Eye Dominance Question

[ewarshaw]

I've done everything as a "Righty" my whole life. I shoot pretty good for a rookie. Doing the eye dominance test, I realized that I am left eye dominant.
My question is...how hard and true is it that I will never get really good shooting right handed? I took a shot left-handed the other day and, obviously, it was very awkward and uncomfortable.
I'm thinking that if I can hit my target, I'm in pretty good shape. What do YOU think?

[Danny Rowan]

Read my signature! Read two books,"Billets to Bows" by Glenn St. Charles and "Instinctive Archery Insights" by Dr. Jay Kidwell. If you want to switch you can with a bunch of practice but it is not necessary, I do not care what others may say. I am right handed and left eye dom. and I have shot right handed all my life,been shooting bows since I was 15 years old. That is over 40 years now. If you are shooting well now there is no need to switch.

Now if you plan to use some "aiming" method like gap or Point of Aim, then you would have to switch, but not if you shoot instinctive,look at what you want to hit and shoot. Both eyes open!

Just like throwing a baseball or shooting baskets in basketball, look and throw or shoot!

Danny

[NDTerminator]

A gifted and truly instinctive shooter is something to behold. I admire the devil out of them.

They don't need to rely on their dominant eye working in conjunction with their strong hand. They can shoot from ungodly positions, cant the bow radically, even float their anchor, and still hit with astonshing accuracy.  Guys like Bear, Ferguson come to mind. Dan Fitzgerald never ceases to amaze me...

Unfortunately most of us (including me) ain't them.  We need to use our dominant eye/ strong hand in coordination and develop consistent repeatable form to shoot effectively.

My son is right handed/left eye dominant, which we discovered when he was 5 years old. To watch him contort himself to get his left eye across the string or a firearm stock was painful.  

We simply switched him to LH for anything required aiming (rifle, shotgun, bow).  Took him about a month to get comfortable, and he hasn't had a problem since.  He's going to be 28 this year, a career regular Army soldier, and a crack shot.

I'm left handed/left eye dominant. Back when I first picked up a bow in the early 60's, I had no instruction and the uncle that gave me the bow knew nothing about archery.  Needless to say, it was right handed.

I didn't even know LH bows were made until I was 13, when I got a copy of the 1968 edition of Fred Bear's Archer's Bible.  There on the cover was a picture of Fred shooting a left handed bow!  I had been having hell's own time shooting various right hand bows left handed for years, and all of a sudden I knew why.

I then got my first left handed bow (a Shakespeare Sierra 45#), and it was like a miracle. All of a sudden, the arrow was going where I was looking.  Unreal!

You get your dominant eye and strong hand working together, and you won't believe the difference...

[d. ward]

I gotta go with ya on this one Danny,I also am RH and left eye dom.But a little advantage for me.I only had one place to buy archery tackle ever since I was a kid until just a few years ago when the place closed.Which in 7 days from tomorrow when the opening day hits sept.1st will be more then 40 seasons behind a noc for me.But the olny place I had to shop was Northwest Archery.Owned by the great one himself.Glenn it does not matter which eye StCharles,I believe he said something to the affect of.Pull her back and that computer in your brain will take over.bd

[hormoan]

There is no douth, you can do it either way. You will never convince me you will be as good(as you can\\could be) with your weaker eye behind your nock though. lol

                    Brent

[elk ninja]

As with all things, there is a slight edge (and sometimes not so slight)in doing that thing (in this case shooting a bow) one way or the other.  If you are shooting well, and don't want to switch, stick with it and more power to you.  If you want that slight amount of improvement, make the switch, but it won't be night and day.  However, like they say, we dig our graves with our mouths (one big mac won't hurt, but a lifetime of them will), that slight edge MAY come back as a miss or a bad hit, but with such a small slight edge, I doubt it.

[Mitch-In-NJ]

I was born left handed but right eye dominant.

None of you may believe this, but I retrained my brain to be left eye dominant.

I didn't do it for archery as much as shotgunning.  I used a small piece of scotch tape over the right lens of a pair of shooting glasses, just in front of my eye.  This allows me to see with great depth perception, but the fuzziness the tape creates forces my left eye to take over.

In addition, I would spend some time doing the dominance test and forcing myself to choose the correct image until it became natural.

I had no side effects.  No headaches.  No clumsiness, loss of coordination or anything like that.

Is it a perfect re-training?  No.  I need to work at it.  Every now and then I do "revert" but a day of shooting clays with the glasses and tape fixes that.

If I had to do it all over again I might just switch to righty.  But only because it's much easier to get guns and bows and just about everything else for righties.

Maybe I am just weird but I find retraining the body more daunting.  I learned to swing a baseball bat and golf club righty.  I dial a phone righty.  Play guitar righty.  All because that's how I learned it first.

[gatorgar]

I am left eye dominant but shoot a bow righty.  Rifles, shotguns, shooting pool, lefty.  Baseball bat, golf, racketball and throwing righty.  
I shoot pretty good with my righty bows, but can switch if need be.  I forced myself to learn my archery gear both hands because you never know what the situation will demand.  Bowfishing I have busted my bow and borrowed a buddy's lefty bow and was still shooting about the same percentage.  Just do what you feel comfortable with and don't worry about what others say.

[jojotater]

Ewarshaw, I'm also right-handed, left eye dominant. I shoot all weapons expect a bow left-handed. I shoot my bow fairly well.

Try this: Pull your right-handed bow back--arrow under the right eye of course, look down that arrow with both eyes open. Now close that left eye. Is your right eye sighted down that arrow to your target? Mine trains right down the arrow. So I reckon the right eye becomes dominant when I shoot my bow--at least it's doing the aiming.

If I had to shoot a left-handed bow , it would take all of the fun out of it for me. I can't say how it applies to others.

[Jason Jelinek]

I made the switch spring '06, it wasn't too hard at first because I had drawn my bow back either hand to keep muscle balance.  I also have an toddler son, so I'm kept busy with him and haven't given my shooting the time it needs, so I'll be shooting close shots again this year.  I don't know if it feels natural or not yet, but it's coming along.  I'm right with left eye dominant.  I shoot my rifle and shotgun left handed (now my bow) and everything else is right handed.

Jason

[J-dog]

I am RHanded Left eye dominant. You can do it either way it does not matter. PERIOD. If you listen to all the books we would never shoot a bow right.
Impressed a bowyer at a show once when he saw me using my left hand as well as my right. I had just got through shootin one of his bows right handed and shootin tight groups although I had never touched one of his bows in my life, when I explained I started out in this world left handed he couldn't believe me. BECAUSE he believes the books too much.

Later

J

[J-dog]

I will add that I believe it is harder to master, but to say you cant be as good? is too far. Just work at it and you will be fine.

J

[Pinecone]

I am a RH shooter and LE dominant.  In addition, I shoot three-under and gap.  My guess is that the critters I've killed and the archery tournamants I've won are evidence enough that it can work.  Just find what is comfortable for you and go with it. If you can hit your mark I wouldn't worry about making many changes. JMHO.

Claudia

[J-dog]

I shoot split finger, I always have even from my compound(gasp!) days. I could never get used to shooting three under? 6 to one half dozen to the other.

You do something for so long and practice so much you are bound to get it down pat!.

Pinecone made me think of that thought.

Jason

[ewarshaw]

Thanks for all your thoughts, folks. It is appreciated.

Elliott