RickT Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 My wife and I set up a left/right symmetrical stage today for practice. I normally shoot right-to-left and after 3-4 strings I had a best time of 4.7 seconds. I tried left to right and almost immediately shot a 4.00. I switched back to right-to-left and discovered that shooting left to right I pick up the next target easily. The sights track to the target and almost no POI adjustment is required once I'm on the target. I'm very right eye dominant and I'm using single-prescription glasses focused at 24". These are prescription lenses so I don't have an Rx insert frame getting in the way, but I found I have to think about visually acquiring the next target going right to left, not so left to right. Anyone else experience this? All things being equal I'm inclined to switch directions save for those stages that demand a right to left sequence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lawmangr Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 I find that I am much faster going left to right also. I'm trying to practice right to left more to try to bring the directions closer to each other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yeti Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 I'm very right eye dominant... This is the biggest reason, IMO. It is much easier/faster to pick up the next plate. There is the language thing too. Left to right is just normally how we do a lot of things. Can any Farsi or Hebrew reading left handers weigh in on this phenomenon? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bkreutz Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 No Farsi, Hebrew, or Arabic here, but I'm faster right to left. I think it's because I shoot with both eyes open and the pistol doesn't block the target to the left. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickT Posted May 7, 2015 Author Share Posted May 7, 2015 No Farsi, Hebrew, or Arabic here, but I'm faster right to left. I think it's because I shoot with both eyes open and the pistol doesn't block the target to the left.I have both eyes open, but I'm going with the Yeti theory. It seems I have to force my eyes to scan right to left. And these targets didn't have a large angular separation so no reason to rotate my head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lawmangr Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 No Farsi, Hebrew, or Arabic here, but I'm faster right to left. I think it's because I shoot with both eyes open and the pistol doesn't block the target to the left.I have both eyes open, but I'm going with the Yeti theory. It seems I have to force my eyes to scan right to left. And these targets didn't have a large angular separation so no reason to rotate my head. I feel the same way as RickT. I'm very right eye dominant and my eyes naturally seem to move left to right. I am also an avid reader, so there's a good chance the left to right of that is part of it. I'm going to continue to work on right to left to see if I can get the times at least somewhat close. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racinready300ex Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 We are taught pretty young to do things left to right, like reading. Maybe it just carries over because we've done it so much. Moving through a stage left to right even feels more natural for some reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
photoracer Posted May 9, 2015 Share Posted May 9, 2015 Maybe. I know I am faster left to right. I used to shoot LH pistol, but because I am right eye dominate and due to another physical issue I switched to shooting RH in 2011. Took me about 6 months and I was shooting faster than when I shot LH. I still shoot bullseye LH because that hand is stronger. I always shot the rifle RH because my Dad who was also a lefty shot the rifle RH also. I find I now have an advantage in IDPA because my weak and strong hand scores are identical within a few hundreths. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazer Posted September 7, 2015 Share Posted September 7, 2015 I've been thinking about this lately as well, and I think I'm thinking along the same lines as Bkreutz. I'm right handed and extremely left eye dominant, and am faster and with better hits left to right. I think even though my right eye sucks, the fact that the gun isn't in front of it helps me transition to the next target easier. When going right to left, my good eye has to track the sights and find the next plate, all with the gun up in front of it, so my right eye is basically useless going that direction. I think that's why I'm slower that way so definitely trying to practice to bring that speed up. I've only shot three matches, but I've noticed that going left to right when I can, even if that leaves a big / weird / or extra transition seems to be quicker for me at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pasley Posted September 7, 2015 Share Posted September 7, 2015 I feel more comfortable shooting left to right. I don't have solid data to prove I'm better shooting that way though. I'm right handed and shoot with my right eye closed. I don't have a strongly dominant eye but my left eye focuses better on the sight. When I was a little kid I tried to get my left eye over the sights of my bb gun. I wish my dad would have trained me to shoot left handed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
photoracer Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 (edited) Its my feeling that right-eye dominant shooters tend to shoot faster left to right because of physical reasons. If you stop your head and stare at the stage you will see that your dominant eye has a sweeping range of vision to the far right but that to the left the shadow of your nose tends to make it slightly non-stereoscopic. I reasoned this because I was once shooting LH pistol. Even then I shot better left to right. Plus those of use from the West mostly read right to left so that our eyes are more accustomed to moving in that direction. Also I have considered the act of moving the gun itself. I look at it as if the gun hand does the shooting and the support hand is actually moving the gun so moving to the right the support hand is pushing or driving the gun to the right while moving to the left the support hand is pulling or dragging the gun to the left. Easier to push than to drag. Now how do I reconcile that to me LH shooting days. Well for one I don't think I was using my hands that way then. I am pretty sure I was doing everything with the left and the right was just trying to hold the gun steady. I have not got a large test group but the few left eye dominant shooters I have talked to seem to do better right to left but it is not as clear a case. A lot of other variables including stance and certain preferences to consider. Edited September 8, 2015 by photoracer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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