Eye dominance

[sloughfoot]

Interesting thread. My father decided 58 years ago that I would not be left handed. I have been compensating for that decision of his for many years.

I have also long ago forgiven him for his faults and I love him very much. He is now in his 80's.

I am left eye dominant and shoot right handed. I compensate for having better vision out of my left eye in various ways.

My younger brother is left eye dominant but was allowed to be left handed. He is a more natural shooter, but I can still kick his *** on the range because it is more important to me. Maybe I work harder at it?

I will be on the side of the boy. To let him decide what works best for him... Don't force anything on him.

 

[Jay]

I guess I could clarify my stance on this...........

I have not heard of anyone being able to change their dominant eye from one side to the other.

I have seen some pretty unorthodox shooting positions used by some folks who are cross-dominant.

IF those folks are comfortable with their shooting, and their proficiency, more power to 'em.... and as long as it suits 'em, don't change a thing.

If a NEW shooter tries to shoot cross-dominant, they don't have existing muscle memory to "unlearn", and most of the time, they can learn to shoot with better results, if they train to keep their strong hand on the same side as their dominant eye.

I wouldn't force anything on anyone......... you shoot in whatever manner you choose.

And...all due respect.... I'm not sure what these two quotes are supposed to say..... do they contradict each other, or am I missing something?

He has a left eye dominate. So do I. Can't really train the other eye to be dominate. Almost equal at best. Thats what my Ophthalmologist told me anyhow. Easy fix... move the rifle to his left shoulder. Done.

Every Left-Eyed Dominate RH person on this thread -> <-Littlratt

 

[IndyGunSafety]

Don't force the dominant eye closed! Let him shoot with his strong hand AND his dominant eye! There is nothing wrong with this and zillions of people do it with both long guns and handguns. Work with what God gave him and he will shoot fine. Also your post does not state that he is LEFT eye dominant, only that he tries to aim with his left. Have you done the eye dominance tests with him? I just want to be clear on your post beacause I have had many students TRY to aim with their non-dominant eye. Teaching him to shoot weak hand is never a bad idea. Being able to shoot with both hands is great, but not the solution to eye dominance.

I have not heard of anyone being able to change their dominant eye from one side to the other.

I agree Jay. But I'm not convinced changing from strong hand to weak is the solution. But it beats the heck out of trying to mess which eye is dominant!

 

[in_betts]

Wow, I guess I should be thankful I don't have a cross problem. I am right eye dominate and right handed and didn't really know that many people had to deal with the cross dominance issue.

I remember Dad doing the dominance tests but I never had to make any decisions and neither did my son.

 

[DeadeyeChrista'sdad]

Huh. You guys teach me something new every day. Thanks
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[NewsShooter]

I was born Right handed...but unfortunately also legally blind in my right eye. Even with corrected vision...I'm roughly 20/100 in my right eye. I've tried shooting rifle's righty, but can't see more than 10yrds down range past the end of a barrel.

I switched to lefty a while back, 20/30 in my left eye, and I'm able to shoot much better. Unfortunately, I've only ever trained/practiced on right handed weapons. At this point I'm so stuck in my ways I would never want to learn on a left handed gun.

 

[55spartan]

have you seen the latest Glock model advocating open carry with two guns? I don't have the guts to post the actual pic here....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v24/outlander/extra/glock_girl.jpg

I'd me more worried about that button on her jeans flying off and killing me!!!!

 

[greed]

thanks for the info folks. He does everthing else right handed and is resistent to shooting left handed, but he is only 8. Much easier to form good habbits at 8 then fix bad ones later.

 

[Jay]

....have him shoot three targets his way, and three targets left-handed. The best targets pretty well say it all......

 

[Indecision]

have you seen the latest Glock model advocating open carry with two guns? I don't have the guts to post the actual pic here....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v24/outlander/extra/glock_girl.jpg

I might go as far as to say you are a bad person for posting this.

 

[ACT II]

While teaching my son to shoot I have noticed he has eye dominance issues. He is right handed but tries to aim with his left eye. Have any of you guys ever worked through this issue. I am assuming I need to put a patch on his left to force the issue. He goes to the eye doc regularly so he has no vision issues.

Thoughts?

I have some thoughts on the actual question here, plus some comments to make about the responses and the issue in general.

First, I'd want to know how old the kid is, how long he's been shooting, what kind of shooting and with what kind of gun. There are multiple legitimate methods for accommodating crose-dominance issues, with some better suited to some applications than others. If the boy is shooting long guns and this is primarily a pure marksmanship, one solution may be more appropriate than if this is 19 year old trying to learn how to defend himself with a handgun. One of the reasons I'd like to know how old he is is to help assess whether or not there really is a cross-dominance issue, or if something else is happening.

While awaiting those answers . . .

I suspect that Litlratt is hesitant to proclaim his own credentials, but I'm not. When reading his messages about marksmanship and related topics, people might want to keep in mind that he's a multiple state NRA Highpower Rifle shooting champion, including multiple 1000 yard championships. I don't mention this because I believe anyone should automatically defer to him because of his accomplishments (everyone has a right to their opinion, even if they fail to recognize that someone else's may as valid if not more so than their own), but rather to suggest that he knows what he's talking about and can and has proven it many, many times. I caveat this with the admission that I've known him since 1995. If I wanted to learn about rifle marksmanship, including how to deal with cross-dominance, I know I can learn much from him.

Now . . . back to the issue. And before I continue, I'd like to express that I think too much is made of cross-dominance, at least for shooting pistols. It's not a huge problem and simple, effective workarounds exist.

For shooting targets, especially with long guns, the idea of occluding one eye is not only not "wrong," it's an entirely valid and useful tool. To dismiss it because you don't believe it has value or because it's not perfect for your application is short-sighted at best. In this case, I infer (in the absence of further information) that we're talking about a young kid who is learning to the fundamentals of marksmanship.

If we shift to defensive use of handguns or the intrinisically-linked practical shooting sports, there is something that simply learning to shoot with the "other hand" doesn't address: people need to be able to shoot with either hand because their hand of choice may not be available to them at any given time. In a defensive situation, this could be because of an injury, or because one hand is restraining a loved one, or because that same hand is otherwise indisposed. I'll repeat: people need to be able to shoot with either hand.

So . . . there is nothing inherently wrong with learning to shoot left-handed if the left eye is dominant. But what if you then had to shoot with your right hand and there is no other choice? Learning to shoot left handed won't help you at all if you are forced to shoot right handed.

For shooting handguns, there is (in my humble opinion), a much better choice for accommodating cross-dominance: just move the gun a little bit to the other side (an alternate version is to turn the head just slightly, which also works well for many people).

That's all it takes. Maybe a centimeter or two at the very most. Anyone can learn to do it. When you shoot with the hand that is opposite your dominant eye, regardless of whether it's your dominant hand or not, this will work.

How do I know this works? Well, far more experienced individuals than I have taught it me during formal instruction multiple times. Another little fact is that my vision is crappy in my right eye (I'm right handed) and I knew this when I started shooting. I purposely chose to learn to shoot with my left eye because of this because I knew I might need to shoot when I didn't have the advantage of my glasses. I've never had a strongly dominant eye (I have trouble seeing through binocular microscopes), but I've learned to shoot with my left eye and (primarily) my right hand. It has worked well for me. Then, when I need to (or choose to) shoot left handed, it's also no big deal. I've also experimented with shooting with right eye, and all it takes is subtle shift of the gun back to the right, and all is good.

Moving the handgun in front of the dominant eye is simple, it's easy, it doesn't really compromise anything, it allows for shooting with either hand, and most importantly it works. I don't see a downside unless the shooter's eyes are on the sides of their head (i.e. far enough apart to necessitate a huge shift), but humans have both eyes in the front and they're not that far apart.

Joseph Viray (aka rhino)
Joseph@AdaptiveConsultingandTraining.com

 

[Adrenaline]

I might go as far as to say you are a bad person for posting this.

+1

 

[Jay]

Properly chastised..... apologies......

 

[USMC_0311]

have you seen the latest Glock model advocating open carry with two guns? I don't have the guts to post the actual pic here....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v24/outlander/extra/glock_girl.jpg

Them poor Glocks. I beleive that qualifies for Glock abuse.



I thought you said to close both eyes when shooting.

 

[Jay]

not to mention visual abuse..... I really apologize for that..... it was just wrong.