[Kae]

It's cold, its snowing heavily, I can't go anywhere, I've just covered the car so that it doesn't take 2 hours to defrost in the morning, and i'm sitting comfortably, So I will begin.


I think one of the biggest problems with using a clicker is that the initial arrows after attaching one tend to be worse than your normal shooting. So you instantly build a psychological connection; clicker = poor shooting.
Your told to stick with it, so you practice. Do you know if its set up correctly? Probably not if you haven't got a (GOOD) coach, so you practice and practice. Over-drawing becomes the norm because it hasn't been set up properly. Pulling through the clicker now becomes a psychological battle. IF I can pull through, THEN I can release. IF I can release, THEN I can hit the target. There is no continuation in the shot sequence, and so you start to replicate these separate psychological battles in your shooting. Everything becomes separated; Draw to the clicker, draw through the clicker, sight the bow, release etc. Which is the wrong way to use one.
Clicker use should be easy. It should be part of the draw, not a separate stage. I think that when it is separated into such, then thats when you start to get clicker panic as Geoff has described.

I think the only way to fix this is to start from basics. Remove the clicker and get the archer (under coaching) to develop a consistent, comfortable draw. When this has been achieved and reinforced (so a consistent form for at least a couple of weeks), THEN the clicker can be re-introduced and attached correctly. This is when the archer is introduced into a full draw, then squeezing the shoulder blades to pull the arrow through the clicker.
If the archer is put back onto the clicker too soon, then the clicker panic just comes back, and you have to start again - which hinders the archers belief in shooting.

Kae.