click or not!

jshankar

Member
Including a recent one on watching the clicker or not there are surely enough number of threads on clickers so heres another :)

So Should i get one or not...
Ive had two opinions:
1) "shoot 700 on a western then you can get a clicker"
2) "I think you are ready for a clicker"

So what are the rules for getting a clicker?
IM sure there is going to be a learning cuve and that there will be a drop in scores, comfort etc etc before getting comfortable again. But why are there so many opinions. Surely if the clicker will give me the exact same draw length every time, then why would I avoid it? Im comfortable with my bow, poundage etc...I am working on some alignment issues now, but when Im comfortable with that?

So what are your opinions?
 

geoffretired

Supporter
Supporter
Why are there so many opinions?
From my point of view that is because many opinions are based on the bad experiences of others.If you use the clicker badly, you get poor results.
If someone says you are ready and you go ahead with, little help,or the wrong advice, you could make a bit of a mess of it.
Using the clicker is so simple, that some cannot believe that is how it works so they find all sorts of complications and spoil the outcome; or delay real progress.
Then there is the archer who says they will give one a try; "I can always take it off if I don't like it." Quite often that is an escape clause for those who don't get immediate results at the target.
One reaction to a clicker is to keep moving its position becuase it seems to be in the wrong place every time.
Another reaction to it, is to start wondering about when it is going to click. "It should have gone sooner," is a thought I hear some describing to friends afterwards.
Some, however, get onto the right wavelength from the start and learn to benefit from it without confusions or hesitation. They obviously have a different opinion from those described earlier.
 

backinblack

Active member
Due to the dreaded TP I wouldn't be shooting now if I had not learned to use a clicker.

That said, looking back I am impressed that I managed a 564 Portsmouth without it - now I can't even take a p?? without waiting for the click.
 

Barabus

New member
Due to the dreaded TP I wouldn't be shooting now if I had not learned to use a clicker.

That said, looking back I am impressed that I managed a 564 Portsmouth without it - now I can't even take a p?? without waiting for the click.
That's a top score without a clicker, have you bettered it with the clicker?........I would think so :D
 

jshankar

Member
WOW, 564 without a clicker is definitely something to aim for (no pun intended ofcourse)

It did happen just yesterday that one of the fellow archers released soon as he heard another persons clicker...or so he thought (the other person being one who does not use a clicker) I suppose that would then lead to the other thread (to watch or not to watch) if you become a slave to it....

However, geoff (thanks for the previous favours...im working on it and it seems to help give me a good sense of a "ritual" for want of a better word)

surely now we must know enough to not rely on old wives tales and rely on approved, tried and tested coaching methods in place at the top most level. For eg. that happens at our cricket club, theres people who turn up for fun like me, but then we put ourselves through the same drills as the first team (with professional players) and also get tidbits from the mental aspects etc etc..which is great.

The archery club down the road from us (towards whom we show some degree of competitive disrespect in good jest) start people off on clickers...There must be one way that athletes are coached (ofcourse with enough room for their own signatures) with some general concensus???
 

backinblack

Active member
Barabus,

You're far too kind.:beer::beer::beer:

Unfortunately I did some of my best shooting within 6 months of completing my beginner's course: life was a lot easier with a 34lb draw weight, fat aluminium arrows and no worries.

I beat that score a handful of times last year with a clicker and my PB is now at 572 but that was using fat carbons. This year I've shot a number of low 560s and my best is a 566 though on a handicap basis I have shot better Fita 18s and 25s.

I have to keep telling myself that this year's 566 Portsmouth shot with ACEs and spin wings is better than the one I shot last year with Easton Lightspeeds with 4 inch Quick Spins on. I'm hoping that the continued practice with the thinner, faster arrows will pay off outdoors.
 

backinblack

Active member
TP is target panic.

It's a bit like actors and MacBeth, I mean the Scottish Play - you can catch it just by saying the words...so no one really likes to talk about it too much.

It can manifest itself in a number of ways, in my case when aiming I would get stuck trying to move the sight pin into the gold and then all of a sudden I would unlock and be trying to pick off the 10 as the sight pin flew through it.

It is generally caused by overaiming due to the subconscious fear of missing the gold. The clicker can work to cure this by making the subconscious mind focus on the clicker rather than the aiming process.

This is something Geoffretired knows a lot about and he and others can correct me if I have some of the detail wrong.
 

jshankar

Member
ooo thanks for the beer..three pints too many :D

Anyhow, yeah TP...would you then say that one must get good enough to land 560+ portsmouth before getting a clicker? Are there others who struggle then put the clicker on and get WAY better! (and surely others who just cant get the hang of the clicker like geoffs mentioned..or just too much spare time to keep fiddling with it...)

whats the deal about clickers at your club backinblack?
 

backinblack

Active member
At my club most archers who are below first class don't use a clicker and there is no real push by the club coaches to get new archers using them ASAP. This is on the basis that first sets of arrows are normally left long in order to allow draw lengths to settle down. It is normally down to the individual archer to choose if and when they adopt the use of a clicker.

What I would say is that, in order to be as good as you can be, you need to learn to use a clicker - unless of course you feel that barebow is for you. Also, it is not a magic bullet - there are still plenty of things that can go wrong with your shot that the use of a clicker will not help.

Personally, I had difficulty learning to use a clicker but would not (more probably could not) now shoot without one. The difficulty for newer and to some degree archers at any stage of their development is that almost any change means a drop in scores initially.

This is particularly hard to take for beginners who normally have just begun to progress and then suddenly feel like perhaps they are starting again. Consequently, there is some reluctance to commit to it and work to acquire the skill to use it.

The issue for you is whether you take the plunge. If to do so you need to clip your arrows and your coach feels your draw length is likely to increase, then now is perhaps not the time.

If you go for it, commit to it and work at it - your archery will be better for it in the long run.

Backinblack
 

whiz

New member
I still can't get over the mystery of clickers that appears to be prevalent in this forum.
Is it something about the UK?

Why are there so many people HERE who treat them like they're such a big decision to make. It's not like you're considering to buy a house.

It's pretty much the cheapest, lightest piece of accurising equipment that you can buy AND you can take it off and decide not to use it.

And the other thing that is absolutely amazing is seemingly the requirement to seek peer approval to see if your decision to use one is appropriate!

What's more, this seems to happen regularly. If there is a subject that requires having all the relevant information and decision making processes rolled up and made a sticky, it's clickers.

All it needs to say is:
1. If you think that you might be serious about wanting to shoot accurately, use a clicker.
2. Start with one as soon as possible after deciding that you're serious about accuracy.
3. Remember that you set the clicker up so that you maintain good form, rather than the clicker making you do the wrong thing.
4. A clicker is a tool for ensuring consistancy. It is also a tool for developing a conditioned release reflex.
 

geoffretired

Supporter
Supporter
Whiz, you are right about the odd attitude to clickers. I tried to explain this in my post. I guess it goes back to the early days of clickers when all and sundry put in their two pennies worth without fully understanding what they were talking about. It goes with the archery, when archery is seen as a pastime by the club members and self help is always available.
It is still around today in some places.The bad news spreads far quicker and further than any good news.
 

jshankar

Member
@backinblack: cheers for that mate!

@whiz:

It is interesting that the clicker is not such an enigma for you. Yes, I suppose you are not wrong that we need the peer approval to use it. I cant tell you what happens at other clubs, but at our club, certainly seems to be a bit of peer pressure that puts us in our place. For example, Im only in competition with the folks I did my beginners course with. I dont compete (atleast i dont think about being in competition with) with other people. And we are all waiting for a bow tuning session and a session with the clickers. One might suppose I am waiting for the day we are called aside to a bare boss and the clicker demythified (if thats even a word) to us....

you are not wrong. Maybe it is me that is preventing myself from putting the clicker on. But also there is prevalent (mis?)conceptions that one must have a perfect drawlength before putting on the clicker ...also quickly followed by (an almost sadistic) "You're the archer mate!" which does not help..

About the perfect drawlenght remarks - I dont exactly understand that - I thought the clicker gave you the prefect drawlength - but maybe the interpretation to that is more along the lines of grow into your draw and make sure the arrow is the correct size like in backinblacks club (But then Ive also been told by the same person that I should not change the arrow length as this is prefect for me...)

Yes I want better scores - who doesnt? I want the perfect form with the perfect drawlength and a 10 for every shot - who doesnt?

AS for it being the cheapest peice of kit and you can take it off - thats exactly the attitude geoff was talking about earlier - that it does not (seemingly) help!

Horses for courses?


btw...is there a video/reading material on how to use the clicker /be introduced to it somewhere?

Cheers
 

soundo26

New member
I still can't get over the mystery of clickers that appears to be prevalent in this forum.
Is it something about the UK?

Why are there so many people HERE who treat them like they're such a big decision to make. It's not like you're considering to buy a house.

It's pretty much the cheapest, lightest piece of accurising equipment that you can buy AND you can take it off and decide not to use it.

And the other thing that is absolutely amazing is seemingly the requirement to seek peer approval to see if your decision to use one is appropriate!

What's more, this seems to happen regularly. If there is a subject that requires having all the relevant information and decision making processes rolled up and made a sticky, it's clickers.

All it needs to say is:
1. If you think that you might be serious about wanting to shoot accurately, use a clicker.
2. Start with one as soon as possible after deciding that you're serious about accuracy.
3. Remember that you set the clicker up so that you maintain good form, rather than the clicker making you do the wrong thing.
4. A clicker is a tool for ensuring consistancy. It is also a tool for developing a conditioned release reflex.
Good post!

Many old school archers tend to think that a clicker should only be used as a last resort and warn archers off them! It astounds me too. As long as a clicker is used correctly it can only improve scores by maintaining a consistent draw length, what's wrong with that? You don't see many top scoring recurve archers who don't use clickers, that must tell you something!
 

whiz

New member
@whiz:

It is interesting that the clicker is not such an enigma for you.
Not really.

I use all information available to me to make decisions. It's quite overwhelmingly obvious that a clicker is an essential piece of equipment for recurve archery

Lets look at some significant aspects of clickers:

Every single archer at the Olympics used a clicker.
Every single recurve archer at the World Cup and the WC's used one too.
Every single world record that still stands for recurve archery was done with the use of a clicker.
Every recurve world record that allows the use of a clicker is held by an archer who used one.

I'd only not use one if I wanted to hobble myself.

It appears that you're being held by back by doubt and lack of information.

The SINGLE most positive purchase that you can make at the moment to advance your archery is a little DVD by a chap that did some archery once.

Go straight here and buy it now. Watch it several times and at least once every three months to remind you of what you've forgotten.

You'll be confident about doing whatever you want to do.

I've even written about it before.
 

jshankar

Member
@shadow: ofcourse performance archery - I missed that one obviously:shocked: tut tut!
@whiz: Im going to look into that DVD definitely. I got the book. Convinced the o/h to put it on the wedding list and someone kindly obliged :)

and I suppose Im going to get that clicker as soon as I sort out what Im working on right now!

Cheers
Jay
 

Romulus

New member
Works for me

I will admit that I'm new to this and still think that a 500 on a Portsmouth is good but, after a few months of shooting without i put mine on a few weeks ago and the resulting consistency is amazing.

The purist in me says to take it off and bury it in the ground somewhere far away - the competitor in me says to use it and treat like a starter signal to release the arrow.

All I can say is it's worked for me - I would say anyone should shoot a couple of weeks with one on and make a decision based on personal preference

Just my two pennies worth but then again, I am still new to this!!
 

Ar-Pe-Lo

Member
I'm also new in the sport (5 months) but in this case there is no question if its good or not....if you want to achive max. of your performance you have to have it, end:)

I can see only one reason why not - people don't want cut their arrows...then arrows are too stiff (I presume they been correct spine before) and they have to buy new set ...
 
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