Why is eye dominance so important?
Whenever I meet with a new student for the first time, one of the first things I check is the student’s eye dominance. Even if the student insists he or she is right or left eye dominant, I want to see for myself using a few simple tests. Eye dominance is probably one of the most overlooked areas in shotgun shooting, but is among the most
important for a shooter to understand. When shooting a shotgun, it is preferable to shoot with both eyes open since it is easier to judge the speed, distance and angles of targets using full binocular vision. However, in most cases, one eye is stronger than the other (the dominant eye) and this is the eye we want over the gun, controlling the pointing of the gun at the target. The ideal situations would be a right-eye dominant shooter who shoots right handed, or a left-eye dominant shooter who shoots left-handed. If a right-handed shooter is left eye dominant and shoots with both eyes open, “cross firing“ will occur since the left eye is controlling the pointing instinct.
Facts about eye dominance
In a perfect world, eye dominance would be either absolutely left-eye or right-eye from the time a shooter starts his or her career until the day they stop shooting. Unfortunately, this is not always the case as there are many eye-dominance anomalies shooters can have. Most people have absolute dominance in one eye or the other, but many have subtle cross dominance or co-dominance (i.e. central vision) issues. In addition, eye dominance for some people can unexpectedly shift from one eye to the other under periods of stress, fatigue, poor lighting conditions and also on particular targets at specific angles. These problems may only show up once in awhile, but for some, that may be the difference between winning and losing. Young shooters and ladies can be particularly difficult to diagnose and make up the majority of cross-dominant (total cross-dominance or subtle cross or co-dominant) shooters that I see. As a young shooter’s eyes develop, it is common for eye dominance to change until the mid-teenage years and then a dominant eye will typically take over and remain dominant. For men, it is especially common for eye dominance to change again once they reach their 50s. Some shooters have one dominant eye most of the time but sometimes experience shifts to the other eye. Standard tests do not always show these subtle anomalies and oftentimes multiple tests are required. It is often necessary to also watch the student shoot many different targets under many different conditions to determine how the subtle dominance issues affect their shooting.
Solutions for non-absolute dominance or cross dominance
There are many options for the shooter with eye-dominance issues. Some of the most common advice given to cross dominant shooters is to switch shoulders. Depending on the severity of the cross-dominance, the length of time the shooter has been shooting, the commitment level to practice as needed to make the change and other physical issues, this may or may not be a good solution. For absolute cross dominance (i.e. a right handed shooter who is totally left-eye dominant), switching shoulders is the only way to gain 100%, full binocular vision. Other options are to block the vision in the dominant ‘off-eye’ (the eye that is not over the gun) to varying degrees. This block can be a small, semi-transparent dot to a large, solid patch with several other options in between. When I am working with a student with eye
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