How to Setup a Clicker on your Recurve Bow

If you're new to using a clicker or are considering to use a clicker, I'm going to help you set it up and understand how you should be actually using it to execute the shot, and it'll get you more comfortable with the clicker so you'll be able to shoot higher scores sooner than later. So the best place to start is here at Blank Bale. I'm standing, you know, about two meters, a meter, a couple, I don't know, not very far. My stabilizer won't quite reach the target butt without a target face on it. That's definitely the place to start because you don't want to have any sort of visual distraction or need to shoot while shooting at something like a target or anything else. So I'm not even going to pick an arrow hole on the target. All I'm going to do is make sure that my form feels pretty good. So before you really even consider jumping into using a clicker, you know, you need to understand what a clicker is first. A clicker is essentially something that clicks. All it is is either a piece of spring steel like this one here that is just a flexible piece of flat spring steel. There are some that are round rods with a magnet that's driven that way. There's limb-driven clickers that attach to the limb and to your string. There are sears that you use for pressure in your grip. There's many different things, but primarily this video is going to be tailored towards the actual clicker that determines your drawing. This isn't necessarily the one that is a grip activation where there's a click in the actual grip on the bow. These are all ones that are driven by the arrow or the one that is driven by the limb can work as well using these methodologies. So the clicker itself, you set on the actual arrow like so. So that way as you're drawing back the bow, your arrow gets very close to that clicker clicking. You start aiming and you pull that last little bit. And when it clicks, that's when you fire the arrow. So the clicker is a trigger that tells you when to release, but it is primarily a draw check device. So draw check, meaning with a Olympic style recurve here or any other style bow that does have a hard wall, like a modern compound, you're pulling against a limitless draw length. So I could pull the bow back to 50 inches if the limbs were to stay together, or I could pull it as little as 10 inches. There's really no limit to a recurve style because there's no draw limit. There's no limit to how far you can pull back. And as many people know, and if you don't, this might be the adds roughly two pounds to your draw weight. That's how much weight is on the actual string trying to pull you forward. And when you have a little arrow like this, that weighs basically next to nothing, and you have two pounds of extra force put on it compared to the previous arrow shot at two pounds less, the one that has the higher draw weight, the longer drawing will hit much higher than the other one because it has more power into it. So the main benefit to shooting with a clicker is to have a consistent draw length, which translate consistent amounts of energy into this arrow and consistent groups downrange. So that is the primary reason for using a clicker. The secondary reason is to give you a cue when to shoot. And it's not necessarily something that you're a slave to. It's not something that you're necessarily totally bound by, and it definitely should not be. You should have the ability to decide to shoot the arrow or not when that clicker clicks. And it's called basically clicker control. The ability to let down when that clicker clicks when you know the shot isn't quite going right is extremely important. You really need to be able to choose whether or not to release it. The primary use of it though is if everything is good and everything still feels good while you're at full draw, when it clicks, you shoot. You immediately let it go because you should be really working on your aiming the way that I've been discussing in videos that have led up to this, and you should always be focusing on the form the same way. So all those things should be really good and set well before that clicker clicks. Unless it clicks too early and then you know, hey it's not quite ready yet or I'm not quite ready yet, so I'm going to let down and start the shot over. So you kind of have to be at a level of proficiency to be able to even move into a clicker because your draw length has to be relatively consistent from shot to shot. You have to have your own system, your own bow, your own arrows, and all that stuff because otherwise you'll have to constantly move and adjust and it'll take so much time to get it set up that it'll be a pain in the butt. So you really just need to have your own setup and be able to do it. This clicker happens to be an AAE micro-adjustable clicker, so I can click forward and click back to adjust the position, but it's no different than just grabbing yours and moving it forward or back or loosening the bolt on the actual sight bar and sliding that forward and back either. I do have a link where I talked about a bunch of clickers. I'll have links in the description below for that as well as a card at the top up there to check out in case you don't know what type of clicker you're looking for. It'll give you a bunch of options that you'll be able to pick and choose for yourself. The main primary thing here is going to be starting at blank bail. Starting up close, no target, nothing to aim at, nothing to distract you other than just you, your bow, and your new found clicker. I'm going to set mine in totally the wrong spot so that way I'll be able to move it into the correct spot for you and you'll be able to see how I'm adjusting it and how I'm, you know, making these adjustments. The best way to do it would be to have somebody stand off to the side similar to where this camera is and watch you shoot a few arrows before the clicker goes on. If you don't have somebody to watch you, you can use a camera on a tripod like I am, film a few shots of you shooting, and make a little mental note of where you see the point of your arrow on your riser or hanging out in space, approximately how far out it is, so that way you can take a tape measure and measure it and put your clicker relatively close to that position so it gets you in a relatively decent starting point. So what I'm going to do and what I would recommend doing setting up the clicker for yourself is to make sure that this first shot for sure have no intention of shooting it. Do not shoot it. Do not let it go. Tell yourself that. You're going to pull back, get comfortable as if you feel like you are at full draw, but no matter what you will let down. So that's what I'm going to tell myself here. So I'm going to let down. You don't have to literally tell yourself that, but go through good form. I'm at full draw. It felt comfortable to me, but you'll see that that clicker clicked way too early for me to feel comfortable. I'm going to do that one more time, and I'm going to let you know when I feel good at full draw, like when I've anchored correctly, when my body position feels the same, when my form feels good, and I'll do that by just giving you a hmm, like an auditory hum, so you'll be able to tell when I feel good, so you can see where the arrow is this time. Hmm. So you'll see that the arrow is much further back than where my clicker is set. So for this particular one, all I have to do is loosen up the locking wheel, spin this, and the clicker starts angling back. So I'm going to move it back too much, but this way you'll be able to see what happens when I have it too far back. So again, I'm going to come to full draw, pretend like I'm aiming, just make sure my form feels good, and then I'm going to hum for you when I feel good, and you can see kind of where the arrow is. Hmm. So you see that I have roughly the entire point to try to pull through to get that clicker to click in order to be able to shoot the shot. That is not ideal. It really shouldn't be that long. It should be much shorter than that to actually have to pull that last little bit to get the clicker to click. I do have a video produced specifically on how to set your clicker in the right place. I'm not going to really cover that all that much in this video since I've already done that. This one is more of just how to even start using a clicker and the idea behind it and what you should really be focusing on. So if you really want to learn more on how to set your clicker in the correct position, I'll have links in the description below and a card at the top up there for you to check out. Definitely would recommend watching that video and it'll explain more in depth on how to properly set the exact length that you need. Okay. So on this one, what I'm going to do is I haven't moved it. It's still too far back, meaning it's too hard to get through the clicker, but I'm going to try anyway and see if I can actually get through it. And I can get through it. It just takes a little bit too much effort. You can see I have a little bit of shaking and I have to really just add too much pressure and it takes too long. So I'm going to move it out a little bit, meaning move it forward away from me just a little bit, about two millimeters or so, and that should put it really close to in the ideal position for me. But what am I actually thinking about? How am I actually trying to actually shoot this bow? What I'm doing is using almost the same movement that I used to pull the bow back. And I'm pulling a little and I'm also pushing a little at the same time. After I've come to full draw and I am comfortable, I'm going to start pulling against the tension of the bow and pull it back a little bit more and then let this kind of front half hinge and rotate and push forward as I'm pulling back here like this. And so it's how I pulled the bow back using that same method and that same motion of pulling the bow back. But when I'm at full draw and I'm stable, I'm just going to be pulling ever so slightly. Barely, barely at all. It's not a jerk. It's not a quick, fast movement. It's a very slow and controlled movement. You know, it'd be like driving a car with an eggshell on the accelerator pedal. You don't just mash it to the floor because you break the egg. You slowly roll into it. You slowly ease into it. And that's what I'm doing here as I come back to full draw and I slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, I slowly increase the tension. I don't go from full draw to pull. It's slowly built into it. And what I'm going to do now is as the clicker drops and I hear the click and I feel it click in the handle, I will let go and continue that tension going. Now the tension that I'm talking about is what I've referred to many times in the past, tension and direction. As I'm pulling against the bow and pulling this way and pushing that way, that tension and direction is continuing until after I let go of the string. The shot doesn't end when the clicker clicks and the shot doesn't end when you let go of the string. The shot ends when you finish your shot and that's a position I like to be in. Where my hand's further back, I've hit the limit of my range of motion of my follow through, the arrow has hit the target, and that's when my shot ends. But I do not stop pulling until well after that time. I continue to pull, pull, pull well after the clicker has clicked. So I'm going to shoot one arrow here without any cues so you'll be able to see what I'm talking about. And now this one I will talk you through it. So I'll tell you what I'm doing. So I'm going to draw the bow back, get into anchor, and settle in. Draw. Anchor. Settled. Aim. Pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull. So I continue until after the shot breaks. Now that one took a little bit too much time for me, but I'm talking through the shot and normally I don't talk while at full draw, so it's not in the perfect position for me. But what is perfect about what I did was the execution of how to actually use that clicker. I get to full draw, I get comfortable, I start aiming, and then I start pulling. If the clicker clicked any time before that time when I started saying pull, I would have let down and start over because I wasn't ready. And if I had to continue saying pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, and it wasn't clicking, and it took me 10 seconds, I would definitely let down and I wouldn't shoot it. It's never a good idea to shoot when your clicker hasn't clicked. This style will rip your veins off, at least the one that sticks out away from the bow, and you'll hit very far to the right. Because of that clicker pushing on your arrow, it's going to push it to the right if you're a right-handed shooter. If you're left, it'll go left. But this is definitely a device that really helps your consistency due to consistent speeds, consistent impact points, consistent draw lengths, hopefully consistent tensions while you're at full draw. It's really not too difficult of a thing to integrate, but unless your technique and your form is really close, meaning not perfect, but you're at least consistent in your draw length within a quarter inch, a clicker will be really easy to use. I wouldn't say that there's an age limit or a score limit or anything along those lines that you should really achieve, but having the basic consistent idea of how does the bow feel at full draw, how do you feel at full draw, and can you control what you're doing. So it's not necessarily that you've got to be perfect, but you do have to have that ability to maintain the same draw length, roughly, to get into the same position, to have a consistent anchor, and to be able to just slow down the shot in your mind without having to do anything uncontrolled. So the whole sport of archery is really about just controlling the shot as much as possible, and using a clicker adds a whole level of consistency and control to your shot that you may not have had before.