New shooter with eye domininance question

[wrtmani]

Hello from NW Montana!  Thanks for having me in the group.  Joined up a few weeks ago and looking forward to further discussion with all the knowledge on here.

I recently (last 6-8 weeks therabouts) took up archery to be able to shoot with my oldest boy who's been shooting a compound bow for the last year after we both took the Montana Hunter's Education for Archery course together.  I bought a RH Samick Sage 45# model last month.  I'm recognizing I still am just fresh out of the gate as far as all the fundamentals of form with anchor point, back tension, string release. etc.  Started shooting at 10 yards, just to be able to fling some arrows and kind of get the fundamentals lined out before moving back farther.  Only tuning of the bow has been getting inital brace height set and tying in a pair of nock sets.

The issue I'm having is I am Right Handed and Right Eye Dominant.  When I try to shoot with both eyes open and try to just see my arrow point in my right eye's periphrial and try to shoot "instinctual" I end up shooting high left on the target bag with my arrows fairly spead out.  This evening, I was out with my boy and this time I tried a couple rounds with my left eye closed and actually being able to look down the nock and arrow shaft at the bullseye and my groupings were tighter and to the right of center.

It's almost as if my brain can't decide which eye to call dominant.  If I try using the two hands forming a triangle at arm's length and looking at an object and bringing my hands back to my face, the triangle comes to my right eye. But my left eye wants to look at the image as well with my left hand in the way.

The big factor in all of this is that I had a stroke just over 2 years ago that sidelined me getting into doing archery until this year.  I'm sure this is having some effect as I know my vision has changed a little as well.  Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to working around this issue or maybe has had a similar experience.  I've read a couple articles online about using an eyepatch or like a piece of cardboard on a bracket off a hat brim for covering the domininant eye but not the non-dominant.

Looking forward to any and all advice, thanks again for having me and God Bless!

[McDave]

People with cross dominance often need a little help in aiming, whether instinctive or otherwise.  Most people who are right eye dominant are able to squint their left eye almost shut until it is obvious which image of the arrow shaft is appearing in the right eye.  Once they lock on to the correct image, they can quit squinting their left eye.  This is not unusual, and many top notch shooters have to do it.  Are you able to squint your left eye until it momentarily blocks the image the left eye is seeing?

[wrtmani]

Mc Dave--

Thanks for the reply.  I can indeed close my eye and be able to see the arrow tip in relation to the target.  Maybe the information to follow may help the next person to follow in my footsteps....

In anaylizing what you said I thought more about my question and think I found out at least on my own as to why this doesn't seem right.  I took a stance, pretending I was holding my bow and aiming towards the target.  Standing with an "open" stance and having both eyes open my eyes want to switch between one or the other ("Camera 1 vs. Camera 2" kind of thing) when looking at the target.  When I close the left eye the only periphrial vision I have to the left is out of the very inside corner of my right eye next to my nose.

When I had my stroke it was on the right side of the brain and affected the left side of my body.  I initialy had what was called "Left Neglect" where I could have both eyes open but my brain wasn't registering and processing what my left eye was seeing.  I would walk through a doorway and hit the doorjamb on my left shoulder or run into the hospital bed trying to go around it to the left.  One of my therapies was to look at a street map of a part of Philidelphia and find the resturant symbols located on it.  At first I would only circle the ones on the right side of the map.

It took 3-4 months of OT therapy after the stroke in the therapy office (and the subsequent two years at home since) to get to the point I'm at now which is being able to see to the left fairly decent.  But the mind is still having to heal the various damaged areas and "re-learn" to process the signals and information.  So it's kind of like counter-intuitive to close one eye now to be able to see the arrow in relation to the target.  LIke a little kid learning how to do something and then being told "No.  You can't do it like that."

So I will have to work on closing the left eye and keeping it closed throughout my followthrough even when my mind wants to open it.  Crazy! 

Would still appreciate more input from other members as well!  Thanks everyone!

[Pine]

This is a good reason to shoot TRUE INSTINCTIVE.
Easy to teach in person but difficult to teach with just words.
I myself don't have a dominant eye but luckily, my dad thought me to shoot when I was 6 years old.
It's like throwing a ball or a dart, just look at where you want to hit, and hit it.
DON'T LOOK AT THE ARROW!
A good way to start is "Blind Bailing"
Stand close, like 5 yards and get a good stance, get your bow ready to pull up while its still down and crosswise like carrying a suitcase in front of you.
Now look intently at a spot you want the arrow to go, visualize it hitting that spot, close your eyes and bring the bow up, draw, anchor and shoot.
Now open your eyes and see what happened.
Now for the time being, you adjust your feet according to whitch way you missed.
It will be very fun when your brain figures out what you are doing.
Believe you can do it and stick with it for a while.
When you start hitting where you want, move back a bit and have have it.
If you master this, then start messing with changing your stance and even twisting in the opposite direction.
Good luck and I wish I could work with you face to face. I have thought many people how to do that.

[Sojurn]

I'm cross eye dominant as well, and its something we see in our pistol classes from time to time. The best way I've found to train a person into using one eye over the other is with glasses and chapstick.
  If you already wear glasses smear just the slightest bit of chapstick over your left eye. Just enough to make your brain choose to use your right eye, but not so much you can't see with your left.  It sounds more complicated than it is.
  If you don't already wear glasses, just use some cheap saftey glasses. After a while ("while" depends on the shooter, everyone picks things up at different speeds), you won't need the glasses.
  Good luck. Have fun with it.