Your thoughts on why we shoot ..

[Kingstaken]

Only having to go thru the issue of being righty with all things in life I had to shoot the bow lefty due to any injury.
I have come to the conclusion a while back ago that if for example your are right handed and throw your baseballs and footballs and bowling balls etc with your right hand/arm where you use your right and most likely yout stronger and better reflex arm to aim, why would you not hold the bow in your right hand and draw back with yuor left.
Seems to me you'd be quicker and better on your target with your stronger and more dominant arm. Learning to to pull back lefty was no bid issue other then alil time.
I hear trad guys talk about eye dominancy all the time and too me unless ya gap shooting of some sort where you may close one eye, shooting instinctive is with both eyes opened.
Thoughts?  

[Whip]

The idea with the dominant eye is to have it lined up directly over the top of the arrow.  If it's not, it distorts the sight picture.  The mind can compensate, but I think it is better not to have to do that.  

Try this with your dominant eye.  With both eyes open, point your finger at an object on the wall.  Now close or cover your dominant eye.  Your finger will appear to "move" sidnificantly from where it was pointed.  Closing or covering the non-dominant eye does not have that affect.

As far as learning to pull with a different arm, I haven't tried it, but I think you are probably right, it is just a matter of learning with a different arm.  But it sure would seem to be easier to pull a bow with the stronger of the two.

[Kingstaken]

Whip thanks for the reply.
I understand the eye test, but unless ya eyes are really really different, the diffreence in minimum.
I don't buy that eye over the arrow except for wheely bows. My head is turned to the side and into the draw If I was to close my right eye cause I shoot lefty I'd have to chnage my aim..
As for drawing with your stronger arm I think thats just something soemone started without really knowing why.
For example when you draw back and hold, which arm shakes if you hold to long your bow arm or drawing arm?

[Jerry Jeffer]

I seem to do thing the way I was shown. I am some what ambidextrous, so what ever works for me I do it. I could shoot bow with either hand. I eat and write lefty, play most sports righty, shoot guns lefty, and all my bows are righty. Go figure...

[laddy]

I shoot with left and right.  The eye can be trained with indirect aiming very quickly, there may some of the other movements involved with shooting may be more difficult than pulling and aiming.  Try winking to keep your brain from getting confused, you may surprise yourself.

[Guru]

I'm with Whip.....

[mcgroundstalker]

I sometimes switch hands..... But not for shootin' arrows!  :rolleyes:

... mike ...

[BigRonHuntAlot]

Originally posted by mcgroundstalker:
I sometimes switch hands..... But not for shootin' arrows!   :rolleyes:  

... mike ...

   

[Stone Knife]

I'm left handed but right eye dominant, this is something I learned when I was 14 years old. I started out shooting bows and guns left handed at a young age, then I had to make the switch. So now I get to hold my bow with my strong hand, I would guess that I have it made.

[TonyW]

Consider this - a cross dominant baseball player hits right handed and can see the ball better with his left eye. I have  heard that the best major league batters are often cross dominant.
Yet this same person will throw and catch right handed.
And if you learn that you are cross dominant decades after you started to shoot, should you retrain yourself now? In other words, if I tried to become a switch hitter with bows, would it do more harm than good?  
(My wife will kill me if I start buying left handed bows!)

[Otto]

I'm left handed...for some things.  Right handed for others.  I've figured it out that anything that is a strength movement, I'm left handed.  That would be for throwing a ball, using a tennis racket (if I played tennis, but I don't) eating with a fork (which seems to be a power movement).  From the right side I write, use chop sticks (no kidding), shoot a rifle, shotgun or handgun and shift gears.  I'm right eye dominant.  I shoot a bow right handed.

[ChuckC]

If you don't see the arrow on draw...ie: instinctive .. eye dominance makes no differance.

If you see the arrow and you are using it to aim, in any fashion, it matters a lot.

If it ain't broke...don't fix it.  If it is broke....don't wait...fix it.
ChuckC

[Arwin]

Fred Bear is a good example of having to switch. A righty by nature but shot lefty due to an injury. He put more than enough meat in the freezer.