POinting It out to You!!! Calling all Gentlemen

Cockfighting is the Sport of Kings. It is the one true defining test of the ultimate gladiator that reigns supreme in almost every circumstance. Good Roosters win rooster fights, don’t ever let anyone tell you different. This is from a person that has spent their life looking for the ultimate 100% win in every fight we’ve ever fought. Best year we ever had was 74% wins for the year, and we won 7 out of 9 derbies.

Can supplements help? Damn right they can, in the right circumstance at the right time. Every bird has deficiencies; it is our job to identify those deficiencies and apply the right supplement at the right time to counter that. Turn that negative into a positive, but first you have to identify where the problem originates.

Now to identify what your specific bird needs…well…that can be a slippery slope. When you fight all brothers or even birds of the same breed, it’s usually the same across the board. We have to assume they are “Game” or you wouldn’t be showing them, but do they have “bottom”, to me that is different than game, “Bottom” is the ability to fight off shock. Blood loss and injury cause most shock, but stress can also play a factor in this wicked game we play, and yes, they can pick up that stress from you. You can’t make a rooster have “Game”, but there are things that can help with “Bottom”.

When fighting a mixed up show you just made things 100 times more difficult as all birds are different, they only thing most have in common is they all crow the same and their shit all stinks the same, but internally, they have different physical traits, different fighting styles, different digestive systems, and different metabolisms. This is a lot to keep up with. For instance, I can’t count the times I’ve seen a bird that could have easily won in the wrong heels or over/under gaffed.

Some of these young men coming into the sport find mentors, an old-timer that acts as a coach and teaches the basics of how to raise healthy fowl, some of their advice is spot on, and some can be a bit antiquated. There are many differences in the way our birds compete over the past 20-30 years. I talk to people of all ages, from the young men just starting out to the ones returning to the sport after retirement. The fights are faster, the birds cut more, the weapons are better crafted, the feeds we buy are more nutritious. The standards of medications are more exact. Some information has stood the test of time, but some of it needs to be retired or updated to stay competitive.

Advice to the ones answering the same tired old questions…It cost nothing to be kind. I am on quite a few sites on FaceBook and I see lots of novices asking questions about this and that. Some of us answer, some of us ignore, some of us offer a bit of guidance, but what I don’t get is the smartassed responses that can only be intended to make the asker of the question appear stupid. It’s not a good look for someone just trying to learn. These novices are the future of our great sport, and they are our future competitors, or potential customers.

I spend hours of my day talking to people about different issues, we talk about everything under the sun, from the “Egg to the Pit”, nothing is off limits. If I don’t know the answer to a question, I’m not afraid to say just that, but I do try to point them in the right direction, not every conversation is about a sale.

Let’s be the gentlemen (in my case gentlewomen) that the people before us were, as we look to the future. There are many great people in this sport of ours; past, present and future.