I read a post about crossed eye dominance and eye dominance in general and I have worked with people teaching them how to find out which eye dominance they are for better shooting. It all sounds simple till it came to me. I first thought I was right eye dominant and then while explaining it to someone about how to do it I found myself being left eye dominant which would make me crossed eye dominant. I do not want to confuse anyone on this, but it is on the basis of if you are righthanded you should be right eye dominant but if not then you are crossed eye dominant.
Well, this is where it goes all crazy with me. I am ambidextrous but I mainly rely on my righthand even though I can go lefthanded without a thought. I can write with both hands, eat, carve steaks and so on. So, I went and tested something. With my left hand and pointing at things I am left eye dominant. When I point with my right hand, I am right eye dominant. When I point my gun straight ahead at a target, I can use either eye, but I lean to be more crossed eye dominant ! If you have seen my targets, then ya’ll know I can shoot decently.
Written byEric Erickson
27 July, 2017
Hand dominance plays a key role in gross and fine motor development, but it’s unclear whether there’s a true link between hand dominance and eye, or ocular, dominance 1. The correlation between hand dominance and eye dominance appears to occur in most cases and is strengthened over time due to use, but many right-handed people find they have developed a cross-dominance, or a proclivity to use their left eye to position objects. When training for sports or recreational activities that require sharp vision and exacting hand-to-eye coordination, there may be some advantages to cross-dominance.
Sports vision is a highly specialized area of optometry that can help athletes with cross dominance problems. The basis of this training is to create “ambidexterity,” or being able to use both eyes and both sides of the body equally. Through practice, the non-dominant eye can be trained to work more efficiently in sport specific tasks.
But seriously. I understand you, I’m ambidextrous as well, however have been using the advantage of left side. I usually act as right handed but my firearms are setup for left hand which is more precise.
Eye dominance is useless to me, shooting with both eyes open allows to use both, depending on which hand grips the firearm.
I’m guessing it would be helpful also shooting rifle… but Governor JB took this dream from me
I figure it like a piece of equipment, learn how it works and use it well. Use it to your advantage. Practice so much that you do not think about what you are doing and just do it. If things are off, then that is another story. Find out what happened and why. Just like I say on, “Show off your targets” What did you see? What happened? Why did that happen? How do you fix it?
i’m from a time when they tried to make everyone right handed.but my mother did not allow that. i’m a true left handed person but i can do the same with both hands but prefer my left. i started shooting at age six and have always shot with both eyes open even when shooting long range i think people should do what works best for them.
I’ve tried the 2 eye method, I just can’t get a good sight picture. I don’t “Close” my left eye but it’s closed enough to have no effect on focusing with my right eye.
I think some people don’t have a strong eye dominance. I’ve always shot right handed and right eyed. But I can take the eye dominance test and it goes back and forth with me.
I took a training class where we shot off hand and off eyed (I.e., we had to use left hand around a barrier.) trainer was like, “this drill was made for you.” That’s when it kind of struck me that I wasn’t clearly dominant.
I’ve toyed with the idea of getting a left handed holster and going left handed. My left trigger finger is bette than my right.
When I was newbie my first Basic Pistol class started with eyes dominance test. I know, that was a different time and a lot of guidelines have changed but that test and knowledge that I was left eye dominant turned against me and my ability to easily shoot off handed.
These days whenever I teach, I’m not looking into students’ eye dominance. Focusing on single eye makes shooting with both eyes opened harder to accomplish. instead of catching it in one day it takes few extra, just to break the habit of using dominant eye.
What I’ve noticed it super easy switching hands and be still on target using red/green dot. With iron sights it takes extra fraction of second to readjust the sight picture.
The best application for switching the eyes is while shooting from behind the cover. Definitely you will be exposing less of your head using this skill.
Randy154 YOU ARE DEFINITELY RIGHT DO WHAT WORKS FOR YOU ONE EYE BOTH EYES OPEN ONE SHUT. WHAT EVER YOU NEED TO DO TO BE ON TARGET BROTHER THATS WHAT YOU DEFINITELY NEED TO DO IF IT WORKS FOR YOU . YOU ARE who is RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR ACTIONS BROTHER SIR LOVE Bobby Jean ,&, Debbie ann.!!and I will never tell anyone that Debbie ann can out shoot me . That’s private and she said she will not tell anyone she promised ,!!!
I started out being right eye dominant, and having to shut my left eye. Over the past two years, I’ve learned to shoot both handguns and rifles with either eye dominant, with both eyes open, with either iron sights, a red dot, or a scope. Yes, it was very difficult at first, but well worth the effort. I’d highly recommend it to everyone. I feel like I’m a much better shooter because of it, and would never go back.
My last renewal the guy teaching, not instructing because no instructor would tell students “when you’re walking down a dark alley….”, told everyone they ARE right eye dominant, their is no such thing as left eye dominant.
I felt bad for the USCCA Rep that was there.
Cross eye dominance is an issue for shotgun shooters and SOME iron sight rifle shooters.
For SD pistol shooting I don’t even bring it up when I train new shooters. I show them what the right sight picture looks like and their brain finds it without issues when they extend the gun and look for that front sight. One handed or two makes zero difference.
There done…
I almost consider it a disservice to bring it up when I train. Why give a newbie something else to worry about. AND in decades of training, it has NEVER been an issue unless someone told the shooter that they were cross eyed dominant before and now it’s an issue in their minds that becomes damage I have to undo.
When I first took my sister to the range, I did the same and she was a pretty decent new shooter. I was impressed. Then somebody told her about cross-eye dominance (which she has) and it really messed up her accuracy. I noticed how frustrated she was at the range one day and told her to just close her left eye. She got right back on target and started to enjoy range time again. Fast fwd a few years, and now she has the experience to understand it more and experiment to see what works best for her. But telling her about it as a new shooter was a bad idea.
! If you have seen my targets, then ya’ll know I can shoot decently.
