Cross eye dominance

[Burner]

Hello

I'm looking to get started in 10 meter pistol and am wondering about the effect of my very dominant right eye and my left handedness would have on performance. I have read that this kind of cross handedness causes problems. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Cheers
Neil

[Rover]

Do a search. There has been a lot of talk about this here.

Check out Jay Shi on the web, too.

[Ricardo]

Hi. I've been dealing with cross-dominance for a very long time and I have found, from speaking to people and online searches, that there seems to be no single universal solution. I started shooting left-handed though I'm a rightie because my left eye is dominant. After about a year it was suggested that I would improve by shooting right-handed and used my right eye. For me (just me, maybe) that was not the best idea. My right eye has trouble focusing on the front sight and then starts going off focus all on its own. Staying in focus became a struggle. I stuck with this for a few years and saw my scores stagnate. Couldn't call my shots consistently because I couldn't see! I then tried cross-dominant shooting (left eye, right hand) and that went OK but I felt my hold was not as stable as it could be. Recently I switched to left eye-left hand due to shoulder injury and I find my results surprisingly acceptable. My hold is nice, I can control the trigger like I had heard people describe it, and shooting at blank targets yields better groups than at any time in the past. I can call shots! I finally feel hope that I can improve beyond that "beginner-going-intermediate" purgatory.
Now, that's MY story. We're all built differently and you'll get four different opinions from four shooters, so my advice is to not listen too closely to any one person and try things out. You need to stick with each approach for a reasonable while, and it's expensive getting right and left-handed grips and shooting lenses, but them's the breaks for the likes of us, I think. I wish you luck.

[Burner]

Many thanks for that. Since my left eye is quite poor I'm leaning towards going right hand right eye and getting more strength and endurance into the right arm through training. To keep things simple if nothing else.

All the best
Neil

[RandomShotz]

Neil -

You have a better shot at using your right hand instead of your left than someone in the opposite situation. As a lefty in a righty's world, you have already been using your non-dominant hand more than a right-hander would and have developed more dexterity even if you are not completely ambidextrous.

BTW, it's called "contralateral eye dominance". "Cross eye dominance" sounds like shooting with your right hand, aiming with your left eye and hitting the target two lanes over.

Roger

[Silvershooter]

Good points from the previous posts.
I am left eye dominant and right handed, currently shooting R eye R hand, and i find that it is more difficult to focus the non dominant eye (even with correct lens) and shooting contra the pistol does not feel as secure in the hand.
If you can shoot R handed R eye you will avoid a lot of problems.

[gwsb]

Three options:

1. Take up baseball. It is the only sport where cross-dominance is an advantage because a right handed hitter has his left eye facing the pitcher.

2. After about 20 years of shooting smallbore rifle my right eye became more dominant. Have fun while you are waiting.

3. (Serious idea) I know a former Army pistol shooter who used his right hand and adjusted his position so he was using his left eye. It seemed to work well for him.

[Jon AP]

I am right handed and strongly left eye dominant bullseye shooter. On top of that I have a very closed stance. The stance is very stable for me but forces me to crank my head very hard to the right to shoot. This also forced me to look through the very inside portion of my eyeglasses (and Vargas shooting glasses were difficult to adjust for someone looking across the bridge of their nose while firing).

My suggestion would be to, to the extent possible, shoot with as open a stance as possible without losing stability. That means facing the target as squarely as possible. This will minimize the adverse impact of having to look across your face to see the sights. Such a position also makes it easier for you to use specialty shooting glasses as your eyes age. If you're using regular prescription glasses, a more open stance will allow you to look through your lens closer to the center where the correction is better.

I've always thought that the adverse impact of my cross eye dominance would have been much less significant were it not for my use of a very closed stance. Actually, I don't think cross eye dominance is all that much of a handicap if you shoot from an open stance (or maybe I'm just jealous of those people). This is something that you should experiment with before you hit the age when vision becomes an issue.

Or at least that's been my experience.

Good luck.

[mhkhung]

I'm cross eye as well. I shoot with glass on my right and a blinder on left. No problem.

I tried without glasses using my left eye, I can focus and see slightly better, but my strance has to suffer.

I do archery with left eye and left hand (pulling). Works really well since I use the right hand to grip the bow like a pistol.