RK808's Transition to his Dominant Eye (pics & video)

[Ryan Sanpei]

It's been about two years since my hunting partner and I made the commitment to hunt strictly with stickbows.  Our journey has been filled with many ups and downs to say the least.  One of the many challenges that we faced was the fact that my partner Ryan K. is right handed but left eye dominant. Although he could shoot well enough to hunt, he always felt as he reached a point where he could no longer progress.  While practicing, he would struggle with the left and right shots, especially when tired.  For a year we felt as if we tried every trick in the book.  The only thing left was to switch to left hand.  It was going to be a huge undertaking, but Ryan K. was so frustrated, he was willing to do about anything. Here's an old video documenting the beginning of the switch.

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpbughit9hw&sns=em        

We're in no way advocating for anyone to switch or change what they are currently doing, we're just simply documenting and sharing the trials and tribulations of our stickbow journey.  What works for one may not work for another but we believe that it's the sharing of ideas that makes us better at the sport we love so much.  Ryan K. and I have grown because of shared knowledge, in turn we would like to share our insights of our traditional bowhunting endeavor.

more to come....

[Big Ed]

Good stuff Guys!!

[Guru]

Been following along with Ryans progress with your you tube vids....he made the right choice!

[Ryan Sanpei]

Thanks Guys!,

Curt,
Ryan K. would agree with you 100%

Here's a pic from a hunt earlier this year which will be featured on our upcoming DVD.  He was hunting right handed at this time and it was working, BUT.........

   

He was still lacking confidence, and we feel that confidence plays so much into what we do.  He felt as if he needed to stalk into "spitting" distance to take his shots.

[GRINCH]

Confidence is a key factor for a successfull hunt,if he's more confident shooting left handed then he made the right choice,hope he's happy with the choice.

[buckster]

Very nice video, stay with the transition.  The time invested now will pay big dividends in your future shooting.  It was weird for me at first, but NOW it's weird to try and shoot RH.

[McDave]

I'm definitely right handed and right eye dominant and so I should be shooting a right handed bow, but I always had the desire to shoot both ways in order to keep my body more in balance.  I kind of learned to shoot left handed, but that abstract motivation was never enough to get very good at it.  

Now I've developed tennis elbow in my left elbow, so I'm going to switch over to LH shooting long enough to get over it.  Using my left side to pull rather than push doesn't seem to aggravate my elbow.  It will keep me shooting during the time it takes to heal, which can be months.  I'm interested to see how good I can get at it if I shoot only LH for an extended period of time.

[Hopewell Tom]

I'm right handed/left eyed and made the switch and couldn't be happier. Shooting right isn't even an option now after 2 years lefty. Felt better from the get-go, but took some getting used to doing the little things (like nocking an arrow) with non dominate hand. After 1000 times, though, that cleared up. Keep at it.

[Smithhammer]

Glad that he feels like he's made a big leap forward. Confidence is such a huge part of the equation, and I think that anything that improves that pays off.

And I know this whole eye vs. hand dominance things comes up all the time. But to be honest, I've still never heard any convincing, hard-science argument for why it's important to shoot with the same hand as your dominant eye.

For example, I'm l. eye dominant, and right handed - but I don't throw darts more accurately with my left hand simply because I'm left eye dominant. I keep both eyes open and throw far more accurately with my right than I ever could with my left.

I think that whatever works is obviously what you should stick with, and if you see a noticeable difference one way vs. the other, definitely go with it. But I would really love to hear solid (non-anecdotal), bio-mechanical evidence about the relationship between bow hand and eye dominance.

As an aside - I really want to hunt HI one of these days! Been really enjoying your vids and tales of hunting there.

[Ryan Sanpei]

The hardest part at first was building strength in his left hand.  Then, it was finding his anchor again.  At first everything felt "funny".  The interesting part was that even though he felt uncoordinated, his accuracy was noticeably improving.  The first thing that he noticed was that he could track the flight of the arrow from start to finish.  When he shot right hand, the arrow would cross into his vision, but he would never see the flight from the very start.  He shoots instinctively and in the first few weeks, his left to right fliers slowly cleared up.  I do have my theories as to why it may help to use your dominant eye, but that's just going to open up a can of worms and our goal is just to share what we're doing and how it works for us.

Aloha!
Ryan

[Smithhammer]

Originally posted by S2 Bowstrings:
I do have my theories as to why it may help to use your dominant eye, but that's just going to open up a can of worms and our goal is just to share what we're doing and how it works for us.

Aloha!
Ryan

You're probably right, and I don't want to open a can of worms. At a certain point, enough anecdotal evidence of people switching, and seeing improved results, is certainly intriguing. Glad to hear he's figuring out what works for him!

Aloha!

[jcar315]

Another RH left eye dominant shooter here. Made the switch a few years ago and it was the best thing I have ever done for my shooting.

HT is right.....the hardest part was nocking arrows for me as well.

As a RH shooter I had to look at a whole different part of the deer to hit where I needed to. To be able to actually look at what I wanted to hit was fantastic.

Enjoy all your videos too.

[Ryan Sanpei]

Nocking of the arrow, yeah forgot to mention that one.  I just told him that he should just start doing everything left handed and he'll be fine. LOL!

Tom,
Funny you mention the 1,000 shots,  It reminds me of what he always tells me, "it's nothing that 10,000 shots can't cure"

At first he was positive that he could improve his right hand shooting.  We had discussion for about a year. "It shouldn't matter if I shoot instinctively", "I can throw a ball just fine with my right hand", "How about just squinting or closing my left eye", etc.  Things would seem to improve for a little while, but we would always end up at square one.  I swear we tried everything.  We spun in circles the entire year.

[Hopewell Tom]

What I found shooting off the right side is you're not looking down the shaft. I know we're not supposed to look at the arrow, but with the left eye doing the looking and the right hand holding the arrow, it's cocked off to the right in your line of sight. Try it yourself on your off side, not even pulling the string, just holding the arrow on the bow at your anchor. See the arrow way over there? Way better having that thing in a straight line to your sight.

[Ryan Sanpei]

So it's been about three months since the switch and Ryan K's shooting has never been better.  His confidence has gone up tremendously and his personal results are evident in the field and on the range.

Spot and stalk turkey during gun season with his new left hand Stalker Recurve.  He took a confident shot that was farther than he normally would on a smaller than average target.
   


He placed first in a recent 3D tournament that was challenging to say the least.
   

I'll be sure to keep you guys posted on his future progress.

Aloha from Hawaii!
Ryan

[Hopewell Tom]

Man, I love a dark bow. Confidence builder right there!
Welcome to the left side and great shooting.

[RK808]

Thanks guys!  Though this is my first post ever on these forums, I have scrolled through the forums to find all kinds of information about switching hands.  Awesome site!
As S2 says, I was so frustrated not being able to get better right handed and having always to stalk within spitting distance to hunt.  Though, I'm not complaining about having to get that close ... it did play games with my confidence afield.  
As a young traditional bowhunter now, I have found that you learn not only more about hunting and being a better hunter, but I learn far more about myself personally.  
How you deal with failure or success.
How the mind works.
How the act of bowhunting is just different through the dedicated stickbow hunter.
Aspects of the hunt and environment that can only be experienced with traditional gear.

Though fairly new at this, I find it a mission to get better at it and capture media that illustrates this story.  Hopefully we'll get better ... only time will tell.

Happy Holidays!
-Ryan K.

[Ryan Sanpei]

Yeah, I love the look of cocobolo and ebony!

[Bivyhunter]

RK808
"As a young traditional bowhunter now, I have found that you learn not only more about hunting and being a better hunter, but I learn far more about myself personally.
How you deal with failure or success.
How the mind works.
How the act of bowhunting is just different through the dedicated stickbow hunter.
Aspects of the hunt and environment that can only be experienced with traditional gear."


Very insightful comment, you've just nailed it squarely on the head why I personally love to bowhunt and embrace the extra challenge (and often frustration!) in trad bowhunting. There is so much you learn about yourself and personal growth that happens while you are in the field and afterward when you reflect on it.

S2--sorry to sidetrack your thread.  I tried shooting one of my customers LH bows (being right eye dominant), I was feeling Kohatsu's pain!

[kenn1320]

Great video, makes me wish I would have filmed my transition from right to left. My first time trying to shoot left handed I had to let down. For some reason my hand didn't know how to let the string drop. That was almost a year ago and I dont regret making the change. I was on a league at the time and every week my score went up. By about the 3rd or fourth week, I had already surpassed my best score ever shooting right handed. I did however do lots of close range form practice like you mentioned(winter in Michigan will do that to ya).