Cross Dominance or maybe no dominance? My kid needs your help!

[John Kane]

I need help for my six year old daughter.

She's right handed but everytime I do the eye dominance test she tests as left eye dominant. So I've been having her shoot a rifle left handed since I've heard you should shoot to your dominant eye. And she's done very well with it.

I had her shooting a red dot on a pistol today for the first time and told her to open both eyes and focus on the target. She would start with her left eye but then switch to her right and still be hitting targets. So I'm really torn on what to do. Could she not have a dominant eye? Shold I keep her shooting left handed or go to right? It's pretty bizzare how she can switch back and forth.

I would really appreciate any advice or pointers to help get a girl into the sport with me. :-)

Thanks!

John

[John Kane]

I just found a great post on a very similar topic and believe I have my answers. Thank you!

Should have searched first!

[6734]

Can you please share the link? I am in the same boat and when I try to shoot with both eyes open I can't find my front sight in the rear sight notch, almost like my eye dominance is too close with both eyes.

Thanks,

Chris

[theblacknight]

John my man!

I was similer when I started shooting around that age. I'm RH/LED, So I would shoulder right handed and sight left eyed. My dad "broke" me of that by using the taped eye pro trick. I shot smallbore up to 18 and later in the Mil like this, but when I shoot pistol I still sight pistol with my left eye, and have no problem sighting rifle with either eye. I think all my dad did was train my to use both eyes from a young age. I'm a 80.33% production shooter with 11 matches on the books so I'm not hurting in anyway from it.

A lot of big name shooters are some form of x-dom, examples are Dave Sevingy and Larry Vickers. The thing is, our eyes are all different. One person's red/green color blind can be different from the next.

[John Kane]

Here is the link I was referring to. Some great info there.

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=185008

Just for a quick update... I handed my daughter an ambidextrous bow for Christmas to see what she would do. She started right handed and left eyed. She could tell that didn't work so she switched to left handed on her own and has been shooting it that way ever since.

So far she shoots a pistol right handed but when I had her open both eyes she switches her eye dominance back and forth every now and then but doesn't miss a target, I know, weird. Rifle and bow are both lefty but a little awkward for her. I think she may just be amidextrous.

I like the idea of just making her close an eye (saves me a ton on lefty gear) but I've ALWAYS heard that if you're left eyed then you have to shoot left handed unless it's a pistol. So I don't know. I'm kinda just letting her try some different things to see what works for her.

[BoyGlock]

Im right handed. When I shoot a pistol 2-handed I use my right eye. and also when shooting strong (right) hand only. Both eyes open.

But when I shoot weak hand only (left hand) I use my left eye. Also both eyes open.

I think its more of an advantage than a disadvantage. Im 53.

[frankie]

I am r-handed and left eye dominant. when I shoot pistol 2handed I have trained my r eye to take over, been shooting for over 50 years and don't how I trained my non dominant eye to do this. When I shoot left handed I only use my left eye