Switching my approach to Right-to-Left

[RickT]

The vision in my right (dominant) eye is not great: good enough for steel challenge, but with short-focus shooting glasses the targets are definitely blurry.  If I were doing precision shooting I'd switch eyes.  

Normally, I shoot left-to-right when possible, but I'm going to try right-to-left whenever possible (5-to-go one obvious exception).  It turns out my best stage relatively speaking is Speed Option.  My index on the targets is almost perfect, better than any of the stages I shoot in the opposite direction.  I don't go strictly R-to-L, more 4-3-1-2-S, but you get the idea.  I think two things are at work.  First, the vision in my left eye is much better and my left lens is distance focused.  Second, I'm moving in the direction of my off-eye which has a completely unobstructed field of view.  I don't really have any other explanation. (If I were really overthinking this I'd say that moving in the direction of my support hand grip may help).

FWIW, I'm a SSr, 3 seconds short of "B" in SS.  I'll make that, but "A" may be a bridge too far - we shall see.

All insights/discussion regarding the particulars appreciated.

[Bkreutz]

I find that practicing both directions to be beneficial, sometimes conditions dictate that one direction or the other is advantageous, The most common is where the sun is, you don't want to traversing into the sun as it will make target pickup progressively difficult. I find it better to draw on the brighter side first and transition to the less bright side. Of course if you also shoot USPSA, you really need to be able to do both depending on your shooting plan.

[Hi-Power Jack]

I remember reading, 25 years ago, that Bob Leatham was experimenting and found

that his speed was a little better going right to left, rather than the traditional left to right.

Have to try it on the timer - and see which is better for YOU  

[jkrispies]

First off, practice both directions.  This way if you shoot a non-SC match you won't look like somebody stumbling around in the dark after the furniture has been rearranged.  

Secondly, everybody I know prefers to turn in the direction of their dominant eye. To me, this makes no sense. If you turn in the direction of your non-dominant eye, you've basically given yourself an entire eyeball's worth of field of vision to pck up the incoming targets prior to hard focusing with your dominant eye.  Put another way, when you choose to turn in the direction of your dominant eye, you're cutting your "field of approach vision" in half. 

[RickT]

Good input.  I don't currently shoot USPSA, but recognize that I can't train my self to exclusively shoot in one direction; wouldn't be too good in a real life situation. I do shoot Showdown differently in each of the boxes.  Next range trip I'll get the timer out, but I expect R-to-L to be a bit slow at first until I lock in the target positions.  

The lack of right eye acuity definitely adds a dimension so I'm certainly not expecting a result that would apply to anyone else.

[Pasley]

Interesting stuff.  I'm right handed and have to squint my right eye to shoot.  It still feels better somehow transitioning left to right but maybe I should practice more going right to left.

[KelsonAK]

Both   5 to Go is pretty much a shoot 'em left to right.  For Pendulum I start left to right for 1@2, then right to left 4, 3, 5.  Smoke 'n Hope I do 4, 3, 1, 2, 5 - so I get some good right to left/left to right in there.  Showdown I start on the left from the left box, start on the right from the right box.  I guess that means I'm ambishooterous.

 

[Dr. Phil]

I shoot them the same way - except I shoot 1,2,3,4,S on Smoke and Hope. Does that mean I'm amish too?

[photoracer]

On ‎1‎/‎7‎/‎2017 at 0:52 PM, jkrispies said:

First off, practice both directions.  This way if you shoot a non-SC match you won't look like somebody stumbling around in the dark after the furniture has been rearranged.  

Secondly, everybody I know prefers to turn in the direction of their dominant eye. To me, this makes no sense. If you turn in the direction of your non-dominant eye, you've basically given yourself an entire eyeball's worth of field of vision to pck up the incoming targets prior to hard focusing with your dominant eye.  Put another way, when you choose to turn in the direction of your dominant eye, you're cutting your "field of approach vision" in half. 

I beg to differ on this. Yes you should practice both directions both to see what you do fastest and to know what you need to work on. I was a right eye dominant lefty all the way up till 2012 when I went cold turkey and became a right eye dominant righty. Less than 6 months later I was shooting better that way than I did the old way. But in both cases I was using timers and in both methods I still shot faster transitions L to R. The dominant eye never changed whether I was pushing the gun or pulling it. The problem with me going from R to L is that my range of vision to the left is effectively limited by the bridge of the nose + any glasses perched on it. While you brain's stereoscopic vision actually sees thru the obstruction, your vision goes from stereo to mono vision anytime your POF moves to a point that is to the left of the nose until your head turns enough to clear the virtual obstruction. Now in shooting the pistol this should only happen when you are in that minute slice of time between the time your shot breaks and the time you POF should be on the next target and the amount of time it take you to move your upper body and the gun to line up the next target, I. e. catching up with your eyes. To see how this works you need to line the gun up on your target then close your non-dominant eye and see what your range of vision is to the next target. In my case targets to the right are clearer than targets to the left because my right eye has a much greater range of vision to the right than my left. And to prove it all you have to do from the same position is to close the dominant eye and look thru the other (obviously left eye dominant shooters should be doing the opposite).

Does that mean all RE dominant shooters should shoot better L to R? Maybe. A lot of physical and vision issues can often times make you shoot better the other way. The point really is find out what you do best and then fix the things you don't. But until you experiment you might be wrong about what you think you do best.

[photoracer]

18 hours ago, KelsonAK said:

Both   5 to Go is pretty much a shoot 'em left to right.  For Pendulum I start left to right for 1@2, then right to left 4, 3, 5.  Smoke 'n Hope I do 4, 3, 1, 2, 5 - so I get some good right to left/left to right in there.  Showdown I start on the left from the left box, start on the right from the right box.  I guess that means I'm ambishooterous.

 

I do pretty much what you do. Except Pendulum. Shooting it that way, which is the way I used to shoot it, is wrong tactically.  I number the plates 1, 2, 3, 4, S. The number 2 and 3 plates are visual traps purposely placed into the stage from the designers. Going from a larger plate to a smaller one with a spacial offset is a recipe for a miss. Its just about the only stage that requires up and down shooting offsets. Doing it twice in a single run doubles the possibility. I had Pendulum setup in my backyard at the farm for close to a year playing with it. Then I went to the class with Max. Now I shoot it 1-4, then Stop all the time even with rimfire. And I point shoot the stop plate even with iron sights. I still shoot S&H 4, 3, 1, 2, S because
I mostly shoot rimfire or PCC which require the low ready start. CF I think I should be shooting it 1-4, then Stop also, but I am still experimenting.

As for other stages a lot depends on the starting position, CF vs. Rimfire/PCC. For low ready divisions my methods are based on which end of the string is closest to the initial barrel position of the firearm (something I got from BJ at a couple of the Rimfire Challenge worlds), i. e. what target or target end gives the fastest first shot time plus if 2 targets get put close together, which describes Showdown. Doesn't apply in CF, I just shoot from the left to the right in visual order.

Edited January 10, 2017 by photoracer

[jkrispies]

32 minutes ago, photoracer said:

I beg to differ on this. Yes you should practice both directions both to see what you do fastest and to know what you need to work on. I was a right eye dominant lefty all the way up till 2012 when I went cold turkey and became a right eye dominant righty. Less than 6 months later I was shooting better that way than I did the old way. But in both cases I was using timers and in both methods I still shot faster transitions L to R. The dominant eye never changed whether I was pushing the gun or pulling it. The problem with me going from R to L is that my range of vision to the left is effectively limited by the bridge of the nose + any glasses perched on it. While you brain's stereoscopic vision actually sees thru the obstruction, your vision goes from stereo to mono vision anytime your POF moves to a point that is to the left of the nose until your head turns enough to clear the virtual obstruction. Now in shooting the pistol this should only happen when you are in that minute slice of time between the time your shot breaks and the time you POF should be on the next target and the amount of time it take you to move your upper body and the gun to line up the next target, I. e. catching up with your eyes. To see how this works you need to line the gun up on your target then close your non-dominant eye and see what your range of vision is to the next target. In my case targets to the right are clearer than targets to the left because my right eye has a much greater range of vision to the right than my left. And to prove it all you have to do from the same position is to close the dominant eye and look thru the other (obviously left eye dominant shooters should be doing the opposite).

Does that mean all RE dominant shooters should shoot better L to R? Maybe. A lot of physical and vision issues can often times make you shoot better the other way. The point really is find out what you do best and then fix the things you don't. But until you experiment you might be wrong about what you think you do best.

I guess where I'm either disagreeing with you or not understanding is that you feel going to the non dominant side gives you "non-stereoscopic vision" which is a hinderance, and I question why that would matter.  We just need to visually pick up the targets as soon as possible, and that's it.  The sooner we see them, the sooner we can consciously bring the sights to bear.  Remember, We're shooting at close targets at known distances, so what difference does it make if we see it in 3D? In practice I once saw a GM cut loose and shoot Accelerator in about 1.6sec with a rimfire pistol. He just shrugged afterwards and said, "Hey, it's nothing but a big plate rack."  Totally changed my mental approach to steel!  That's how I look at each stage now-- it's just a big plate rack.  

[photoracer]

That part is true for sure. Have not done Accelerater in the 1's yet, I think my best rimfire is like 2.10 but I can do 1's in about 3 other stages. Max got me to change my sequence in Accelerator in CF and I picked up .3-.4s immediately so I know there is hope for me even at 69.