Great video NuSensei, thank you. When I started archery, I was right eye dominant with right hand preference.... great....but then over the years because of weakening eyesight eye dominance switched to left eye. It was a disaster as I struggled to shoot well with target all over the place. After researching on the internet I found there was no one way to fix it. Most people used patches to just block cross dominance which is a great method but can get uncomfortable on long shooting days. I wanted to keep both eyes open to keep face relaxed so I started training with a method. I would gently close my left eye and focus on target with right eye while drawing the bow. Then at full draw would open my left eye without losing focus on target and release the shot. It took a while of practise but eventually I trained my brain to use the right eye while shooting and I did not need to close my left eye anymore. Though my eyes are still inconsistent during the dominant eye test (Miles test), while shooting archery, my right eye instinctively takes over. Hope this helps.
Left eye dominant but right handed. Went with my eye dominance and never looked back. Your first few goes at archery are going to feel awkward no matter if you're using your dominant hand or not. I didn't know people ever went with their hand dominance until a couple of years ago. I've since seen that there appears to be different degrees of eye dominance and not everyone gets a headache when you try to use your non-dominant eye.
Did the same thing when learning to golf and play guitar. I'm left handed but didn't have access to left handed clubs or guitars while learning so I just play righty. If I pick up a lefty version of either they feel alien.
I close the dominant eye when I'm shooting at short distances. But at longer distances, sometimes I just close it for a second, then I shoot with both eyes opened. Depending on the distance, when I focus on the target, I can easily see two arrows/sights blurring on my peripheral vision. The longer the distance, the easier it is to overcome this problem by focusing on the target and using the peripheral input only as reference point. I aim using the left one, as I'm right handed and left eyed.
I am the same. I find using the non-dominant hand is just a matter of practise and when learning a new motion it really doesn't make that much of a difference. Whereas my eyes are performing differently no matter the training. One isn't seeing as well as the other and it is not going to change because of practise.
I'm the same as you. I just started last night and i find nocking the arrow to be really awkward. It also seems like i aim the arrow the same place every time but the arrow goes somewhere COMPLETELY different everytime. XD
Same for me ... it took me a while to figure out why my arrows always land on the left side of the target, then I started closing my left eye when aiming and things started to work as they should.
I have the same dominance, and found this didn't work for me. This goes back to when I was 8 using air rifles. I got used to shooting a rifle or a bow left-handed pretty easily, and pistol shooting with the right hand.
Same here. I first learnt back in the 80s when the only assessment was which hand was dominant. I shot with an eye patch for a while and adapted to a closed dominant eye. I stoped shooting a few years later & returned to Archery a year ago - instinctively returning to dominant hand but forgetting about the eye dominance! I notice that now the beginner courses all use eye-dominance unless a cross-dominant archer really struggles with using their non-dominant hand. When I returned I wondered why my shots kept going way off to the left, but my club coach knew straight away what was going on. I've tried shooting left handed, but it feels really alien - despite the fact that I've trained myself to be ambidextrous in most things due to having medial epicondylitis operated on about 12 years ago. So I stick with closing my dominant eye - too many other things to worry about without adding that into the mix! Closing my dominant eye is just part of my shot routine now :)
I close the dominant eye when I'm shooting at short distances. But at longer distances, sometimes I just close it for a second, then I shoot with both eyes opened. Depending on the distance, when I focus on the target, I can easily see two arrows/sights blurring on my peripheral vision. The longer the distance, the easier it is to overcome this problem by focusing on the target and using the peripheral input only as reference point. I aim using the left one, as I'm right handed and left eyed.
Left eye dominant, right handed (with everything other than writing). I use an eye patch I put onto my glasses, covering my left eye and that stops me shooting to the right.
I want to get into archery, am struggling to find cheap leftie bows so googled to see if I could use a right hand bow. I'm glad I saw this vid and now know that I need to take the extra time to save for the LH bow.
I'm cross dominant. The best advice I was given was, "you can re train your body, you can't re train your eye" so I went with my dominant eye from day one. I tried shooting a right handed bow the other day, it felt all kinds of wrong.
Whoever said that was talking out of their ass! It is perfectly possible to train your brain to ignore your dominant eye while shooting, I should know because I've done it. I am very strongly left eye dominant but shoot right handed. As soon as I reach my anchor point it's like a switch goes in my head and my right eye takes over, so despite having both eyes open my dominant left eye has temporarily taken a back seat. Even if you're not capable of doing this there are two very simple ways to resolve the eye dominance problem. Simplest way is just to close your dominant eye! If you somehow can't do that then for a few quid you can get a pair of shooting glasses that block your dominant eye.
Perhaps it is true that eye dominance is more fixed than hand dominance for most people, but each individual has to make that call for themselves. I’ve known since childhood that my dominant hand is only really better than my non-dominant hand for very specialised tasks like writing.
Right handed/left eye dominant. I just picked up my first bow, a Martin Alder, about a month ago, and, not realizing that the string is supposed to be used to aim, my anchor is about the same as yours, and I use the top of the shelf cutout (sorry, don't know the name: its the point opposite the shelf, where the bow widens again), as a 'front sight' of sorts. At the tiny range of only seven yards that I've shot it so far, aligning that part with the bullseye puts the arrows pretty close to the center, when I do everything else correctly. Another trick, which I have not tried with my bow, but has worked well for me with rifles, is to cover the dominant eye with something, either an eye patch, or paper taped over my glasses lens, forcing me to use my right eye, which was actually dominant until I turned about 20.
When I was starting out with archery, I shot with both eyes open. I am right handed, and I naturally inclined towards my left eye. It took a while for me to learn how to shoot with my right eye (i now shoot with my left eye closed, right eye open).
I am severely visually impaired in my left eye so shooting with my left eye is not possible. By default this makes me right eye dominant. I am also severely left handed and shoot pistols with my left hand and use my right eye. I have to unfortunately use my right hand to shoot both rifles and bows and arrows. I have no ways of getting around that. Basically I have had to learn how to use my right hand to aim properly. I probably would be a much better shooter if I was using my left hand. I say all of this because there are some of us who can't use our non dominant eye. I am one of those few.
I'm getting ready to take up archery (kind of again) at 56 plus years old. I shot one of those cheap red fiberglass bows as a child and shot cross-dominant and didn't think anything about it. I closed my dominant (left eye) to compensate for this. I have shot firearms from a young age using this cross-dominant technique and was a double expert marksmen in the military. I never even knew I was cross-dominant until I watched your other video about eye dominance. I now can't sleep worrying about this cross-dominance problem. This may help me explain some of the ugly girls I went home with.
I have a right eye dominance and a left hand as dominant. Back in club we have only right-handed bows for the beginners, so instead of changing the way I hold the string (to invert the palm by 180 degrees) I simply decided to try setting the right hand as dominant. Now I can't even feel comfortable when I try to shoot left-handed bows - I got used to use my right hand as the main hand.
My natural inclination before I had any experience with archery was to hold and draw a bow right-handed, but I'm left-eye dominant, so I just learned to shoot that way, and yeah, the other way just feels wrong to even think about now. To be fair, it did help me that I'm kind of mixed-handed to begin with (I write with my left, throw with my right, and have no preference when it comes to certain tasks)
Thank you! I'm left eye dominant and right handed. I decided to go with shooting with my right hand and closing my dominant eye because I thought it would be easier to adapt, but I do find I'm not getting the proper body position and my aim is definitely off by trying to adapt to my non-dominant eye. I am going to start shooting with my left hand. It's going to be very difficult at first because I am not at all ambidextrous!
How did that work out for you? I'm literally in the same position and don't know what to do. I feel like learning to shoot with your non dominant hand is like learning how to write with you other hand haha
@@GeorgiIvanov-xu4jx it was incredibly difficult. So difficult it didn't feel safe! My aim was so off. I stopped and went back to my dominant hand but I also have not done archery in quite a while.
I golf RH, play guitar RH, fire rifles RH, write and play tennis RH.... ...BUT my right eye is nearly blind from taking a dart to it from my older brother when I was a wee lad. I have picked up a few of my friends RH bows and I can never get a sight picture. This weekend, I am getting fit into a LH Martin Lithium compound bow. Its a heavy cost but I decided to teach myself to be a lefty with a bow. I believe it all comes down to self-confidence. I believe (truly) that I can teach myself to hold the bow in my RH and draw it with the left so I get a perfect sight picture in my dominant eye. I will not fail. These are my arms, fingers and elbows and I am in full control of them. *Doubt* will not prevent me from doing something that I want to do. _"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd."_ *_Voltaire_*
I was just researching this last night, good timing! My son and I are both left handed and right eye dominant. As soon as we switched to shooting right handed there was a huge improvement. Night and day difference.
I worked out a solution to this issue as Im am left handed but right eye dominant.Took months of research on different shooting styles. In Eastern Archery using a thumb draw you can aim on the outside edge of the bow ie: the opposite side of your draw hand using your cross dominant eye. So, in my case, I draw with my left hand/thumb using a thumb ring, arrow rests on left side of the bow on my right hand (my bow hand is my right obviously). I draw and aim with the outside (right) edge of the bow using my right eye. Works perfectly. I have a short traditional Turkish recurve, been shooting for 12 months and have made excellent progress using this technique. Im keeping up with the modern recurve archers at 10/20/30 and have just extended myself to 40. 50 is going to be a bit of a challenge as I cant see the target through my bow hand (wish me luck!) Love the videos by the way!
Great video! I am right handed but left eye dominant. I simply close my left eye when I shoot. Another way you could do it is extend your sight pin a few inches to the left. That way you can't see string alignment but you can get a sight picture. One more thing you can do is if you see one clear sight picture and a blurry copy off to one side use the blurry one to aim.
I'm cross dominant, rt hand lt eye. I shoot right-handed normally, but do try to practice left hand when I have the equipment available. I have found that just doing the correct steps has allowed me to gain a better shooting skill than trying to do something wacky. I prefer to practice both left and right and take the advantage of each when I can. Due to practice, my left eye is not as strongly dominant as compared to some people. For some this would be very hard, and I would suggest dexterity training with the off hand to get the manual skills up. I teach my students (generally yr5-9 students) to shoot to their hand if they are totally new to it, or eye if they have been taught that by another coach. I find that I just get them to close the dominant eye if needed, otherwise they have poor posture, and just have the string chewing their arm, often making contact well above the arm guard if they also have hyperextensive elbows.
Thanks so much for your videos, they have been extremely helpful for me getting back into archery. This video just made me realize I am cross-dominate, right handed and left eyed. Thankfully my wife is a left handed shooter so I can at least easily try different things. Normally I just aim down and to the right and usually get a good clustering where I want it but it goes out the window at greater distances.
hi nu sensei, first of all thank you so much for the advice, it really helped me a lot, i have cross-dominant shooting, i am left handed but my dominant eye is the right one, plus, i have to wear glasses and since this does not change my dominant eye i still have to learn to shoot as a right handed, i have attended to only 1 archery class but from now on i will try to learn as a right handed, i think im still on time and as you said it will be a lot easier than changing how the brain processes the eye information
I’m a right handed all my life but when I was practicing archery for the first time my results always on the left side of the board, so my instructor test my eyes then told me that I’m a left eye dominant and I should use a left hand bow because you can’t change your eyes situation but you can straighten your let arm by practicing, and when I tried the left handed bow from the first shot I was centered a little above mark but centered and that what I’m going to keep doing.
Due to shooting higher poundage recurves (50) I trust my ability to safely shoot a bow with my dominant hand not my nondominant hand. Due to how easy it is to injure yourself in archery I get nervous about suggesting shooting with the nondominant hand but many can do it excellently. I never knew I was cross eye dominant until I developed chronic dry eye in my left eye (also my better eye vision wise). So then my sight picture just kept blurring until it dawned on me I had been shooting cross eye dominant for years. To transition back I started squinting the left eye to force myself to use the right. Now after 2 years I can do this with no problems and shoot with both eyes open. On incredibly long shots where you aim so high your hand covers the target I actually started guestimating with the left eye looking around the handle to make the shot (60+ yards) at Total archery challenge. I shoot traditional and it definitely makes a significant impact when the cross eye dominance kicks in I have to intentionally shift my vision between the eyes sometimes
Greets from England NuSensei :) I'm a RH/LE freestyle recurve shooter with less than 3 years experience. I've found that it is JUST possible to wind the sight pin out almost to the falling-apart point & shoot fairly well (and I'm still learning!). As I see it, as long as the sight is properly set for the difference between a right eye position & a left eye position (about 65mm) a 'standard' anchor will still mean the arrow goes where the sight says it will. HOWEVER I've now started shooting 50yds+ & with a right-to-left wind (which is normal on our range) there isn't enough screw movement to compensate. What I'm about to do is use a female-female spacer (& 2 hex nuts) to extend the screw length - using 2 pins, both cut to about 2/3 length BUT one cut 2/3 from the 'sight pin' end & one 2/3 from the 'bow' end. If this is of interest to you let me know & I'll try for some pix, maybe even a vid of the process and news on how I'm shooting. I'm a former engineer btw, usually good at finding 'bodge' solutions to 'mechanical' problems. While I'm here, thank you SO much for the time & effort you put into your videos - I must have watched at least 60 in the last couple of months. I'd confidently state that I've learned FAR more about the subtleties of shooting from you than I possibly ever could from my hard-pressed club coach - who's a target barebow shooter (albeit a very good one!) anyway.
I'm cross dominant and at first it was a hassle, but as I got more proficient I realized that I can shoot with my other hand as well. So I guess I'm ambidextrous, I do instinctive with my left and I'm training for gap shooting 3 under with my right, and it's going pretty well. Cheers
I shoot with both eyes open and my vision focused on the target, looking past my equipment. When you do this, there are two images of your equipment impeding your vision. The one on the right is your left eye’s view, the one on your left is the right eye’s view. Line the version to the left up, with both eyes open. If you need to, close your left eye to align your sights on your aiming point using your right eye. I personally shoot bow, handgun, and rifle with both eyes open unless I’m using an optic with magnification. Just line up the sights on the left with the target.
I'm left eye dominant and right handed I've been shooting left handed bows for 11 years I personally think it would be so awkward feeling to hold the bow in my non dominant hand
I am right handed and left eye dominant. I shoot bare bow with both eyes open. I found that it took only about two weeks to train my right eye to keep tab on the tip of the arrow. Now it is natural that I dont have any hesitation aiming or even snap shooting. I found that having an arrow under the eye so you can look along the arrow is actually a great helper trainer for your non dominant eye. I tried eye patch but now there is no benefit since shooting with my non-dominant eye feels natural. So my advice which might not work for others is to take your time to train your non dominant eye. simply by having an arrow with you and placing it under your eye few times a day for 5-10 minutes each time..Then just try to look along the arrow. As I said for me it took about two weeks of practice to re-train my eye. With sighted bows it might be harder since where your eyes focus is disconnected from the arrow. But I think it is still helpful. practice with an arrow under your eye. The picture of the straight arrow will help you get your non dominant eye learn to do the work. It also did helped me shooting with rifle. Which I was hopeless before. Now my non dominant eye focus naturally on the sights as well.
Great vid, thankyou. I have a head scratcher for experienced archers or better yet any coaches out there: I'm left handed, left eye dominant. When I started shooting I just picked up a cheap fibreglass bow (now shooting a flatbow, looking to move into recurve) the basic instructions that came with the bow showed a right handed archer & the tab that came with the kit was a right handed one. Being totally green & not having a sight on it, I didn't appreciate the importance handedness & eye dominance. So I learned to shoot right handed now a few years down the line & getting serious about archery, and as mentioned making the leap into recurve (driving down to Merlin Archery wednesday to pick one up! whoop whoop); I'm unsure whether to stick with what I know or to be clumsy again & make the switch to left handed gear? Shooting my flatbow I have to close my left eye to sight down the string & arrow tip, I've been wondering how will this affect the use of a sight? Don't recurve coaches insist that you shoot with both eyes open? To complicate matters further my right eye is lazy (amblyopia) & opticians I've seen have remarked that my eyes work independently of one another (no, I don't use them like a chameleon lol) when gauging distance. I said to the optician well how come I'm not knocking things over & missing things I grab for? She said my brain has developed compensation methods over the years to gauge distance. Now obviously I'm going to ask the guys/gals at merlin for their input on the matter but I'm keen to get as many opinions as I can, so would be really really grateful for anyone else's opinion on it! Many thanks!
Thank you for your clear, concise explanation. (left-eye dominant, 'faux' right-handed)
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I'm cross-dominant left eye/right hand, been shooting right handed since boy scouts. First day back into the sport after 12 years and coach throws me left hand bow, having to learn everything basically all over again. I'm definitely getting more consistent but what a battle it is to have my brain aim to the right rather than left.
I'm left eye dominant and was given a right handed bow. Can't afford a left handed. I tilt the bow slightly to align it with my left eye like you were talking about with pistols at the beginning of the video. It works for accuracy but as for safety it is really easy to hit your arm with the string if you release with your elbow out
For bows with sights, block the front of the sight so that you can see the pin(s), but not see through it. This forms an Occluded Sight, and boom. Your dominant eye does all the hard work, your non-dominant eye just forms a superimposed image of the sight pin(s). I recommend buying an entirely new sight and dedicating it solely to this purpose, because this method will not have the arrows going in the same place. You're changing your point of aim *COMPLETELY.* Switch sights as needed. For Barebow shooting, learn split-vision and shoot like Byron Ferguson. I use both methods, and for my compound bow I have totally different sights specifically for cross-dominance. One of them is occluded with black glass so that can't see through it. When I happen to be more left-eye dominant for whatever reason, I switch the sights on my bow and go back to shooting.
not to get too technical or to refute what you've said, in rifle shooting, you also need to have the right physical alignment weather shooting cross dominance or not. I can go more into it if someone asks me to. On subject though I couldn't imagine trying to do archery cross dominant, props to those that can do it well.
I'm right handed/left eye dominant. I sighted in my AR on my right eye and shoot fine. I shoot with my left eye on my Glock from a right handed holster. I recently took up archery, I shoot with a left hand bow. I agree that you need the right alignment for both.
rifle alignment is easier because you are using fixed body parts (shoulder). with a bow you are using both ends that are not fixed. also as Nu points out, your rear sight is your anchor point and that can vary your draw length is inconsistent. sights on a rifle are fixed to the rifle. with a handgun, you are using your hand position to change alignment from left to right without affecting your trigger hand etc ...
it's not just your shoulder bud. I teach marksmanship and am a competitive shooter. when in prone, you have to have proper alignment with both your shoulders, you off hand, off hand forearm, both elbows, torso, and legs, (yes I said legs as if you move your legs or your elbows even a little bit it will throw off your alignment). In kneeling you have your legs, where on the off arm you rest on the knee, proper forearm and proper placement of the firearm on your shoulder. Standing is the closest to archery as you have your stance (open or closed), again different placement on the shoulder, where you are placing the off hand on your body for support, and all of this without even mentioning the fact that you have to have your cheek on the butt of the rifle in the perfect spot every shot to attain the proper sight picture as well (proper anchor in archery). Pistol I will agree is easier because you have less limbs in play. I've also found that your breathing cycle plays a larger part in accuracy with firearms than it does in archery. Trigger pull is another huge factor, much like the release in archery. As far as handguns go, there is a bit one has to put into it, are you shooting one handed or two? Are you shooting for accuracy or just to hit paper? Are you doing rapid fire or not? In most cases with a pistol where you point it and shoot is good enough. But we're also talking about ranges of no more than 25m 50m tops. The most common range for pistol shooters is about 10M. Now to get back on topic, cross dominance is still difficult with firearms, it's easier than archery, but it still takes a lot of practice and willingess to get out of your comfort zone. LIke Danmj2 above, I had a student who was left handed but right eyed. They shot rifle right handed and pistol left handed and they are really good, but it took him a long time to get comfortable with doing that.
I shoot left but am right eye dominant. Since I know if I put my sight on the centre (if one were left eye dominant like a left shooter should be) I hit exactly two feet down and one and a half right I simply adjust so my sight is aimed at an imaginary target exactly two feet up and one and a half left of my intended target (as opposed to putting the sight right on the target). If necessary I’ll use a sharpie to draw a target to aim at that compensates for the difference. I tried switching to a right handed bow and....painful is one way to discribe it. I went from aiming 10s using the aforementioned method to not even hitting near the target. In fact I broke one of my arrows and decided fuck it. I would say for learning cross-dominant people. 1) use whatever side bow is comfortable and whatever side eye is comfortable. 2) use a sight. Aim it at the centre using whatever eye is dominant. 3) never mind about actual hitting the target your sight is on because you won’t. Focus on your form, get it to the point where you’re arrow is actually going is in the same place every time (while your actually aiming at the target.) I suppose this could be likened to shooting a bow where the sight is not properly adjusted for you. 4) figure out what the difference is between where your sight is on and where you are actually hitting. (For me it’s down and right) 5)compensate by aiming for a target that is that same distance off centre. (I hit down and to the right when my sight is on centre. So I aim up and to the left. If I’m consistently using the *correct form/body position* and my *sight is consistently placed in the same spot* then my arrow will consistently hit the same place.) Anyway, this is just my method that I’ve been using. It works for me. I’ve tried shooting with my other hand and pathetic is putting it kindly. It feels so wrong on so many levels. I’d imagine it feels like writing with your left if you are right dominant. I tried retraining my eye. Neither worked for me so I did this instead. I wouldn’t be surprised if plenty of other cross-doms also did this as it seems so common sense to me.
I shot cross dominant (right hand / left eye) for 3 years wrestled with it. This year I switched to shooting left. If you're shooting any method other than pure instinctive I would highly recommend going with your eye.
I had the unusual introduction to archery shooting my rec center's bare compound bows that are too short for me. This lead to me trying out their left-hand bows as the draw length was slightly longer (still too short, though) and I did surprisingly good. Think the longer draw length made me a bit more consistent left-handed (better grouping), but, as for putting a single arrow where I want it, I was still generally more accurate right-handed. I haven't shot left-handed since getting my target recurve, but it was nice when I shooting a light draw weight bare compound, which short max draw length probably overlap a bit with trapshooting with a vent rib/bead sight shotgun, now that I think about it.
I was actually going to ask about this very topic, then realised you already made this video. Sounds like bad news for us cross-dominants :( it's like you said, for instinctive snap shooting it's not so bad, but I haven't yet tried long distance or target archery. And I have a bad left shoulder so I definitely don't want to risk straining it.
I'm right handed with left eye dominance. I chose to shoot with a right hand bow. I also shoot with both eyes open. Being a photographer with focus on macro and telephoto, I'm pretty good at estimating where the arrow is pointing so I have no issue at all with aiming.
Im right handed and left eye dominant, ive fired right handed rifles as a lefty and done well but i struggle with my bow and my left eye being dominant, i might try the eye patch method. Thank you for addressing this!
Good guide as I'm cross dominant myself. I shot with a rh rider but my left eye is dominant. I get by with closing my left eye before, during and after the entire draw-aim-release process. However my aim sight is usually way to the left to compensate my aim. I'll most likely be buying lh riser at any moment as it would solve my cross dominance.
Been right eye dominant and right handed all my life. I'm 60 years old and now have maculer degeneration in my right eye. So now I am teaching myself how to shoot left handed because I can no longer see clearly out of my right eye.. Since I am just starting archery this does not seem to difficult. I will just keep practicing until I am good at it.
I'm a coach as well and I do get people not wanting to shoot with their other hand when they're cross dominant. They'll say, "I don't know how to shoot with my other hand!" To which I usually point out they don't really know how to shoot with EITHER hand. As for examples of cross dominance, the only one I know of is Maja Marcen who shoots a compound aiming with her left eye while pulling with her right hand.
I'm left handed and left eye dominant. I do somethings right handed so now I have to shoot my bow left handed and not right handed like I'm used to. I have a right handed bow so I have to use a thumb grip. Every time I shoot left handed I hit the target but it's slightly awkward to shoot left-handed. I'm getting used to it. I'm not a master at it but I getting better.
I'm left handed. Also left eye dominant. I learned rifle shooting Right Handed, and shooting bows came naturally the same way. Holding a left handed bow or rifle feels too awkward to use effectively. I just close my left eye and force the sight picture through my right eye
I am right handed and left eye dominant and when I was in the army in the shooting range I just used a piece of cardboard to block my left eye and used the right eye to aim.
I'm right eye dominant but left handed. I was shooting with a left handed riser and switched to a right handed riser and got better results. I'm just a little slower knocking the arrow but it's because it's still new to me vs all the years I spent on a left handed riser.
I know she shoots compound but you may like to check out Maja Marcen she is a world class archer competing for the Colombian national team. She also previously competed on the Slovakian national team. She is cross dominant right handed and left eye dominant.
I have cross dominance, since im (mostly) right handed and left eye dominant. the major problem with this however is that i dont have the ability to train my right eye, since its very weak and to focus on anything with it gives me a headache after just a few minutes. i shoot rifles and the only option for me was to learn left handed shooting and ill most likely need to do that for archery as well. the good news with this is that im technically mixed handed, meaning i favor some tasks with my right and some with my left, and im actually stronger with the left side of my body
Im cross dominant. I shoot with my dominant hand, and instictivly aim with both eyes. I learned to shoot by staring at the target and absent mindedly shooting arrows, "feeling," where they land. I couldnt tell you what the bow looks like when its alligned with a target, but I know it when I feel it. Im sure if I tried using a sight or string walking everything would fall apart.
Option 1: Draw to anchor and then force alignment. Option 2: Draw to alignment and then put your head in the string picture. #1 would be KSL or BEST and so on and uses muscles over bone while #2 uses bone alignment to establish the full draw. I learned #1 because the instructors at the archery club here in the USA all work right out of the KSL book. One day after watching Ki Bo Bae slow motion and then many other Koreans I was looking around and found a video called "Linear Shot Sequence seminar" by Chris Hill and never looked back. If you watch the US Silver medalist's videos he tells you not to use closed stance only open since to him square or neutral is closed and then he tells you to never use the draw down method (Ki Bo Bae) because that will destroy your shoulder. Later, he is talking about something else and talks about shoulder pain he has but he uses KSL and so that isn't even possible. In #2 once you establish alignment and practice you then establish your head position and over a short amount of time you know where your head should be and then it will look like the anchor in #1... I want to thank you and folks like Chris Hill for opening up other areas in archery that have been demagogued by archery tyrants and charlatans and have helped me improve my scores.
Right handed and left eye dominant here... Havent actually gotten to shoot yet, just had the first safety measures lesson. Going to the range for the first time saturday so we'll see... My friend who started with me is left handed and right eye dominant... go figure!
I am left eye dominant and did not know until i bought a compound bow and tried to look through the peep sight and then i remembered as a child at school the teacher would always force me to write with my right hand i tried to shoot a left hand recurve bow and could not hit the target 🎯 so now i am left eye dominant but right hand dominant . So now i shoot with both eyes open aand the string in the middle of my nose instead of on the right side
Being ambidextrous doesn't mean I can do anything with both hands etc. It means things are somewhat mixed up. So I shoot the bow right-handedly, but my dominant eye is the left one. But it's easy to switch the dominant eye. As many observed, it helps if you close the left eye and force your brain to use yor right eye as dominant. You can then shoot with one eye closed, but you only have a 2D picture, no depth perception and you only see partial picture. I prefer having the left eye opened, just narrow it enough for my brain to switch to the right eye, so that my vision is not impaired. Then I can open the left eye fully again and it won't switch. The right eye takes over. You just need to practice a bit. Of course, you can fully close your left eye if you feel better. Here's the proof: you can become a champion with one eye closed (I don't think she closes her left eye completely tough): th-cam.com/video/ilA-uusMHis/w-d-xo.html
Not an archer, but any time I've ever picked up a bow, it goes instinctively to my right hand for the string to be drawn with the left, even though I'm right-handed. It's never felt right to draw a bow in the traditional right-handed form because of my cross-dominance. I would avoid using eye closing/patches in any shooting arts. They're especially a no-no in firearms usage, both for tactical and safety reasons.
You can train your non dominant eye with a lot of practice I did it with my pistols and now a bow I shoot with both eyes open. It was very difficult at first but now it’s automatic to use my non dominant eye to aim
Left eye dominant but right handed shoot right handed compound for 21 years and it has never a problem when you use a peep you close your other eye. this is only a problem for bare bow compound and recurve. I can shoot recurve "with" left closed but i suck with modern recurve bows. I do shoot well with my Mongolian Bow but that's more instinctive shooting.
It's better to go with your non-dominant eye if you also shoot rifles. On a rifle, you can't get a good cheek weld and still use the sights if you insist on using your cross-dominant eye. I just got used to that, so it was no problem when I switched to archery.
Closing the dominant eye causes a loss of depth perception, which can impact distance shooting. It also causes strain and fatigue, which makes it difficult to maintain consistent shooting over a longer period. Those that have to use their non-dominant eye can benefit from using a patch or cover.
As I posted previously, I'm right handed/left eye dominant. I sighted in my AR on my right eye and shoot fine. I shoot with my left eye on my Glock from a right handed holster. I recently took up archery, I shoot with a left hand bow. I don't have any problem either. I'm not near as accurate with a bow yet.
i use my right eye on my scope and i close my left eye. i know its "wrong" but it works fine for me. If you just got into archery i recommend watching Nus videos. He does a great job on explaining and he helped me a lot.
This was informative. I will say though, i don't think it does matters. i am left eye dominant and can shoot just fine right handed. But then i don't use a sight. But i will add that learning to shoot lefty would be easier than bending your neck over the arrow. Thank you Sensei.
Im right handed normally but left eye dominant and choose being left handed archery. No problem at all. Although I normally use my right hand in my daily life, strangely my dominant foot is left :D
Hah, same here. Lefty on foot and eye, righty on hand (though I've been training a lot to become ambidextrous since I broke my left arm and felt how much I missed it).
If you have to choose go with your dominant eye. better to have your dominant eye closer to the arrow then to anchor with your dominant hand. I'm left-handed and right eye dominant I have no problems.
Why not a bow for other side. Only started hobby, but it really made it easier for me. For me what the hand pulling back isn’t that complex that my left hand couldn’t handle it.
I am right handed but left eyed..... I just learned to shoot left handed. The worst thing is that there was a lack of club gear to try that is left handed as well as the fact that I find a lot of stuff has to be ordered from suppliers because shops don't always carry left handed gear in stock. On the up side once I bought my left handed inno CXT people don't tend to try to pick up my bow and 'have a go' because they see that it is the wrong side he he
I'm cross dominant and as a result am ambidextrous. i chose my dominant hand but then switched so i could use the sight, though not before buying a left handed bow.
easiest way is for me closing my left eye, if i keep both open i haven't got a chance in hell at even hitting the target, pulling or learning to pull a bow with my left hand just kept giving me pains in my shoulder, so i use right hand bow and close my left eye and use string walking this is the most consistent way for me to hit the target, so far ive not shot past 18m (20yards) and i can always with all 8 arrows hit the red or yellow of the target (i also use gloves not a tab) i have been shooting maybe 3 weeks and i do 2 hours a day on 24lbs bow (aslong as there is no rain)
For me being cross eye dominate person I am left eye dominant to right hand dominate and for me I use a left handed bow for more accuracy vs my speed at shooting with a bow.
I shoot a slingshot with my left hand and yet the first time I picked up a bow at a demonstration event I picked the bow up with my left hand and shot right handed. I'm not really dominant in either eye so perhaps that has something to do with it?
Left eye dominate and left handed bow. (I have not used a bow in my life but im trying to make it a hobby). I'm going to see if this works out with the left handed bow.
Ben shooting for about a year now. I'm also right eye dominant, but shoot left handed.Results are not the greatest. Should I try right handed ? Every thing else I do is right handed except Archery and rifles, which is LH. Phil
If is my cross-dominance caused by a disorder on the eye (partially cured Amblyopia) should I change my hand? Curently i shot with right hand and as beginner i shot at distance around 30m without troubles (difference between eyes can be described as one fatigued after very long work on pc and second fresh).
I am normally right handed in everything I do, yesterday I took my first Archery class and the instructor did a quick test and said I was left eye dominant. So she suggested I shoot left handed. Now that I know what she was trying to figure out, I have doubts it was correct. Although it all felt fine I am starting to doubt her method. Next time I will just ask to try a right handed bow and see how that feels. But does that happen? Like are some archers ambidextrous?
I have a question about determining eye dominance that I did not see addressed in your earlier video on the subject. I've tried two tests to determine eye dominance. One where you look through a small hole at a distant object (the Miles test like described in your video), and one where you look at a distant object that you can cover with your thumb out at arm's length (the Porta test). The Porta test tells me I am left-eye dominant every time. The Miles test tells me that I am right-eye dominant every time. Is the Miles test the one more relevant to bow sight use? Which should I trust?
Hey NUSensei, does it matter if your string has uneven twists? Like you have more twists above the center serving than below it. The reason i'm asking this is that i have a solid nocking point made of serving string and it is a real pain in the a** to take it off and adjust it in the field so i'm just putting more twist on other side of the string to adjust it. Does this have a negative effect on my bow?
A right-hand Bow has the cut out on the left side of the riser and the other way around with an left-hand bow. The problem is the string. As an right-hand archer you pull the string in front of your right eye, left-hand archer in front of your left eye. You do this to bring your dominant eye above the arrow.
I don't have a dominant eye. So i don't have to worry. I use Progressive glasses. And i know i am aiming wrong if they are fucking with my eyesight on the target. Which is good and bad.
Hey guys, does shoulder pain only come from bad shooting form? Recently I'm able to practice daily, but always have to skip 1-2 day/week because of the shoulder pain. Not sure if it's because I'm doing something wrong or it's just the way it is.
Could be poor technique, could be too high a draw weight, could just be from over use of a collection of muscles that you previously didn't use very much before you started shooting.
Strength is not an important factor. You'll likely be better off getting a left-handed bow. You'll probably adapt to shooting left-handed much more easily.
Sensei, you don't address my situation. I am blind in my right eye, but I am right handed... it is not an option to "train" my right eye. If it were possible to shoot left eye/right hand, I would do it... I've tried, but the parallax is insane. I have started down the difficult path of using my weaker physical side with my good eye... I don't see any option... do you?
Great video NuSensei, thank you.
When I started archery, I was right eye dominant with right hand preference.... great....but then over the years because of weakening eyesight eye dominance switched to left eye. It was a disaster as I struggled to shoot well with target all over the place. After researching on the internet I found there was no one way to fix it. Most people used patches to just block cross dominance which is a great method but can get uncomfortable on long shooting days. I wanted to keep both eyes open to keep face relaxed so I started training with a method. I would gently close my left eye and focus on target with right eye while drawing the bow. Then at full draw would open my left eye without losing focus on target and release the shot. It took a while of practise but eventually I trained my brain to use the right eye while shooting and I did not need to close my left eye anymore. Though my eyes are still inconsistent during the dominant eye test (Miles test), while shooting archery, my right eye instinctively takes over. Hope this helps.
Left eye dominant but right handed. Went with my eye dominance and never looked back. Your first few goes at archery are going to feel awkward no matter if you're using your dominant hand or not.
I didn't know people ever went with their hand dominance until a couple of years ago. I've since seen that there appears to be different degrees of eye dominance and not everyone gets a headache when you try to use your non-dominant eye.
Did the same thing when learning to golf and play guitar. I'm left handed but didn't have access to left handed clubs or guitars while learning so I just play righty. If I pick up a lefty version of either they feel alien.
I close the dominant eye when I'm shooting at short distances. But at longer distances, sometimes I just close it for a second, then I shoot with both eyes opened.
Depending on the distance, when I focus on the target, I can easily see two arrows/sights blurring on my peripheral vision. The longer the distance, the easier it is to overcome this problem by focusing on the target and using the peripheral input only as reference point. I aim using the left one, as I'm right handed and left eyed.
I am the same.
I find using the non-dominant hand is just a matter of practise and when learning a new motion it really doesn't make that much of a difference.
Whereas my eyes are performing differently no matter the training. One isn't seeing as well as the other and it is not going to change because of practise.
I'm the same as you. I just started last night and i find nocking the arrow to be really awkward. It also seems like i aim the arrow the same place every time but the arrow goes somewhere COMPLETELY different everytime. XD
Im right handed and left eye dominant... I just close my dominant eye.
Same for me ... it took me a while to figure out why my arrows always land on the left side of the target, then I started closing my left eye when aiming and things started to work as they should.
I have the same dominance, and found this didn't work for me. This goes back to when I was 8 using air rifles. I got used to shooting a rifle or a bow left-handed pretty easily, and pistol shooting with the right hand.
Same here. I first learnt back in the 80s when the only assessment was which hand was dominant. I shot with an eye patch for a while and adapted to a closed dominant eye. I stoped shooting a few years later & returned to Archery a year ago - instinctively returning to dominant hand but forgetting about the eye dominance! I notice that now the beginner courses all use eye-dominance unless a cross-dominant archer really struggles with using their non-dominant hand. When I returned I wondered why my shots kept going way off to the left, but my club coach knew straight away what was going on. I've tried shooting left handed, but it feels really alien - despite the fact that I've trained myself to be ambidextrous in most things due to having medial epicondylitis operated on about 12 years ago. So I stick with closing my dominant eye - too many other things to worry about without adding that into the mix! Closing my dominant eye is just part of my shot routine now :)
My problem with doing this is that I have bad vision in my right eye. It sucks. I am having a hard time trying to shoot left handed.
I close the dominant eye when I'm shooting at short distances. But at longer distances, sometimes I just close it for a second, then I shoot with both eyes opened.
Depending on the distance, when I focus on the target, I can easily see two arrows/sights blurring on my peripheral vision. The longer the distance, the easier it is to overcome this problem by focusing on the target and using the peripheral input only as reference point. I aim using the left one, as I'm right handed and left eyed.
Ok im geting a crossbow
Elia D same here lol
I give up. I’m buying nunchucks.
Left eye dominant, right handed (with everything other than writing). I use an eye patch I put onto my glasses, covering my left eye and that stops me shooting to the right.
I want to get into archery, am struggling to find cheap leftie bows so googled to see if I could use a right hand bow.
I'm glad I saw this vid and now know that I need to take the extra time to save for the LH bow.
I'm cross dominant. The best advice I was given was, "you can re train your body, you can't re train your eye" so I went with my dominant eye from day one. I tried shooting a right handed bow the other day, it felt all kinds of wrong.
Whoever said that was talking out of their ass!
It is perfectly possible to train your brain to ignore your dominant eye while shooting, I should know because I've done it. I am very strongly left eye dominant but shoot right handed. As soon as I reach my anchor point it's like a switch goes in my head and my right eye takes over, so despite having both eyes open my dominant left eye has temporarily taken a back seat.
Even if you're not capable of doing this there are two very simple ways to resolve the eye dominance problem. Simplest way is just to close your dominant eye! If you somehow can't do that then for a few quid you can get a pair of shooting glasses that block your dominant eye.
Perhaps it is true that eye dominance is more fixed than hand dominance for most people, but each individual has to make that call for themselves. I’ve known since childhood that my dominant hand is only really better than my non-dominant hand for very specialised tasks like writing.
It is solved if you keep both eyes open
Jeff Kavanagh has a film on cross-dominant eye on his TH-cam channel. He is left dominant eye and right handed shooter.
Right handed/left eye dominant. I just picked up my first bow, a Martin Alder, about a month ago, and, not realizing that the string is supposed to be used to aim, my anchor is about the same as yours, and I use the top of the shelf cutout (sorry, don't know the name: its the point opposite the shelf, where the bow widens again), as a 'front sight' of sorts. At the tiny range of only seven yards that I've shot it so far, aligning that part with the bullseye puts the arrows pretty close to the center, when I do everything else correctly.
Another trick, which I have not tried with my bow, but has worked well for me with rifles, is to cover the dominant eye with something, either an eye patch, or paper taped over my glasses lens, forcing me to use my right eye, which was actually dominant until I turned about 20.
When I was starting out with archery, I shot with both eyes open. I am right handed, and I naturally inclined towards my left eye. It took a while for me to learn how to shoot with my right eye (i now shoot with my left eye closed, right eye open).
I am severely visually impaired in my left eye so shooting with my left eye is not possible. By default this makes me right eye dominant. I am also severely left handed and shoot pistols with my left hand and use my right eye. I have to unfortunately use my right hand to shoot both rifles and bows and arrows. I have no ways of getting around that. Basically I have had to learn how to use my right hand to aim properly. I probably would be a much better shooter if I was using my left hand.
I say all of this because there are some of us who can't use our non dominant eye. I am one of those few.
I'm getting ready to take up archery (kind of again) at 56 plus years old. I shot one of those cheap red fiberglass bows as a child and shot cross-dominant and didn't think anything about it. I closed my dominant (left eye) to compensate for this. I have shot firearms from a young age using this cross-dominant technique and was a double expert marksmen in the military. I never even knew I was cross-dominant until I watched your other video about eye dominance. I now can't sleep worrying about this cross-dominance problem. This may help me explain some of the ugly girls I went home with.
I have a right eye dominance and a left hand as dominant. Back in club we have only right-handed bows for the beginners, so instead of changing the way I hold the string (to invert the palm by 180 degrees) I simply decided to try setting the right hand as dominant. Now I can't even feel comfortable when I try to shoot left-handed bows - I got used to use my right hand as the main hand.
My natural inclination before I had any experience with archery was to hold and draw a bow right-handed, but I'm left-eye dominant, so I just learned to shoot that way, and yeah, the other way just feels wrong to even think about now. To be fair, it did help me that I'm kind of mixed-handed to begin with (I write with my left, throw with my right, and have no preference when it comes to certain tasks)
Сергей Романюк this is the reason why I can only use scissors with my right hand. Lack of lefty equipment.
Thank you! I'm left eye dominant and right handed. I decided to go with shooting with my right hand and closing my dominant eye because I thought it would be easier to adapt, but I do find I'm not getting the proper body position and my aim is definitely off by trying to adapt to my non-dominant eye. I am going to start shooting with my left hand. It's going to be very difficult at first because I am not at all ambidextrous!
How did that work out for you? I'm literally in the same position and don't know what to do. I feel like learning to shoot with your non dominant hand is like learning how to write with you other hand haha
@@GeorgiIvanov-xu4jx it was incredibly difficult. So difficult it didn't feel safe! My aim was so off. I stopped and went back to my dominant hand but I also have not done archery in quite a while.
@@Katie-yx6wd So when you went back using your dominant hand, were you more accurate?
I golf RH, play guitar RH, fire rifles RH, write and play tennis RH....
...BUT my right eye is nearly blind from taking a dart to it from my older brother when I was a wee lad. I have picked up a few of my friends RH bows and I can never get a sight picture. This weekend, I am getting fit into a LH Martin Lithium compound bow. Its a heavy cost but I decided to teach myself to be a lefty with a bow.
I believe it all comes down to self-confidence. I believe (truly) that I can teach myself to hold the bow in my RH and draw it with the left so I get a perfect sight picture in my dominant eye. I will not fail. These are my arms, fingers and elbows and I am in full control of them. *Doubt* will not prevent me from doing something that I want to do.
_"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd."_ *_Voltaire_*
I was just researching this last night, good timing! My son and I are both left handed and right eye dominant. As soon as we switched to shooting right handed there was a huge improvement. Night and day difference.
I worked out a solution to this issue as Im am left handed but right eye dominant.Took months of research on different shooting styles.
In Eastern Archery using a thumb draw you can aim on the outside edge of the bow ie: the opposite side of your draw hand using your cross dominant eye.
So, in my case, I draw with my left hand/thumb using a thumb ring, arrow rests on left side of the bow on my right hand (my bow hand is my right obviously). I draw and aim with the outside (right) edge of the bow using my right eye. Works perfectly.
I have a short traditional Turkish recurve, been shooting for 12 months and have made excellent progress using this technique. Im keeping up with the modern recurve archers at 10/20/30 and have just extended myself to 40. 50 is going to be a bit of a challenge as I cant see the target through my bow hand (wish me luck!)
Love the videos by the way!
Great video!
I am right handed but left eye dominant. I simply close my left eye when I shoot. Another way you could do it is extend your sight pin a few inches to the left. That way you can't see string alignment but you can get a sight picture. One more thing you can do is if you see one clear sight picture and a blurry copy off to one side use the blurry one to aim.
I'm cross dominant, rt hand lt eye. I shoot right-handed normally, but do try to practice left hand when I have the equipment available. I have found that just doing the correct steps has allowed me to gain a better shooting skill than trying to do something wacky. I prefer to practice both left and right and take the advantage of each when I can. Due to practice, my left eye is not as strongly dominant as compared to some people. For some this would be very hard, and I would suggest dexterity training with the off hand to get the manual skills up.
I teach my students (generally yr5-9 students) to shoot to their hand if they are totally new to it, or eye if they have been taught that by another coach. I find that I just get them to close the dominant eye if needed, otherwise they have poor posture, and just have the string chewing their arm, often making contact well above the arm guard if they also have hyperextensive elbows.
Thanks so much for your videos, they have been extremely helpful for me getting back into archery. This video just made me realize I am cross-dominate, right handed and left eyed. Thankfully my wife is a left handed shooter so I can at least easily try different things. Normally I just aim down and to the right and usually get a good clustering where I want it but it goes out the window at greater distances.
hi nu sensei, first of all thank you so much for the advice, it really helped me a lot, i have cross-dominant shooting, i am left handed but my dominant eye is the right one, plus, i have to wear glasses and since this does not change my dominant eye i still have to learn to shoot as a right handed, i have attended to only 1 archery class but from now on i will try to learn as a right handed, i think im still on time and as you said it will be a lot easier than changing how the brain processes the eye information
I’m a right handed all my life but when I was practicing archery for the first time my results always on the left side of the board, so my instructor test my eyes then told me that I’m a left eye dominant and I should use a left hand bow because you can’t change your eyes situation but you can straighten your let arm by practicing, and when I tried the left handed bow from the first shot I was centered a little above mark but centered and that what I’m going to keep doing.
Due to shooting higher poundage recurves (50) I trust my ability to safely shoot a bow with my dominant hand not my nondominant hand. Due to how easy it is to injure yourself in archery I get nervous about suggesting shooting with the nondominant hand but many can do it excellently. I never knew I was cross eye dominant until I developed chronic dry eye in my left eye (also my better eye vision wise). So then my sight picture just kept blurring until it dawned on me I had been shooting cross eye dominant for years. To transition back I started squinting the left eye to force myself to use the right. Now after 2 years I can do this with no problems and shoot with both eyes open. On incredibly long shots where you aim so high your hand covers the target I actually started guestimating with the left eye looking around the handle to make the shot (60+ yards) at Total archery challenge. I shoot traditional and it definitely makes a significant impact when the cross eye dominance kicks in I have to intentionally shift my vision between the eyes sometimes
Greets from England NuSensei :)
I'm a RH/LE freestyle recurve shooter with less than 3 years experience.
I've found that it is JUST possible to wind the sight pin out almost to the falling-apart point & shoot fairly well (and I'm still learning!). As I see it, as long as the sight is properly set for the difference between a right eye position & a left eye position (about 65mm) a 'standard' anchor will still mean the arrow goes where the sight says it will.
HOWEVER I've now started shooting 50yds+ & with a right-to-left wind (which is normal on our range) there isn't enough screw movement to compensate. What I'm about to do is use a female-female spacer (& 2 hex nuts) to extend the screw length - using 2 pins, both cut to about 2/3 length BUT one cut 2/3 from the 'sight pin' end & one 2/3 from the 'bow' end.
If this is of interest to you let me know & I'll try for some pix, maybe even a vid of the process and news on how I'm shooting.
I'm a former engineer btw, usually good at finding 'bodge' solutions to 'mechanical' problems.
While I'm here, thank you SO much for the time & effort you put into your videos - I must have watched at least 60 in the last couple of months. I'd confidently state that I've learned FAR more about the subtleties of shooting from you than I possibly ever could from my hard-pressed club coach - who's a target barebow shooter (albeit a very good one!) anyway.
I'm cross dominant and at first it was a hassle, but as I got more proficient I realized that I can shoot with my other hand as well. So I guess I'm ambidextrous, I do instinctive with my left and I'm training for gap shooting 3 under with my right, and it's going pretty well. Cheers
I shoot with both eyes open and my vision focused on the target, looking past my equipment. When you do this, there are two images of your equipment impeding your vision. The one on the right is your left eye’s view, the one on your left is the right eye’s view. Line the version to the left up, with both eyes open. If you need to, close your left eye to align your sights on your aiming point using your right eye. I personally shoot bow, handgun, and rifle with both eyes open unless I’m using an optic with magnification. Just line up the sights on the left with the target.
I'm left eye dominant and right handed I've been shooting left handed bows for 11 years I personally think it would be so awkward feeling to hold the bow in my non dominant hand
Bouie Watson l am the same way
I am right handed and left eye dominant. I shoot bare bow with both eyes open. I found that it took only about two weeks to train my right eye to keep tab on the tip of the arrow. Now it is natural that I dont have any hesitation aiming or even snap shooting. I found that having an arrow under the eye so you can look along the arrow is actually a great helper trainer for your non dominant eye. I tried eye patch but now there is no benefit since shooting with my non-dominant eye feels natural.
So my advice which might not work for others is to take your time to train your non dominant eye. simply by having an arrow with you and placing it under your eye few times a day for 5-10 minutes each time..Then just try to look along the arrow. As I said for me it took about two weeks of practice to re-train my eye.
With sighted bows it might be harder since where your eyes focus is disconnected from the arrow. But I think it is still helpful. practice with an arrow under your eye. The picture of the straight arrow will help you get your non dominant eye learn to do the work.
It also did helped me shooting with rifle. Which I was hopeless before. Now my non dominant eye focus naturally on the sights as well.
Great vid, thankyou. I have a head scratcher for experienced archers or better yet any coaches out there:
I'm left handed, left eye dominant. When I started shooting I just picked up a cheap fibreglass bow (now shooting a flatbow, looking to move into recurve) the basic instructions that came with the bow showed a right handed archer & the tab that came with the kit was a right handed one. Being totally green & not having a sight on it, I didn't appreciate the importance handedness & eye dominance. So I learned to shoot right handed now a few years down the line & getting serious about archery, and as mentioned making the leap into recurve (driving down to Merlin Archery wednesday to pick one up! whoop whoop); I'm unsure whether to stick with what I know or to be clumsy again & make the switch to left handed gear?
Shooting my flatbow I have to close my left eye to sight down the string & arrow tip, I've been wondering how will this affect the use of a sight? Don't recurve coaches insist that you shoot with both eyes open? To complicate matters further my right eye is lazy (amblyopia) & opticians I've seen have remarked that my eyes work independently of one another (no, I don't use them like a chameleon lol) when gauging distance. I said to the optician well how come I'm not knocking things over & missing things I grab for? She said my brain has developed compensation methods over the years to gauge distance.
Now obviously I'm going to ask the guys/gals at merlin for their input on the matter but I'm keen to get as many opinions as I can, so would be really really grateful for anyone else's opinion on it! Many thanks!
Thank you for your clear, concise explanation.
(left-eye dominant, 'faux' right-handed)
I'm cross-dominant left eye/right hand, been shooting right handed since boy scouts. First day back into the sport after 12 years and coach throws me left hand bow, having to learn everything basically all over again. I'm definitely getting more consistent but what a battle it is to have my brain aim to the right rather than left.
I'm left eye dominant and was given a right handed bow. Can't afford a left handed. I tilt the bow slightly to align it with my left eye like you were talking about with pistols at the beginning of the video. It works for accuracy but as for safety it is really easy to hit your arm with the string if you release with your elbow out
For bows with sights, block the front of the sight so that you can see the pin(s), but not see through it. This forms an Occluded Sight, and boom. Your dominant eye does all the hard work, your non-dominant eye just forms a superimposed image of the sight pin(s). I recommend buying an entirely new sight and dedicating it solely to this purpose, because this method will not have the arrows going in the same place. You're changing your point of aim *COMPLETELY.* Switch sights as needed.
For Barebow shooting, learn split-vision and shoot like Byron Ferguson.
I use both methods, and for my compound bow I have totally different sights specifically for cross-dominance. One of them is occluded with black glass so that can't see through it. When I happen to be more left-eye dominant for whatever reason, I switch the sights on my bow and go back to shooting.
not to get too technical or to refute what you've said, in rifle shooting, you also need to have the right physical alignment weather shooting cross dominance or not. I can go more into it if someone asks me to. On subject though I couldn't imagine trying to do archery cross dominant, props to those that can do it well.
I'm right handed/left eye dominant. I sighted in my AR on my right eye and shoot fine. I shoot with my left eye on my Glock from a right handed holster. I recently took up archery, I shoot with a left hand bow. I agree that you need the right alignment for both.
rifle alignment is easier because you are using fixed body parts (shoulder). with a bow you are using both ends that are not fixed. also as Nu points out, your rear sight is your anchor point and that can vary your draw length is inconsistent. sights on a rifle are fixed to the rifle. with a handgun, you are using your hand position to change alignment from left to right without affecting your trigger hand etc ...
it's not just your shoulder bud. I teach marksmanship and am a competitive shooter. when in prone, you have to have proper alignment with both your shoulders, you off hand, off hand forearm, both elbows, torso, and legs, (yes I said legs as if you move your legs or your elbows even a little bit it will throw off your alignment). In kneeling you have your legs, where on the off arm you rest on the knee, proper forearm and proper placement of the firearm on your shoulder. Standing is the closest to archery as you have your stance (open or closed), again different placement on the shoulder, where you are placing the off hand on your body for support, and all of this without even mentioning the fact that you have to have your cheek on the butt of the rifle in the perfect spot every shot to attain the proper sight picture as well (proper anchor in archery). Pistol I will agree is easier because you have less limbs in play. I've also found that your breathing cycle plays a larger part in accuracy with firearms than it does in archery. Trigger pull is another huge factor, much like the release in archery. As far as handguns go, there is a bit one has to put into it, are you shooting one handed or two? Are you shooting for accuracy or just to hit paper? Are you doing rapid fire or not? In most cases with a pistol where you point it and shoot is good enough. But we're also talking about ranges of no more than 25m 50m tops. The most common range for pistol shooters is about 10M. Now to get back on topic, cross dominance is still difficult with firearms, it's easier than archery, but it still takes a lot of practice and willingess to get out of your comfort zone. LIke Danmj2 above, I had a student who was left handed but right eyed. They shot rifle right handed and pistol left handed and they are really good, but it took him a long time to get comfortable with doing that.
I shoot left but am right eye dominant. Since I know if I put my sight on the centre (if one were left eye dominant like a left shooter should be) I hit exactly two feet down and one and a half right I simply adjust so my sight is aimed at an imaginary target exactly two feet up and one and a half left of my intended target (as opposed to putting the sight right on the target). If necessary I’ll use a sharpie to draw a target to aim at that compensates for the difference.
I tried switching to a right handed bow and....painful is one way to discribe it. I went from aiming 10s using the aforementioned method to not even hitting near the target. In fact I broke one of my arrows and decided fuck it.
I would say for learning cross-dominant people.
1) use whatever side bow is comfortable and whatever side eye is comfortable.
2) use a sight. Aim it at the centre using whatever eye is dominant.
3) never mind about actual hitting the target your sight is on because you won’t. Focus on your form, get it to the point where you’re arrow is actually going is in the same place every time (while your actually aiming at the target.) I suppose this could be likened to shooting a bow where the sight is not properly adjusted for you.
4) figure out what the difference is between where your sight is on and where you are actually hitting. (For me it’s down and right)
5)compensate by aiming for a target that is that same distance off centre. (I hit down and to the right when my sight is on centre. So I aim up and to the left. If I’m consistently using the *correct form/body position* and my *sight is consistently placed in the same spot* then my arrow will consistently hit the same place.)
Anyway, this is just my method that I’ve been using. It works for me. I’ve tried shooting with my other hand and pathetic is putting it kindly. It feels so wrong on so many levels. I’d imagine it feels like writing with your left if you are right dominant. I tried retraining my eye. Neither worked for me so I did this instead. I wouldn’t be surprised if plenty of other cross-doms also did this as it seems so common sense to me.
I shot cross dominant (right hand / left eye) for 3 years wrestled with it. This year I switched to shooting left. If you're shooting any method other than pure instinctive I would highly recommend going with your eye.
I had the unusual introduction to archery shooting my rec center's bare compound bows that are too short for me. This lead to me trying out their left-hand bows as the draw length was slightly longer (still too short, though) and I did surprisingly good. Think the longer draw length made me a bit more consistent left-handed (better grouping), but, as for putting a single arrow where I want it, I was still generally more accurate right-handed.
I haven't shot left-handed since getting my target recurve, but it was nice when I shooting a light draw weight bare compound, which short max draw length probably overlap a bit with trapshooting with a vent rib/bead sight shotgun, now that I think about it.
I was actually going to ask about this very topic, then realised you already made this video. Sounds like bad news for us cross-dominants :( it's like you said, for instinctive snap shooting it's not so bad, but I haven't yet tried long distance or target archery. And I have a bad left shoulder so I definitely don't want to risk straining it.
I'm right handed with left eye dominance. I chose to shoot with a right hand bow. I also shoot with both eyes open. Being a photographer with focus on macro and telephoto, I'm pretty good at estimating where the arrow is pointing so I have no issue at all with aiming.
Im right handed and left eye dominant, ive fired right handed rifles as a lefty and done well but i struggle with my bow and my left eye being dominant, i might try the eye patch method. Thank you for addressing this!
I'm RH/LE archer with a right hand bow. I shoot instinctively and don't have a problem after a few shots to align my hand/eye/target.
Good guide as I'm cross dominant myself. I shot with a rh rider but my left eye is dominant. I get by with closing my left eye before, during and after the entire draw-aim-release process. However my aim sight is usually way to the left to compensate my aim.
I'll most likely be buying lh riser at any moment as it would solve my cross dominance.
Been right eye dominant and right handed all my life. I'm 60 years old and now have maculer degeneration in my right eye. So now I am teaching myself how to shoot left handed because I can no longer see clearly out of my right eye.. Since I am just starting archery this does not seem to difficult. I will just keep practicing until I am good at it.
I'm a coach as well and I do get people not wanting to shoot with their other hand when they're cross dominant. They'll say, "I don't know how to shoot with my other hand!" To which I usually point out they don't really know how to shoot with EITHER hand.
As for examples of cross dominance, the only one I know of is Maja Marcen who shoots a compound aiming with her left eye while pulling with her right hand.
I seen it done. At a high level also. It was a lady shooting FITA that I saw on the WA youtube channel, aiming with her cross dominant eye.
I'm left handed and left eye dominant. I do somethings right handed so now I have to shoot my bow left handed and not right handed like I'm used to. I have a right handed bow so I have to use a thumb grip. Every time I shoot left handed I hit the target but it's slightly awkward to shoot left-handed. I'm getting used to it. I'm not a master at it but I getting better.
I'm left handed. Also left eye dominant. I learned rifle shooting Right Handed, and shooting bows came naturally the same way. Holding a left handed bow or rifle feels too awkward to use effectively. I just close my left eye and force the sight picture through my right eye
Why does it feel awkward to use an left-hand bow if you are left-handed?
I am right handed and left eye dominant and when I was in the army in the shooting range I just used a piece of cardboard to block my left eye and used the right eye to aim.
I'm right eye dominant but left handed. I was shooting with a left handed riser and switched to a right handed riser and got better results. I'm just a little slower knocking the arrow but it's because it's still new to me vs all the years I spent on a left handed riser.
I know she shoots compound but you may like to check out Maja Marcen she is a world class archer competing for the Colombian national team. She also previously competed on the Slovakian national team.
She is cross dominant right handed and left eye dominant.
I have cross dominance, since im (mostly) right handed and left eye dominant. the major problem with this however is that i dont have the ability to train my right eye, since its very weak and to focus on anything with it gives me a headache after just a few minutes. i shoot rifles and the only option for me was to learn left handed shooting and ill most likely need to do that for archery as well. the good news with this is that im technically mixed handed, meaning i favor some tasks with my right and some with my left, and im actually stronger with the left side of my body
Again, you sir are master of your domain!
Im cross dominant. I shoot with my dominant hand, and instictivly aim with both eyes.
I learned to shoot by staring at the target and absent mindedly shooting arrows, "feeling," where they land.
I couldnt tell you what the bow looks like when its alligned with a target, but I know it when I feel it.
Im sure if I tried using a sight or string walking everything would fall apart.
Option 1: Draw to anchor and then force alignment.
Option 2: Draw to alignment and then put your head in the string picture.
#1 would be KSL or BEST and so on and uses muscles over bone while #2 uses bone alignment to establish the full draw. I learned #1 because the instructors at the archery club here in the USA all work right out of the KSL book. One day after watching Ki Bo Bae slow motion and then many other Koreans I was looking around and found a video called "Linear Shot Sequence seminar" by Chris Hill and never looked back. If you watch the US Silver medalist's videos he tells you not to use closed stance only open since to him square or neutral is closed and then he tells you to never use the draw down method (Ki Bo Bae) because that will destroy your shoulder. Later, he is talking about something else and talks about shoulder pain he has but he uses KSL and so that isn't even possible. In #2 once you establish alignment and practice you then establish your head position and over a short amount of time you know where your head should be and then it will look like the anchor in #1...
I want to thank you and folks like Chris Hill for opening up other areas in archery that have been demagogued by archery tyrants and charlatans and have helped me improve my scores.
Right handed and left eye dominant here... Havent actually gotten to shoot yet, just had the first safety measures lesson. Going to the range for the first time saturday so we'll see... My friend who started with me is left handed and right eye dominant... go figure!
If I'm cross dominant but still want to shoot right handed cant I just close me left eye?
I am left eye dominant and did not know until i bought a compound bow and tried to look through the peep sight and then i remembered as a child at school the teacher would always force me to write with my right hand i tried to shoot a left hand recurve bow and could not hit the target 🎯 so now i am left eye dominant but right hand dominant . So now i shoot with both eyes open aand the string in the middle of my nose instead of on the right side
Being ambidextrous doesn't mean I can do anything with both hands etc. It means things are somewhat mixed up. So I shoot the bow right-handedly, but my dominant eye is the left one. But it's easy to switch the dominant eye. As many observed, it helps if you close the left eye and force your brain to use yor right eye as dominant. You can then shoot with one eye closed, but you only have a 2D picture, no depth perception and you only see partial picture. I prefer having the left eye opened, just narrow it enough for my brain to switch to the right eye, so that my vision is not impaired. Then I can open the left eye fully again and it won't switch. The right eye takes over. You just need to practice a bit. Of course, you can fully close your left eye if you feel better. Here's the proof: you can become a champion with one eye closed (I don't think she closes her left eye completely tough): th-cam.com/video/ilA-uusMHis/w-d-xo.html
Not an archer, but any time I've ever picked up a bow, it goes instinctively to my right hand for the string to be drawn with the left, even though I'm right-handed. It's never felt right to draw a bow in the traditional right-handed form because of my cross-dominance.
I would avoid using eye closing/patches in any shooting arts. They're especially a no-no in firearms usage, both for tactical and safety reasons.
You can train your non dominant eye with a lot of practice I did it with my pistols and now a bow I shoot with both eyes open. It was very difficult at first but now it’s automatic to use my non dominant eye to aim
Left eye dominant but right handed shoot right handed compound for 21 years and it has never a problem when you use a peep you close your other eye. this is only a problem for bare bow compound and recurve. I can shoot recurve "with" left closed but i suck with modern recurve bows. I do shoot well with my Mongolian Bow but that's more instinctive shooting.
It's better to go with your non-dominant eye if you also shoot rifles. On a rifle, you can't get a good cheek weld and still use the sights if you insist on using your cross-dominant eye. I just got used to that, so it was no problem when I switched to archery.
What's wrong with closing dominant eye and shooting with dominant hand and non dominant eye?
Closing the dominant eye causes a loss of depth perception, which can impact distance shooting. It also causes strain and fatigue, which makes it difficult to maintain consistent shooting over a longer period. Those that have to use their non-dominant eye can benefit from using a patch or cover.
I recommend going with the eye dominance every time.
I become a ambidextrous because of this problem
Lolz I hv become left handed
same...
left eye dominant and right handed. never had a problem with rifle/pistol/archery and i do all of them as a hobby.
As I posted previously, I'm right handed/left eye dominant. I sighted in my AR on my right eye and shoot fine. I shoot with my left eye on my Glock from a right handed holster. I recently took up archery, I shoot with a left hand bow. I don't have any problem either. I'm not near as accurate with a bow yet.
i use my right eye on my scope and i close my left eye. i know its "wrong" but it works fine for me.
If you just got into archery i recommend watching Nus videos. He does a great job on explaining and he helped me a lot.
Who else has become ambidextrous from archery?
Boys with Bows Wow that is some skill to have!
I shoot both left and right equal.. not well but equal, I do it just to keep the workout balanced.
I was born ambidextrous :D
huh? not everyone can be leet at way of the monado lol
Do they make ambidextrous bows???
This was informative. I will say though, i don't think it does matters. i am left eye dominant and can shoot just fine right handed. But then i don't use a sight. But i will add that learning to shoot lefty would be easier than bending your neck over the arrow. Thank you Sensei.
Im right handed normally but left eye dominant and choose being left handed archery. No problem at all. Although I normally use my right hand in my daily life, strangely my dominant foot is left :D
Hah, same here. Lefty on foot and eye, righty on hand (though I've been training a lot to become ambidextrous since I broke my left arm and felt how much I missed it).
Right hand left eye left foot army
Thank you. Great explanation.
If you have to choose go with your dominant eye. better to have your dominant eye closer to the arrow then to anchor with your dominant hand. I'm left-handed and right eye dominant I have no problems.
Why not a bow for other side. Only started hobby, but it really made it easier for me. For me what the hand pulling back isn’t that complex that my left hand couldn’t handle it.
I am right handed but left eyed..... I just learned to shoot left handed. The worst thing is that there was a lack of club gear to try that is left handed as well as the fact that I find a lot of stuff has to be ordered from suppliers because shops don't always carry left handed gear in stock. On the up side once I bought my left handed inno CXT people don't tend to try to pick up my bow and 'have a go' because they see that it is the wrong side he he
I'm cross dominant and as a result am ambidextrous. i chose my dominant hand but then switched so i could use the sight, though not before buying a left handed bow.
easiest way is for me closing my left eye, if i keep both open i haven't got a chance in hell at even hitting the target, pulling or learning to pull a bow with my left hand just kept giving me pains in my shoulder, so i use right hand bow and close my left eye and use string walking this is the most consistent way for me to hit the target, so far ive not shot past 18m (20yards) and i can always with all 8 arrows hit the red or yellow of the target (i also use gloves not a tab) i have been shooting maybe 3 weeks and i do 2 hours a day on 24lbs bow (aslong as there is no rain)
For me being cross eye dominate person I am left eye dominant to right hand dominate and for me I use a left handed bow for more accuracy vs my speed at shooting with a bow.
I shoot a slingshot with my left hand and yet the first time I picked up a bow at a demonstration event I picked the bow up with my left hand and shot right handed. I'm not really dominant in either eye so perhaps that has something to do with it?
omg you havent had an archery vid in forever!!
Left eye dominate and left handed bow. (I have not used a bow in my life but im trying to make it a hobby). I'm going to see if this works out with the left handed bow.
Ben shooting for about a year now. I'm also right eye dominant, but shoot left handed.Results are not the greatest. Should I try right handed ? Every thing else I do is right handed except Archery and rifles, which is LH. Phil
If is my cross-dominance caused by a disorder on the eye (partially cured Amblyopia) should I change my hand? Curently i shot with right hand and as beginner i shot at distance around 30m without troubles (difference between eyes can be described as one fatigued after very long work on pc and second fresh).
I'm cross dominant, I just close my dominant eye and use the other one.
I have lesser vision in my right eye and am right handed. So i guess I'll try left handed shooting.
I am normally right handed in everything I do, yesterday I took my first Archery class and the instructor did a quick test and said I was left eye dominant. So she suggested I shoot left handed. Now that I know what she was trying to figure out, I have doubts it was correct. Although it all felt fine I am starting to doubt her method. Next time I will just ask to try a right handed bow and see how that feels. But does that happen? Like are some archers ambidextrous?
Does anyone know what percentage of competitive archers have cross dominance? Like I imagine very few Olympic archers are.
I have a question about determining eye dominance that I did not see addressed in your earlier video on the subject.
I've tried two tests to determine eye dominance. One where you look through a small hole at a distant object (the Miles test like described in your video), and one where you look at a distant object that you can cover with your thumb out at arm's length (the Porta test).
The Porta test tells me I am left-eye dominant every time. The Miles test tells me that I am right-eye dominant every time. Is the Miles test the one more relevant to bow sight use? Which should I trust?
I would lean towards the Miles test. The Porta test, I feel, is a bit less reliable.
Thank you for that quick response.
What kind of glove are you using in this video? It looks thick. I've been getting bad blisters from my 45# recurve and need a thicker glove I think.
What about shooting with both eyes open?
Hey NUsensei , have you ever shot an English Longbow before?
It's kinda strange I'm left eye dominant, right hand dominant and left leg dominant. What a mess
How to chose arrow side...m right handed ....i like to shoot arrow frn left side...
I am right eye dominate and left handed, I have no clue what to do about it lol
Same. My left eye is awful and has always been awful.
I’m the same way and I started with my right eye closed but now I squint my right eye
Hey NUSensei, does it matter if your string has uneven twists? Like you have more twists above the center serving than below it. The reason i'm asking this is that i have a solid nocking point made of serving string and it is a real pain in the a** to take it off and adjust it in the field so i'm just putting more twist on other side of the string to adjust it. Does this have a negative effect on my bow?
yes the side with more twists is shorter than the side with less twists
how do you keep one side of the string from twisting ?? once you string the bow the string will even out ...
dont you get a riser with a opposite cut out for left or right handed people? That would solve the problem i think.
A right-hand Bow has the cut out on the left side of the riser and the other way around with an left-hand bow. The problem is the string. As an right-hand archer you pull the string in front of your right eye, left-hand archer in front of your left eye. You do this to bring your dominant eye above the arrow.
I'm right handed but shoot long find left left eye domanit I guess and can close my eye to use a right handed bow gonna try the eye patch deal I guess
I don't have a dominant eye.
So i don't have to worry.
I use Progressive glasses.
And i know i am aiming wrong if they are fucking with my eyesight on the target.
Which is good and bad.
Hey guys, does shoulder pain only come from bad shooting form?
Recently I'm able to practice daily, but always have to skip 1-2 day/week because of the shoulder pain. Not sure if it's because I'm doing something wrong or it's just the way it is.
I'd see a doc... No one can tell you here.
Could be poor technique, could be too high a draw weight, could just be from over use of a collection of muscles that you previously didn't use very much before you started shooting.
If I’m right handed and stronger in my right arm but left eye dominant, in your opinion, would it be best to get a left handed bow?
Strength is not an important factor. You'll likely be better off getting a left-handed bow. You'll probably adapt to shooting left-handed much more easily.
Sensei, you don't address my situation. I am blind in my right eye, but I am right handed... it is not an option to "train" my right eye. If it were possible to shoot left eye/right hand, I would do it... I've tried, but the parallax is insane. I have started down the difficult path of using my weaker physical side with my good eye... I don't see any option... do you?
Just close the dominant eye if needed, simple