[rubberpower]

Eye dominance is a subject a lot of people have not heard about and others have heard the term but know nothing about it. Every person has one dominant eye. If you are right handed then it is assumed you are right eye dominant. The dominant eye controls our coordination and if we are RH and RD (right hand right eye dominant) then all is well. But almost one in three is XD (cross dominant). I came to these figures by years of teaching shooting both in pistols and long bows. Before you can shoot to the best of your abilities you need to draw under the dominant eye. The closer you draw to the eye the more this rule applies. In other words if you anchor on your cheek bone and opposed to under the chin. An anchor point is a place on your body that the drawing hand touches just before you release the pouch. In my case my thumb joint hits a spot under my cheek bone.

How does one determine which eye is dominant? Glad you asked. The best way I can give is to have you get a piece of paper 8 /12 X 11 inches is fine. Cut a 1/2 inch hole in the center. Hold the paper by its edges and well below your waist, have your elbows locked straight. Look at an object on the wall sever feet away from you. Now slowly raise the paper up until you can see the object through the hole in the paper. Do not bend the elbows. When you can see the object through the hole do not move one thing and hold as steady as you can then if you are right handed close your right eye. If you do not still see the object then close the left eye and the object should be seen. If you are left handed reverse these instructions. Now if you closed your right eye and you can see the object with the left eye open then you are XD. Chances are you have been shooting right handed and wondering why you are not hitting the target. Well now you know.

In every case where I have had a student with this problem I have switched them to shooting LH. All at once they started hitting the target. My advice is to switch and get it over with. Sure you can fight it and some days you will really shoot good then as soon as you get tired or stressed the dominant eye takes over and your shooting goes in the dump. Now if you are drawing to your mid chest and shoot instinctive you may get away with not switching. But I still recommend you switch. If you do not switch then a lot of the problems you have will still be there when you are not shooting. I will address those problem in a very short paragraph just so that you know.

Some XD people go through life with baggage. This does not apply to all but those who read this will know who they are. When you are XD the two halves of your brain are at war and sometimes short circuit. XD people will want to go through a doorway and turn right and at the last moment will turn left and walk into the door jamb. They will want to put the directional signal on to turn left and will turn right or flip the signal lever in the wrong direction. I don't know how many people who tried to go around a coffee table and end up kicking it with their chin. They will see a sign that shows on left or right turn, the one with the bent arrow and a circle around it, and will have to stare at it for a while and figure it out. What makes matters worse is they start beating them selves up thinking there is something wrong with them. Once they are told what the problem is they can relax and things improve. Another thing XD people can do really good is read upside down and backwards. This blows people away. I am XD and if I have a hard time understanding a drawing or instructions I will turn them upside down and all at once it is clear.

I will do another article on instinctive shooting and more of this will be covered. if you have any questions please ask.

 

[NaturalFork]

Very good explanation!

 

[dgui]

Well first I noticed the Avatar has great appeal. The article I will spend some time to read it at least 5 times so I can better get it / understand. Well written, very interesting. I must figure out if I am shooting with the proper sighting.

 

[rubberpower]

In your case you do not need to. I do not see how you could possibly improve.

 

[Pikeman]

Rubberpower, I am right handed and left eye dominant and I don't recognise any of the 'baggage' your last paragraph describes. I have never heard anyone even suggest any such symptoms being associated with cross dominance.

Assuming you wouldn't make such assertions based solely on your own personal experiences, could you tell me the source of your information please?

 

[rubberpower]

Trust me it is not uncommon. You fall into the 1% range and I suspect it is because you don't let things bother you. My comments are based upon interviews with people over the lat 30 years. One case I will tell you about is an engineer I hired to do some work on a machine, while he was working I watched him continually work to the right side of the bolt or screw even tho he was right handed. I did notice he made common mistakes turning a wrench the wrong direction to start with. That evening I had him do the dominant eye test and he was XD. I started telling him of the problems that XD people had and actually broke down in tears saying that all these years he thought something was wrong with him. Once he understood he begin to improve immediately. This is a common story with over 2 dozen people over the last few years including my sister in law.

 

[dgui]

It is so that I am left eye dominate due to some of the above reasoning. I started out left hand dominate and was forced by my mother and school teachers to write with my right hand. And when I broke my right hand I wrote with my left hand and was forced again to write right handed when my right hand mended. As it turns out I just tried and I can shoot now under the left eye and under the right eye and with the left eye closed and then the right eye closed. So I guess everything has evened out with the exception of my cataracts.

 

[rubberpower]

Absolutely correct. For some reason when the body is hurt or something goes wrong due to sickness you can make the adjustment and it will not fight you. After so much practice your body will accept what you are doing. A well know example of this is Fred Bear. He was RH and RED but switched to LH to break bad shooting habits. He was one of the best archers of all time. I am XD and shoot RH. If I shoot target style I am terrible, but if the target is moving I will usually hit it. When I finished the PFS last Sunday and took it out the first time I thought what the heck and shot LH. First shot hit the target. Today if I shoot RH I go way left of the target. I need to put in a post on the effects of the conscious VS subconscious mind and the roles of primary and secondary vision. You already are doing it all correctly so it will not be of much help but a new shooter may benefit from the information.

 

[Pikeman]

Rubberpower, I found absolutely no corroboration for your theory online.

If you cannot back up your sweeping medical statements with documented scientific research, I'm afraid those statements are worthless and should be disregarded.

 

[rubberpower]

I have no idea what part you cannot find but I did a quick search and found most of the information to be there. As far as the physical effects you will need to research on some of the medical sites that deal with the subject. I am surprised that someone has not already posted the fact that this has or is happening to them. Dig deeper, you will not find the answers that quick.

 

[Pikeman]

what I can't find is any reference to cross dominance being associated with general handedness/direction related neurological problems.

Since you made the assertions about these problems us cross dominants are supposed to have, I think you should do the research to see if your theory holds.

 

[rubberpower]

I already have and have given 2 examples. I can give a lot more examples but for what good. You need to talk to others that have the problem. As far as the mental side you need to spend time with those that deal with psychological matters and have a long talk with them. BTW that information is available on the web. I have been talking to people with this problem for over 20 years and because you never head of it or can't find it does not make it so. If you disagree with my information then disagree. Somewhere along the line you will have to let it go and no I am not going to do your research.

 

[Pikeman]

You made sweeping statements about the brain functioning of millions of people and to back it up you cite a couple of anecdotes and come up with zero supporting evidence.

I don't know why doctors and scientists bother to study, carry out research, and submit their findings for peer review. They should just ask you, or if it's really important ask your sister in law.

 

[rubberpower]

OK here is the last of it.

http://www.addforums.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-11609.html

You go in here and find your answers and when you fo the links inside you will find the problems with XD. Not a DR. one but people with the problem. Of course I do not expect you to believe it..

 

[Pikeman]

There was nothing but irrelevant drivel and incoherent babble at that link. Absolutely nothing that supports your theory that "When you are XD the two have of your brain are at war and sometimes short circuit." sic

I am completely satisfied at this stage that the final paragraph of your first post is factually incorrect and is not supported by any scientific evidence.

 

[strikewzen]

this is a very interesting topic, due to lack of knowledge on this matter i wish to investigate it much deeper

the OP knows what he is talking about, however during my 5 years of medical studies i have heard it mentioned once or twice, and only briefly.

http://ezinearticles.com/?ADHD-and-Mixed-Dominance&id=3988568
http://www.learning-aids.com/mixed-dominance-and-learning-disabilities

again these are not what i would call... an elaborate study on the matter, however they do seem to support the OP's hypothesis

if the question is to switch or not to switch, for firearms rapid target acquisition is a must, therefore switching can definitely help
right now we don't have too many people giving feedback on how this influence slingshot shooting

i am what you would call a acquired XD due to injury to dominant eye now function at 0.5, it takes ~1second longer for me to aim with the injured eye requiring conscious switching, and for the record i didn't switch hands for slingshot YET, however i switched for pistol & rifle ever since injury

 

[dgui]

Eye will look into this a bit further by covering one eye and try shooting then the other eye. It would appear that the Dominate Eye would prevail. You kick a football with the dominate foot, A professional runner when starting a fast race uses his dominate leg to push off in a race. In a sucker punch the puncher will use his or her dominate fist to break someones smile, We have one ear that we generally hear better with. There could be something to this without the spiritual pshycological aspect concerning a healthy set of eyes and one eye having better sight and being a better gift to the individual.

 

[rubberpower]

this is a very interesting topic, due to lack of knowledge on this matter i wish to investigate it much deeper

the OP knows what he is talking about, however during my 5 years of medical studies i have heard it mentioned once or twice, and only briefly.

http://ezinearticles...ance&id=3988568
http://www.learning-...ng-disabilities

again these are not what i would call... an elaborate study on the matter, however they do seem to support the OP's hypothesis

if the question is to switch or not to switch, for firearms rapid target acquisition is a must, therefore switching can definitely help
right now we don't have too many people giving feedback on how this influence slingshot shooting

i am what you would call a acquired XD due to injury to dominant eye now function at 0.5, it takes ~1second longer for me to aim with the injured eye requiring conscious switching, and for the record i didn't switch hands for slingshot YET, however i switched for pistol & rifle ever since injury

Thank you so much for those links. That is what I was getting at and that should settle it for our Irish doubting Thomas.. When I first started the study XFD people were thought to be dyslectic.

 

[Pikeman]

Strikewzen, thanks very much for finding those articles. They reaffirm my belief that there is no credible evidence of any correlation between cross dominance and brain function problems.

One article is by a 'physician assistant' who is apparently relaying what she heard from an optometrist/occupational therapist. She also mentions 'A study published in February of 2010' but the article gives no references, so the so-called study could have been any old quack's half-baked nonsense. The article does manage to link to the author's own site where she sells her ebook and hosts a large number of ads.

The other article is unattributed but is on a site by an 'educational therapist' selling a set of 'brain retraining' DVDs for $840 which she claims will help with everything from autism to dyslexia. Like the first article, this one also fails to reference any credible research or authoritative opinion supporting it's assertions.

You say of these articles, "these are not what i would call... an elaborate study on the matter", and I say that's quite an understatement. By scientific standards these articles are worthless.

You also say "due to lack of knowledge on this matter i wish to investigate it much deeper". Please do, and if you find anything relevant from a reliable source please let us know.

 

[strikewzen]

Strikewzen, thanks very much for finding those articles. They reaffirm my belief that there is no credible evidence of any correlation between cross dominance and brain function problems.

One article is by a 'physician assistant' who is apparently relaying what she heard from an optometrist/occupational therapist. She also mentions 'A study published in February of 2010' but the article gives no references, so the so-called study could have been any old quack's half-baked nonsense. The article does manage to link to the author's own site where she sells her ebook and hosts a large number of ads.

The other article is unattributed but is on a site by an 'educational therapist' selling a set of 'brain retraining' DVDs for $840 which she claims will help with everything from autism to dyslexia. Like the first article, this one also fails to reference any credible research or authoritative opinion supporting it's assertions.

You say of these articles, "these are not what i would call... an elaborate study on the matter", and I say that's quite an understatement. By scientific standards these articles are worthless.

You also say "due to lack of knowledge on this matter i wish to investigate it much deeper". Please do, and if you find anything relevant from a reliable source please let us know.

I agree, assume null hypothesis until proven otherwise, and i'm surprised how little information is available...

i apologize for not being able to come up with a better source......... $840 bucks LOL