once you have a pigeon whose mental state is to spin, and to enjoy spinning, the next step is to build him aesthetically to physically maximize all the hard work you’ve put into his mental attributes. First of all, wing placement is a must. I’m not talking about wing placement in the show-pen, I’m talkin’ ‘bout holding those wings up properly during the spin! A good “V” pattern is the norm on a fast rolling pigeon. Meaning the bird is holding it’s wings up while rolling, not straight up, but more like a “V” pattern. The next level is called an “H” pattern, which is very desirable, meaning the bird holds it’s wings straight up and simulates an “H” while spinning. The best wing placement is called an “A” pattern, when the bird holds it’s wings beyond the “H” pattern and actually pulls them in, over-head and creates a visual “A” pattern… WHEW! Now we’re starting to COOK! Remember, everything we’ve talked about so far is a reflection on your breeding. When your bird enjoys spinning and does it well, you have an attribute you want in your breeding program. When your bird places it’s wings properly, this too, is an attribute you want to bring back into the stock pen.
The next step is to stand the bird up in the show pen. You want the bird to be “balanced”. Just look at him standing up. Look at his head, chest, legs, and tail. Are they in proportion? Look at the head and look at the tail, then try to find the center-point, or while spinning, what would be considered the center of gravity. If everything tends to line up, you’re on the right track. (It’s kind of like spinning an object with an off-centered weight, versus an object with a weight at dead-center. The object with the centered weight will give you a “cleaner” spin than the one that’s off-centered)
The next thing you want to look at is size. When a bird is considered “typey”, he’s usually a smaller bird, but carries himself as if he can take on the WORLD. When I say small, I don’t mean small and “sickly” or “bony”, but more like a good gymnast. For example, take a look at “SHAQ”, he’s a heck of an athlete and one of the true great basketball players. But all-in-all, I’d hate to see him compete on the gymnastic rings! You want your bird to be small to medium in size, (that goes for length, as well as width), with good muscle, this includes back muscle, as well as body strength. The back muscle is very important when considering the type of wing action it takes to turn a roll into a spin. A bird can have all the mental attributes it takes to spin, but if he doesn’t have the physical muscle to handle it, you’re still headed for disaster.
The next step is to look at keel placement. You want a relatively short keel, that conforms with the body and points toward the vent, without protruding or taking away from the flow of the body. Another attribute to consider while in the show pen is the bird’s feather quality. You want the bird to have tight feathering, the tighter the feathering, the less resistance to the wind the bird has. Tight feathering is only the beginning though, you should also strive for the shorter, more narrow secondary and primary wing feathers, anything to give as little resistance to the roll as possible. Expression on your stock bird is also a very important aspect to consider. Although you don’t necessarily have to show exceptional expression on ALL your stock birds, but expression is a characteristic that is truly vital in your breeding stock when attempting to carry intelligence and stability traits for later generations to come.
Now that you have a decent bird to bring back for breeding, you have to find him a mate! When pairing your birds, you want them to compliment each other. Where one bird is lacking, you want it’s mate to compensate. For example, if the cock has weak back muscles, you want the hen to have a strong back. If the cock has sub-par feathering, the hen should have good feathering. If the cock spins with a “V” pattern, the hen should have a good “H” pattern, or if you’re lucky, a good “A” pattern, and vise-versa, and so on… and so on…
Now that you have good pairings and good breeding stock, you still have to train all those incredible youngsters you breed! Who ever said that this would be EASY? Until the next time, yours in sport! Mbd009@aol.com
