Important Pointing Tips for Gamefowls

What is “Pointing” in terms of Gamefowl?

When it comes to the world of cock fighting, pointing refers to bringing our warriors to their best possible fighting condition and to the peak of their abilities in a gradual manner. Notice that the word “gradual” was mentioned. This means that we cannot suddenly bring our gamefowls to their peak. Although nowadays there are multiple brands and products that claims you can easily point your roosters just by giving them a drop of their product, your gamefowls can perform much more better if the correct principles of pointing were followed. Your warriors might perform well but we will never know if that is really the best they can do when the time for battle comes.

What actually happens when our gamefowl becomes "Pointed"

Most cockers already know how to point their gamefowls, but what does really happen when our warriors get pointed? We will skip the too technical science explanation. What happens to our gamefowl's body when they are getting pointed is that the involuntary muscles particularly in the digestive area, will stop exerting effort and rather route the gamefowl's energy all through out their body. That is why our gamefowls will become more alert, more agile, more powerful and their body will puff and this surge of blood flow and energy cause by adrenaline rush will make your roosters feel invincible. They will not feel the wounds and damaged while they are in this short period of being on point. 

How do we help our roosters get to their peak?

As stated on the earlier part of this chapter, we cannot expect our gamefowl to be on their peak suddenly with just a help of performance enhancing drops or supplements. If we really want our gamefowls to be on point, you should be able to meet the following criteria:

• Your gamefowl should be in good health. Meaning they do not have fever or any infection that can hinder them to perform well in the pit.
• Your gamefowl are properly rested. Meaning you have given them enough rest before their fight day.
• Your gamefowl are fed with enough crude protein. Meaning your gamefowls are fed properly with the correct CP computation for their best fighting weight
• Your gamefowl are provided with carbo loading before the fight. Meaning cockers should have provided their warriors additional carbohydrates on their feed for them to store excess energy.
• Your gamefowl are provided with training. Meaning your warriors should have receive sufficient amount of training
  

If you think you have done all of the things mentioned above, then it will be easy for you to help your roosters to be pointed. Follow the steps below during the day of fight:

• Arrive in the arena early. Preferably 4am-6am depending on how big is the event. If you are planning to participate in hackfights then 5am should be safe. The key is, the earlier, the better. Of course, arriving early in the arena is just one part and you should have followed the correct practices when traveling cocks to the pit. 
•  Let your gamefowls rest twice the amount of your travel time. If you travel for 30 minutes, then it is suggested that you give your gamefowls minimum of 1 hour rest before the fight.
• Give your gamefowls the right amount of feed. For hackfights and you expect your rooster to fight around 2-4pm then give them only 10grams of regular feed. If around 12-1pm then suggested to give them just 5grams of regular feed. Increase and decrease based on the schedule of the fight.
• If really necessary, give only 1-3 dips of water to your gamefowl. There has been a lot of debate when it comes to water intake during the day of fight. A good tip is that "it is better to give insufficient amount rather than over". It will be easier to increase our gamefowl's moisture rather to draw out the excess water. Of course we would also not want a dry rooster on the day of fight as they might cut short but it is cocker's responsibility to be observant and make sure that the rooster's moisture is about right during fight day.
•  Once you have fed your rooster, put them on their keep and limber them every 2 hours. This will the most crucial part as a handler as you need to be very observant on your rooster. This part is where handlers should monitor the gamefowl's droppings. We will tackle the monitoring of droppings on fight day on separate chapter but for general idea, the sequence should be normal droppings, then cecal droppings(the chocolate like poop that has a bad odor), then urates. 

If you have reached the goal of your roosters dropping urates, then they are ready. Slowly while doing the steps provided above you will begin to notice the signs of a pointed rooster. A word of advice, there are gamefowl bloodlines that can endure being gut empty while others best fight while they still have small amount of food being digested so make sure you get to know your rooster. Lastly, almost everyone who will fight their rooster in the pit will also be pointing them. Your pointed rooster might perform well but can still lose to a better gamefowl or to a gamefowl that has better luck. Nonetheless, a well pointed gamefowl will have a higher chance of winning compared to an unpointed one. Whatever the result may be, we as cockers and handlers know that we gave our best to help our roosters be on their peak and win the fight of their lives.