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Ode to 90 year old Jan (11-04-23)

Ode to Jan

 Jan may be close to 90, but he still is an example, a voice and an optimist.
At the time, he was immediately in favor of electronic clocks and with that he surprised everyone. ‘Aren’t older people stingy?

OTHERWISE
John is different. Still as healthy as a fish and acting like a young Rambo, who defies new currents and realizes that they have the future who are preparing for it. "This summer I'll beat you all again," he joked. Nobody laughed. Because everyone who knows Jan takes him seriously.

When you hear him tell about the past, about the good pigeons he had, you get all warm. Warm with humanity.
Jan is wisdom of life and nostalgia, a relief in a time when things have to move forward, faster and more hectic and for some people there is no longer a hobby but a tough sport in which there is no room for sentiments.
If all fanciers were like Jan, you think. Not that old, but just as wise and healthy.

 ALAS

But alas, many feel more comfortable complaining.

- Piet was at his wit's end because he had barely won a prize even after five races. The pigeons didn't look good either: loose necks, mucus, begging, scratching, sneezing. He had tried everything: changed lofts, bought other pigeons, given medicines, followed advice, but all in vain. Now he's thinking about quitting. "There's no fun in that."

- Sjef looks more distraught every year as the season progresses. He too 'flies like shit’ while the pigeons of the 'near neighbour' dominate the races.

Does he only have shit birds and his neighbour only has superior racers? He also thinks about quitting.

- Janus talked about a 'funeral mood' in his club because of one mob flier.

- Toon believes that you can forget about playing well these days if you have to work all day and do not feel like training your young several times a week.
You should not underestimate the disappointment of all those people.

  TASK
It is people like this who drop out, which means that the sport is increasingly becoming a 'between us' between the better and the connection for beginners is becoming increasingly difficult. A kind of 'we-feeling' as we used to know it has become rare.
That makes fanciers quit and fewer of them affects us all, because:
- We are becoming less interesting for sellers of feed, baskets, clocks, feeders, lofts and so on. So less competition means a more expensive sport for all of us.
- It means that it is no longer worthwhile for vets to become proficient in pigeons.
- But the champions themselves have the greatest interest in a thriving sport. 

THE CHAMPIONS
Champions are rightly proud after a good result. But does it dawn on them that they can continue to race well (so also sell pigeons!), as long as their less successful fellow sportsman continues to participate and his mediocre performance extends the duration of the competition?
If only the 'pros' remain, it will be much more difficult for them to achieve good results. "No champions without losers." 

IMPOSSIBLE
The difference between playing super well and failing completely is a matter of more or less quality, form, effort and the loft!-Many are the examples of people who started to play well, got even more ambition as a result, then built a beautiful new loft on which the old level was never reached again. Remember Eddie Janssen.
Or Huyskens van Riel. After the war they were from another planet, a beautiful new accommodation was built, but the performances were never as before.- How often do you hear fanciers who have several lofts be surprised that the same family of birds performs much better in one loft than in the other?- How often do you hear and read that pigeons of the same man in one loft perform better in the spring while they have to wait in another loft until it gets warmer? 

IGNORANT
The problem for many fanciers is that they don't see 'it'.

- They do not notice that their pigeons have no form, they keep playing and the pigeons get even more upset.

- They don't realize that their loft is no good. They don't feel that draft, that lack of oxygen, that oppressive heat.

- Or they believe that pigeons that have no shape are 'therefore' sick. They then attack non-existing diseases with a number of caliber antibiotics, with the inevitable result that the valley into which they fall becomes even deeper and it is even more difficult to get out of it.

 QUESTIONS
I can't stand it when the failing sportsman is laughed at, ridiculed or slept in. Then I get a murderous haze over me but I don't say anything, don't have the guts to raise my voice and call that taunting sportsman to order. I know, bottling up is not good, it might give you stomach ulcers, but I am just who I am. Many 'failing' fellow sportsmen spend money and energy on remedies to make the pigeons fly faster.
Because they suspect the champions of doing nothing else. It is as old as pigeon racing itself.In the heyday of the Janssens, eyebrows were already raised at their good performance.
If you impress on such a 'failing' fancier that it is mainly about quality and that this can often be obtained from smaller fanciers from their own region, they start to nod and only wake up when you drop the names of medicines or supplements. 

ADVICE
The failing fancier can be preserved by helping him. The most appropriate persons for this purpose are the champions.By advice or a couple of eggs. Just the idea of having pigeons from that good player, the new hope too, does something.
Of course, the champion does not have to play Santa Claus.
But cries that one does not want to get a beating from one's own pigeons are stupid.If they are a waste on a fellow sportsman 'because he is not a good handler after all', you don't have to worry about it either.
Sometimes a champion claims to 'have secrets but won't reveal them'.What kind of morons are they. Not because I don't believe in (its) secrets, but what should novices feel when they read something like this?If you think you have secrets, keep your mouth shut!
Then you can't make a fool of yourself if performance drops.Stay sober like Jan. Also better for your health.