You may find that your bird has been on a winning streak and you’ll assume that this is due to them being in peak form, it’s not. There’s also a risk of overtraining as well as not having a well-rounded programme. If you’re training for a short to mid-distance race, limit the time spent flying during training sessions as this will affect their form on the day of the race. You need to be focused on finding ways to promote energy and strength to give your bird a competitive edge. When it comes to making the most of your training, you need to push your pigeon/pigeons a little bit harder and try to train at least three times a week – although exceeding that would be beneficial. Once the fitness foundation has been built, you need to prepare the pigeon for the tough competition and develop endurance to help them keep up with the rest.

To assist you in creating a training programme, you’ll need to determine how much time will be spent flying, the distance that will be covered as well as the predicted weather on the day. To achieve general fitness, work on a comprehensive training programme, for example, an hour of daily home training a few times a week supplemented with one or two days of road training. You also need to pay careful attention to what you’re feeding the bird before a race. The first thing to remember is that changing weather conditions will affect the pigeon’s racing ability, so be sure to check the weather forecast the day of the race. Interesting fact: Mike Tyson is a fan of pigeons and has been breeding and racing them for years! Factors Affecting Performance Once you have an idea of what it will take to win, the training can begin.

You need to understand the specifics of the race you’re entering and factor in the different fitness levels of each bird. As with any form of exercise or racing, proper training is required to ensure that we can excel in what we’re doing, the same can be said for pigeon racing.

Pre racing program for racing pigeons