Diagnosing And Fixing Eye Dominance Issues
BY Herschel Smith4 years, 2 months ago
I’m left eye dominant but shoot with my right eye. It’s what I’ve always done, I’ve done it an awful lot, and my brain knows what I want to do now.
My Marine son described for me how the Marine Corps deals with eye dominance issues. The USMC doesn’t abide lack of conformity and uniformity.
He fixed eye dominance issues with his “boots” by putting a patch over their left eye for several weeks and giving them menial chores around the barracks. Soon enough, the brain reprograms itself. My eye doctor also described for me various experiments the Army did a number of decades ago with glasses designed to make the wearer see upside down and letting them live that way for a period of time.
The brain can be reprogrammed.
On February 3, 2020 at 10:46 am, Name (required) said:
So am I.
I learned to shoot long guns left handed (handguns right handed): Vang 870, AR 15 556and AR 10 Creedmoor
No issues. In fact, I really like it. I shoot from cover in a different position than righties. Small tactical diversity with small additional risk control protocols.
What is the issue I need to fix? Solution in need of a problem.
On February 3, 2020 at 11:55 am, scott s. said:
I have Amblyopia (lazy eye) in the right eye. I did the eye patch thing for years as a child, and it improved my vision, but still nothing like my left eye. I’m also kind of ambidextrous in that I have better dexterity/fine motor skills in the left arm and hand but more strength in the right. So shooting precision pistol (bullseye) I shoot left handed but I have tried right handed and I am more steady but trigger control suffers. Main thing shooting semi-autos is the brass flying across. I have one gun with an uncanny ability to drop the brass down the back of my neck and shirt. I have never fired a gun set up for lefties. Folks on the range generally are uncomfortable with a lefty setting up next to them.
On February 3, 2020 at 4:11 pm, Henry said:
Cross-eye dominance is a big problem in rifle and competitive “gallery” handgun, a lesser problem in shotgun, and really no problem at all in isoceles defensive pistol shooting as depected in the accompanying image.
On February 3, 2020 at 6:35 pm, Bill Buppert said:
Both eyes open at all times, problem solved.
On February 4, 2020 at 12:08 am, Herschel Smith said:
@Bill,
It’s precisely when you have both eyes open that the problem becomes apparent. Again, for me, I’ve trained myself to shoot with my right eye regardless of what my brain wants to do.
For others perhaps not so easy in part due to not getting out to the range. The USMC had ways to fix this.