cross eye dominant-teaching kid
General Topic
so I think my five year old is like me, cross eye dominant. right handed but left eye is dominant eye. I shoot right handed with right eye with everything but handguns. should I teach him to shoot right handed or left. I heard military only shoots right handed. not positive about that. any suggestions?
Military allows left handed shooters. At least the Army does.
Terry
If you are going to teach him to shoot with sights, it probably doesn't make a bunch of difference, you guys close the other eye anyway. Now if you are going to teach him to shoot instinctively, that's a different story.
I am cross eye dominate, right handed but left eyed. Can't scratch my head with my left hand. I didn't know about this stuff until I had a real nice bow. I finally worked out a system of concentrating on my bow hand for "aiming". Now, after many years, it is a no brainer for me. When I shoot a pistol, I hold it under my left eye, but still use my right hand for the mechanical functions
I have a good friend who was a grunt in Iraq, who is left handed but shot his M-4 just fine. If you son does wind up in the military, though that is quite a journey to plan when he is only 5, they will work with him.
TBB
I know we are talking about shooting guns, but I teach an archery class at my school. We have both right handed and left handed bows. If a student is right handed and left eye dominant I have a hard time trying to convince them to shoot left handed... I always tell them to start left handed and usually once they do they rarely start shooting right handed. I had a girl in my class that was right handed, left eye dominant. She started off shooting right handed and shot pretty well, but she was competitive enough that when I told her she might shoot even better left handed that she had to give it a shot. She ended up being the best shooter in the whole school!
When it comes to shooting a bow, if he's set on shooting right handed either train him to close his dominant eye or use an eye patch at the time of the shot. I think that messes with depth perception and the ability to shoot well in low light though.
I would think you could do the same thing for a pistol... just close the dominant eye and shoot right handed if thats the way you choose to go. Otherwise why not shoot left handed?
Everyone I know that is left eye dominate and shoots right handed battles it from year to year. Seems they are always having issues.
If I had a kid that was definitely left eye dominate I would start them off very young shooting everything left handed with both eyes open. It will become second nature.
Twenty years ago it was a pain because left handed youth bows were limited. Now they are made by most major manufactures.
When we started my daughter in the Jr. Rifle league (at 4 yrs old), we had a heck of a time figuring out her eye dominance, finally settled on left eye dominant and changed her over to shooting left handed. It improved her shooting dramatically, even though she is right handed. We've just kept with the left-hand shooting through the years, buying her a left-handed bow and center-fire rifle, and it's worked out fine. Much more expensive though, since I couldn't pass my son's equipment down when he outgrew it!
It is easiest by far to shootwith your dominant eye. Do anyone new to the sport a favor and teach them to shoot with their dominant eye.
As others have said, far better to start someone out on the side of their dominant eye. Even better if they're right handed and left eye dominant. They then get to aim with their dominant eye and control the weapon with their strong hand. A win/win situation. Other advantages are when hunting in a blind or on a line drive/walk with a shotgun. Much easier and safer to have a "lefty" covering the right side. I also shoot long guns and bows left handed and handguns right handed, again controlling the weapon with my strong arm. But this has led to developing trigger control with both hands, so I can shoot handguns almost equally well with either hand.
I lost sight in my dominant right eye. I am right-handed. I bought a lefty longbow and taught myself to shoot lefty. It was much easier than I thought to learn to shoot left-handed. I am more accurate this way than trying to shoot left-eye/right handed.
Good luck!
Start them out shooting with their dominant eye. Being slightly cross eye dominant and shooting tournament sporting clays has been a real struggle for me. I took a lesson from my shotgun coach 10 yrs ago and within 2 mins he determined my eye dominance.At only 5 years old it would definitely pay to have his eye dominance determined and then start him off accordingly. This will pay off huge later in life. JMHO
Brett Thomas
Since he is young,it will be easier for him to learn to shoot lefty.
It will eliminate a lot of problems once he masters it, and he will shoot better and more instinctively IMHO.
Best of Luck, Jeff (Bowsite Sponsor)
thanks for the input everyone. seems to close his right eye usually when aiming something, yet hes right handed.
I bought my son his first bow at a very young age, and because he was R handed I gave him a R handed bow.
Last year, at the age of 7 I finally checked him and realized that he was L eye dominant. I struggled with the same decision and finally a month ago, at the age of 8, I swallowed the pill and bought him a L handed bow to try. He struggled for about 30 minutes and we had to start with the poundage much lower, but now about 3 weeks later he is shootng WAY better than he ever was R handed. He has taken to it very well and he says it is easier to shoot, i think he was always having to fight the eye issue before and now this is just more natural.
The next opportunity I have, I am going to try him L handed on his .22 as well, but I think I know where this is all heading for him.
I am Right eye dominate, Left Hand dominate.
I shoot guns Left handed. I shoot a Bow Right handed.
Bat Right hand
Golf Right hand
Tie Flies Right hand.
It is a Right hand world, easier to find Right hand tools, bows, guns, ect......
Absolutely go with the dominate eye.
Sure you can get by if you want to be cheap (buyin LH equiptment cost more), people claim they can shoot RH. LE dom. but you will never reach true potential.
Why do you want to handicap your kid from a young age? My oldest boy is RH LE and I have him shooting LH for everything (handgun he goes either RH or LH), and its as natural to him as anything since he started that way (actually he did "shoot" RH when he was 2-4yrs old until I could verify his eye dominance)
Shotgun is a huge problem if you try to force the non-dominate eye.
my oldest is left handed and left eye dominant so getting him a bow is no problem. we have a right and left handed bows. im getting my niece into bow shooting so I got a rh hoyt she can use. my middle is only 5 so I have a year or two before I really start him out. and who knows , he may be right handed right eye. thanks for the input
