Eye dominance and its importance in successful shooting.

[Lisa]

The majority of us are dominant in one eye or another and many times our eye dominance coincides with our hand dominance. However, that is not always the case.

To check your eye dominance point your finger at a distant object with both eyes open. First close one eye and then the other. Your finger will reamian lined up with the object when your dominant eye is open.

It is thought that if you are right handed with a left eye dominance, you should then shoot a rifle as a left handed shooter. I have seen success in this approach and failure as well.

One of our shooters, when she was younger would put the butt of the rifle in her right shoulder (she was right handed) but her parent's noticed that she would crane her neck way over as to get her left eye to line up with the sight. They started placing the rifle in her left shoulder and that is how she has shot ever since. We had another shooter join us who always shot right handed but was left eye dominant. The coach tried to change her to left handed and the poor kid struggled immensely and became frustrated finally reverting back to right handed shooting and doing better. The coach of our rifle team is also left eye dominant but just can't imagine putting the rifle left handed, and his scores seem to suffer because of it.

So is it important to teach someone to shoot according to their eye dominance or do you let them "do what is natural?" Would you encourage a shooter to change their shooting hand if they found out after that their eye dominance was different then what they were used to?

[arnisandyz]

To some extent, the non-dominant eye can be trained to see easier than it would be to switch body mechanics especially for old dogs like me. I'm left-handed, right eye dominant and have trained my left eye to see what I need to see with both eyes open. Wasn't easy. Started with a piece of transparent tape on my shooting glasses covering my right eye, just enough to blur the front sight. Without the feedback from my right eye, my left was forced to start working more. I still have problems switching to weakhand around cover. Somehow my right eye wants to take over (could be because its in better alignment). I seem to do better forcing my left eye to see than switching back and forth.

Shooting bullseye, I assume the shooter is trained to shoot 2 eyes open to avoid face tension? If this is the case and someone is having trouble with eye dominance, you might want to give the tape trick a try before switching shoulders.

[Brian R. VanCise]

I am right handed but left eye dominant. It has never affected me one iota with handguns, shotguns or rifles. My shooting in training and at the police academy and police training was always at the top.

However, I have struggled with archery in this regard and until about two years ago I finally found a sight that works great for my left eye dominance. Shot yesterday and nearly every arrow was place exactly where I wanted it.

I could not imagine switching sides. Though it might be fun just to work that side for some extra training.

Brian R. VanCise
www.instinctiveresponsetraining.com

[Lisa]

Originally Posted by arnisandyz

Shooting bullseye, I assume the shooter is trained to shoot 2 eyes open to avoid face tension? If this is the case and someone is having trouble with eye dominance, you might want to give the tape trick a try before switching shoulders.

Yes, both eyes are open. We use blinders attached to our back sight on our other eye

My nephew is right handed and left eye dominant and does the head craning think over the back of the barrel to align his left eye. He is 9 and for safety sake I think should be taught to either use his right eye or switch to left handed. One of these days he is going to pick up a rifle with some kick to it and get a nasty hit in the face. This is one of the reasons I asked these questions. What would you do? Train the right eye or force the switch?

[Brian R. VanCise]

Originally Posted by Lisa

Yes, both eyes are open. We use blinders attached to our back sight on our other eye

My nephew is right handed and left eye dominant and does the head craning think over the back of the barrel to align his left eye. He is 9 and for safety sake I think should be taught to either use his right eye or switch to left handed. One of these days he is going to pick up a rifle with some kick to it and get a nasty hit in the face. This is one of the reasons I asked these questions. What would you do? Train the right eye or force the switch?

You know Lisa, even though I am left eye dominant I do not have to crank my head over the barrel that much. Maybe I am not that much left eye dominant but for me whatever the reason it seems to be not very important to my shooting skills.

Brian R. VanCise
www.instinctiveresponsetraining.com

[Blindside]

I am right handed and left eye dominant, I shoot handguns with my right and rifles lefty. Because I've been doing it since I was a kid (BB gun) I can't really imagine retraining to shoot rifles right handed. I can sort of do it with an aimpoint, but it is really bad trying to make iron sights work for me. One thing I have noticed is that my long gun to pistol transitions are much easier than guys who shoot both weapons with the same hand, because I can sling the long gun on my left and draw off my right hip. Not much of an advantage, but I'll take it.

Lamont

[arnisandyz]

You guys that are cross dominant, are you using your non-dominant eye to sight or using your dominant eye? I can see this not working for a rifle shooter, or even a pistol shooter in Weaver, In ISO you would be more squared up so it would probably be easier to use the cross dominant eye if you wanted too.

In one stage of our next IDPA we're thinking about using an eye patch to cover the dominant eye (simulate an eye injury or something) so the shooters are forced to use thier non-dominant eye. Shooter will have a choice to shoot stronghand or weakhand.

[Blindside]

I initially learned pistol in modified weaver, and I use my left eye to aim. I do have a my head cocked a bit more, and my arm shifts to the middle a bit more than a dominant hand/dominant eye shooter would be. I haven't had an accuracy problem with it.

Lamont

[pstarr]

A technique that works well with handguns for people who are cross-dominant is to tilt the front sight over until it's in front of the dominant eye (usually no more than 45 degrees)...then you don't have to stick your face over the weapon to sight with your dominant eye.