Right Handed Left Eye Dominance

[oafpatroll]

Eye dominance and 'handedness' are wired in. Forcing a reversal, as opposed to encouraging ambidexterity, sounds like a bad idea. Just look at someone above 55 or so who was forced to write right handed and how spaz they look doing it.

[Vaal]

Eye dominance and 'handedness' are wired in. Forcing a reversal, as opposed to encouraging ambidexterity, sounds like a bad idea. Just look at someone above 55 or so who was forced to write right handed and how spaz they look doing it.

I fully agree.
I tried to put sellotape, masking tape, black,
and blue insulation tape inside my left shooting glasses lense but my left eye tried to burn a hole through it to get to the sight.
If I concentrate hard enough I can switch the focus to the right eye (still both eyes open) but as soon as the shot goes off or I transition to another target my focus switch back to my left eye. Been there done a lot and now I shoot left shoulder.

[DaavG]

Thanks you've cemented the route to go in my head...

[Grobbie]

For my son we used lip ice on the shooting glasses to blur the problem eye. Does not damage lenz.

Tool about a year of active pistol shooting to make the correct eye behave better.


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[DaavG]

For my son we used lip ice on the shooting glasses to blur the problem eye. Does not damage lenz.

Tool about a year of active pistol shooting to make the correct eye behave better.


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To clarify were you "covering" his dominant eye which was opposite to his dominant hand to train his weak eye? Any longer repercussions on the sports field - cricket / tennis etc or shotguns?

[Heath Robinson]

I saw an interesting video on this on Youtube on the phenomenon of eye dominance recently TGS Outdoors channel if you are interested). It was a discussion with a couple of optometrists who specialize in this field.
My take-away was that eye dominance, although perhaps not directly controllable, is far more ephemeral than people commonly believe.
For example, it is quite common that dominance might shift due to viewing distance or the activity being performed.

I am possibly fortunate in that my dominance is all on one side (both eye and hand) despite my left eye being the better of the two in terms of visual acuity, but I have discovered (because I can't blink my left eye independently) that my left eye to assumes dominance when it looks through an optical sight. Thus, I can shoot left-handed with a rifle fairly easily if the stock fits me well enough that my eye ends up behind the scope when I shoulder it. I can do this with a peep-sighted rifle as well but it takes a couple of seconds for the eye to take over. I haven't tried it with open sights, but the only rifles I own with open sights are relics that I seldom use and wouldn't consider in a "tactical" situation.

With rifles and pistols, I don't think there is a huge penalty in performance if the shooter teaches him or herself the technique of briefly closing the other eye during the shot process. For those two-three seconds, the focus is all on the sights anyway and anything happening in the peripheral vision of the other eye is likely to go un-noticed anyway. Of course, with a pistol it is easy to shoot cross-eyed.

Different story for shotguns probably. Maybe that's why I can't shoot those with any degree of success.

[oafpatroll]

Different story for shotguns probably. Maybe that's why I can't shoot those with any degree of success.

A good friend of mine got what looked like about twice as good at blatting pigeons when he transitioned to left shouldered shouldered shooting after 20+ years of fighting his left eye dominance curse. He looked, and said he felt, a bit retarded for a few months as he worked through it but reckons that it's now effortless.

[Grobbie]

To clarify were you "covering" his dominant eye which was opposite to his dominant hand to train his weak eye? Any longer repercussions on the sports field - cricket / tennis etc or shotguns?

For rifle it was a non issue. He is right handed.

He quickly and early on used the correct eye for a rifle. Think the use of a scope helped in this regard. But when he started pistop shooting his left eye kept fighting with the right eye.

It has improved to the point he does not need it, unless it is a long day. When he tires the left eye starts its thing again.

Does not seem to affect any other eye functions in other platforms. But I suspect you have a point with the shotgun, especially on skeet over a barrel. Have kit tested that properly.


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[-=zv=-]

I have the same problem. Things you can try:
For rifle
Teach him to shoot right hand , right eye and led hand, left eye.
For hand gun. Same but also with both eyes open.

He is young so down the line you may find a solution to correct his eyesight (glasses or laser etc ). Focus on developing the correct fundamentals.

[A-R]

...
With rifles and pistols, I don't think there is a huge penalty in performance if the shooter teaches him or herself the technique of briefly closing the other eye during the shot process. For those two-three seconds, the focus is all on the sights anyway and anything happening in the peripheral vision of the other eye is likely to go un-noticed anyway. Of course, with a pistol it is easy to shoot cross-eyed...

I have tried that, and it results in me closing the shooting eye momentarily when the shot breaks. Yes, it is basically a flinch.
However, with the left lens patched I can keep both eyes wide open, and I can control the blink when the shot breaks.
This makes little difference when shooting slowly, except I can not always observe the bullet impact. When shooting fast, the constant blinking slows me down quite a bit. With the patch and both eyes open, I can track the sights all the way through the recoil cycle and on to the next target.