Bryn : Can you click it? Yes you can - Part Three

In my last post I took us on a short tour of the different clicker types and their associated pros and cons. This time I'll be talking about how my relationship with clickers has developed and how the clicker figures in my shot cycle.

War and peace

Clicker positioning is the make or break aspect of clicker usage. A poorly placed clicker can completely destroy your form. Too far back and your form will collapse with the strain of trying to get through. Too far forward and it won't be accurate enough to regulate your draw length as you'll be able to draw beyond it to varying degrees.

When I added my first clicker I had read that ideally the clicker needs to be perpendicular to the arrow rather than at an angle. And that probably does help consistency of clicker performance to some degree. However with my spear length arrows this wasn't possible so when I first set up my clicker my aim was to try to increase my draw length to bring the clicker position to a more perpendicular arrangement. I also told myself that this was good for my form as it would force me to use my back muscles more and build up the strength there. I was totally wrong. What actually happened is that my form would collapse whilst trying to get through the clicker, my upper body would twist, my bow arm shoulder would rise up, my nose would start obscuring the sight as I found myself leaning back and twisting. After a few sessions of this I realised the error and wound that clicker out a lot further until now it would sit half on - half off my extension plate about a full inch further forwards than it had been.

The key thing in my experience has been that we shouldn't be fighting the clicker. It should be a pleasantly confirming experience when we click. What I was doing was stacking the bow heavily with my 31+ inch draw and causing my sight to move wildly around the target as a result of all the uncontrolled tensions going on in my form. Again it comes back to my belief that a clicker is to confirm you're ready for an action not to dictate the action.

Relaxing through the clicker

When I finally had the position set correctly I found that it helped me focus on better transfer of power to the back muscles. However, sometimes I still found myself straining those muscles to get through the clicker and the more I would strain the less likely I was to get it to click. I think this is because I was tensing up everything in my form thinking this was how I would expand through the clicker but as we tense muscles we can actually contract our structure it seems, taking us further from the goal.

So recently, and in combination with a breathing cycle, I have learnt that I need to relax through the clicker. It may sound counter-intuitive at first as surely relaxing isn't going to provide the strength need to get through the clicker but I'm finding it's resulting in steadier shots.

Here's my breathing/shot cycle to illustrate:

1. Stand straight but relaxed, knees unlocked, shoulders dropped, back straight but not concave. Take a deep in-out breath.

2. Nock and fit the arrow through the clicker. 

3. Set my grip and hook. Applying an inch or so draw to apply enough tension to secure both.

4. Bring the bow up and breath in fully.

5. Draw back to full draw but pre-clicker and let out 50-70% of the breath slowly at the same time.

6. Get sighted whilst concentrating on making sure it's the back muscles alone that are working.

7. Keep the tension, relax and let the last breath out to execute through the clicker.

So the takeaway is that if you're fighting the clicker then you're fighting yourself. I hope this post has some points that people can relate to and that it helps in some way.

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In another post I hope to write about my experiences with alternating between barebow and recurve to improve shot cycle, form and accuracy for recurve. But for now, make love not war with your clicker.

Happy clicking!

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Bryn : Can you click it? Yes you can - Part Two

In my last post I wrote about the purpose of a clicker and my experiences of when to add one to your setup. In this post I'll be explaining the different types of clickers and the pros and cons of each.

Clicker types

There seem to be three main types of clicker available that I've seen.

• Blade clickers that screw or stick to the riser.

• Sight block mounted, magnetic clickers.

• Sight bar mounted, magnetic clickers.

In my experience the choice of which clicker to go with has mainly been determined by my arrow length which at 31.5" has caused some problems. Many people using their first bow kit will probably have been advised to get arrows an inch or longer than actually needed until the draw length settles down. This is good advice and worth sticking to but it can cause an issue with clickers at times.

For me to use a blade style clicker I have to have the clicker extension plate attached to my riser and only half the tip of the blade contacts with the extension while the other half goes beyond it. Recently I had found that some days I could go through the clicker with ease whilst other days I would really struggle. I thought that maybe this was a form or tiredness issue. Then one day the true reason occurred to me. As my clicker stuck out beyond the extension plate, each time I packed my bow bag in the rucksack the other contents of the bag were putting pressure on the clicker and moving it back a bit. As I didn't check the position before each session I assumed all was well. When I realised what was going on here I was quite embarrassed to say the least. So this meant I'd have to either cut my arrows down or change to a different clicker type.

Enter the sight block mounted, magnetic clicker. These clickers have a plate that mounts underneath your sight block and uses the same screws and screw holes. Some sight blocks come with screws that are too short for this (Decut 120 for one) as everything is held on by only one or two threads (3/4 inch ones) so sometimes some new screws are needed  to counter this (1 inch). For most risers these are the replacement screws you'd need:

http://www.a2stainless.co.uk/10-24-UNC-x-1-Socket-Countersunk-Screw_AG0O.aspx

Sometimes a spring steel blade clicker might not sit perfectly flat against the riser or extension plate so you may need to give the blade a little bend to get it lie snugly.

Sight block mounted, magnetic clickers don't use the riser or clicker extension plate to 'click' against but instead have a block with a magnet that shuts hard when the arrow point moves past the wire of the clicker. The nice thing here is that after the 'click' the clicker becomes pretty much invisible behind the riser. It also means it's easier to see if you've clicked early  without having to look down at the tip of the arrow. These clickers also tend to be a bit louder than the blade style ones which on a busy shooting line can be helpful to prevent you releasing on your neighbours clicker. These clickers can also allow a bit more length on an arrow if, like me, a blade one puts you at the end of the extension plate.

The third type are the sight bar mounted clickers. These slide onto your sight bar and as a result can be moved along the bar for positioning. I've not used one of these myself but can see the benefits for archers with long arrows. But you do need to bear in mind that these ones are adding a bit more weight forward of your pivot point, not necessarily a bad thing. But they can also be problematic when trying to put your sight back into the sight case as they protrude a fair bit. Other than this they work in the same way as the sight block mounted magnetic clickers.

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Next time I'll be looking at the love / hate relationship with clickers, setting the clicker correctly and how I'm learning to relax through the clicker.

Until then - Good ends to all!

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Bryn : Can you click it? Yes you can!

Hi folks, I thought I'd put together some of my thoughts and experiences with clickers in the hope that some of you may find it useful.

A little background on me first though. I did a beginners course back in Feb/March 2012 at 2020 so have been shooting for about 10 months. After my beginners course I shot an 18lb club bow for a while before moving up to a 24lb for about a month then bought my own bow in June. I shot this for a few months and then added a clicker in September. I usually shoot three or four times a week.

Oh and here's the disclaimer. What follows is not rules or necessarily what coaches may teach about clickers, it's purely my own experiences and thoughts that have resulted from my own explorations and I continue to learn more with every session.

When to add a clicker

This is a matter of much debate and the argument rages on many archery forums. Some folks say to add a clicker straight away, while others say to let your draw and form stabilise first.

For me, as I mentioned above, I shot my bow for about 3 months before adding a clicker. Before I added a clicker I had gotten to a point where my draw and anchor were pretty stable and my arrows were grouping well horizontally. However, although I thought my execution was pretty repeatable I was having quite a few issues with vertical grouping due to differences in back tension on each shot. The logical solution was to add a clicker to regulate the draw length and the amount of power I was transferring to the arrow. W

I think if I'd have started with a clicker when I got my bow then it would probably have been more of a distraction than a help as there are so many other factors to work on at that stage.

The purpose of a clicker

Many a school teacher has stated, "That bell is not to tell you when you can leave it's to tell me when I can release you" or words to that effect. In my view the same goes for clickers and admittedly this can be seen as a matter of semantics but the key thing is about who's in charge here.

Before I added a clicker I spoke with a lot of club members and asked their view on clickers. I heard tales of people tending to release when not fully sighted on the target because their clicker had clicked. This set up a bit of a challenge to me to not be controlled by the clicker. So I gave myself a little mantra and an exercise to avoid this. I told myself that the clicker was to indicate when I had reached a certain repeatable draw length and not to tell me when to execute the shot.

And here's the exercise I went through to impress this on my subconscious:

1. Nock an arrow and come to full draw.

2. Ensure that the power was transferred to the back muscles.

3. Extend through the clicker and hold for a second, checking the arrow tip briefly to make sure there was no forward creep.

4. Don't release, come down, un-nock and relax.

5. Rinse and repeat.

Now whilst I obviously do release the moment my clicker clicks it's proactive rather than reactive when I'm behaving myself. Also if I click early in the shot cycle now more often than not I can hold the draw length and be sure I'm properly sighted before deciding to release.

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In the next post I'll be giving you a whistle stop tour of different clicker types and the benefits and woes of each from my own experience.

Until then - Good ends to all!

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