Kid is cross eye dominant

[CoyoteMW]

On 9/3/2019 at 1:24 PM, PatJones said:

Don't make a big deal out of it for hand guns. You just aim with the other eye. Rear sight probably stays the same, the front sight moves over the width of the slide. Try it slow fire, no big deal.

Long guns, especially shotguns, shoot off the other shoulder.

 

 

On 9/3/2019 at 5:11 PM, Hperea said:

In my case, right handed/left handed dominant, I shoot PISTOL right  handed with no problem.  I move the pistol a little bit towards my dominant eye(left) until I find " the right spot."

Now LONG GUNS, I shoot left handed.  At the end you have to find what best works for you.  It is a combination of adapting your body and training, which  plays an important part.  For me is a natural thing after doing it for so long.  Time will tell which position is the best. 

 

 

On 9/3/2019 at 9:31 PM, Stumpnav said:

Larry Vickers is cross eye dominant and he's done pretty well for himself. He shoots pistols right handed and just lines the pistol up with his left eye. He shoots rifles off his left shoulder just like he was left eye dominant and left handed. 

I always think you should shoot your pistol with whichever hand has the most dexterity. 

 

This has worked well for our son. It was a rough start, though, when he was little and we started him with a right handed shotgun not knowing he is left eye dominant. Once he switched over to shooting shotgun left handed (with on over/under), it was easy. He’s had no problems shooting handguns right handed — just moves the gun over a little.

[Bright]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdPIxIZnadU

 

Some good shooters have already covered this but here it is from another good shooter.  For what its worth, Im cross eye dominant.  With a pistol I just bring the gun to my left eye.  Easy.  With a shotgun or rifle I have to close my left eye. 

[pastorjohnd]

Not to keep saying the same thing, but my son is right handed/left eye dominant.

 

He shoots pistol right handed and aims with his left eye.

 

He shoots long guns left handed/left eye.

[GeorgeH]

On 9/16/2019 at 2:07 PM, Bright said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdPIxIZnadU

 

Some good shooters have already covered this but here it is from another good shooter.  For what its worth, Im cross eye dominant.  With a pistol I just bring the gun to my left eye.  Easy.  With a shotgun or rifle I have to close my left eye. 

Im right hand and left eye dominant, i turned my head with pistol.  With rifle, i was shooting with one eye open.  When ive decided to shoot pcc only, i trained to shoot both eyes opened and no problem atat all. After one year with pcc, im back shooting pistol and back to my left eye.

[Shooturshot]

Have him put the gun in front of the dominant eye. My dad trained my to shoot with my non-dominant eye and now to target focus I need to shoot a dot. don't do that to him.

[chauncey]

I am not telling you what to do

I am telling you what I did

 

I caught this at 6 when my daughter started archery. Left eye, right hand. She wore an eye patch on her left eye for years. 

 

She now (12) shoots everything with her right eye, closing her left, and with a pistol uses almost exclusively an Isosceles position.

 

ymmv

[B585]

Never patch a young kid’s eye unless prescribed by optometrist/ophthalmologist!!!! You are risking creating amblyopia which is an eye that is not capable of reading 20/20, a strabismus (eye turn), reduced depth perception, etc.  You don’t have to believe me, but at least Google it.  There is a reason vision screenings are recommended at 6 months old and that is trying to catch amblyopia before it becomes permanent.  Patching a good eye on a young child can cause amblyopia and/or the other problems I just mentioned.

[chauncey]

13 hours ago, B585 said:

Never patch a young kid’s eye unless prescribed by optometrist/ophthalmologist!!!! You are risking creating amblyopia which is an eye that is not capable of reading 20/20, a strabismus (eye turn), reduced depth perception, etc.  You don’t have to believe me, but at least Google it.  There is a reason vision screenings are recommended at 6 months old and that is trying to catch amblyopia before it becomes permanent.  Patching a good eye on a young child can cause amblyopia and/or the other problems I just mentioned.

Ok so I googled amblyopia. It talks about eye patches as a treatment, not a cause. It defines the condition as dissimilar eye muscle strength.

 

She wasn't cross-eyed and didn't have a lazy eye.

 

She needed reading glasses for a few years and now grew out of them, and has 20/20 vision with annual eye exams.

 

She wore an eye patch 1 hour a week during archery for a few years. Now she shuts one eye during shooting.

 

I'm not getting your point. Please elaborate.

[B585]

Look closer at what causes amblyopia.  It is caused by one eye not receiving clear vision during development.  This could be from an eye turn, a difference in prescription between the eyes, or occlusion (a patch, eyelid droop, etc) to name a few.

 
Yes, a patch is often used to treat amblyopia to block the good eye (non-amblyopic eye) from seeing so the kid has to use the bad eye (amblyopic eye).  Since the good eye has been doing all of the detailed seeing and because when there is no patch on, the kid will use the  good eye, there is a very low risk of inducing amblyopia on the good eye.  While wearing a patch on the good eye, the amblyopic eye is forced to be used and can improve (if caught early enough).  
 

When you are dealing with “normal “ eyes on a kid and you decide to block vision in one repeatedly with a patch, eventually you cause the eye you are patching to become amblyopic because it is not being used.  Also, true depth perception doesn’t fully develop until later than 20/20 vision and this only develops by using both eyes at the same time.  Good true depth perception requires 2 good seeing eyes.

[waktasz]

On 9/3/2019 at 11:49 AM, s2000red said:

My daughter is right handed and left eye dominant.  What I notice is that she simply holds the pistol normally but in front of her left eye.  Nothing more than that.  In fact that is how we figured out she was left eye dominant.  I was standing behind her and noticed she shot with the gun a little bit to the left.  It was nothing I taught her, she just did it on her own.

 

Yep. It's not that hard. Amazing what some people will do 

[Youngeyes]

At 8 years of age you run no risk of harming vision by patching an eye for eye dominance training in shooting.  

[Flexmoney]

Words of wisdom, from our host:

 

http://brianenos.com/pages/words#tips

 

 

The principles of the Index are:

1. The shoulders should be square, or at least fairly square to the target.
2. Both arms should be fairly straight without either extending or contracting the arms or elbows unnaturally.
3. The grip, with each hand, should be as high on the pistol as possible. (There are many subtleties of the grip, however, since this is a stance/index discussion, we won’t go there here.)
4. The head should be fairly straight up, without excessive tilting, and the shooting eye should be looking as squarely as possible out of the socket.
5. This is paramount: Once this position is assumed, your entire upper body, including the head, arms, and grip—your Index—should never change in relationship to each other.

[B585]

On 10/17/2019 at 6:23 PM, Youngeyes said:

At 8 years of age you run no risk of harming vision by patching an eye for eye dominance training in shooting.  

 

As I stated in previous posts, it is unlikely that amblyopia would develop in an 8 year old under these circumstances, but it is not impossible.  A more likely problematic scenario would be to induce a strabismus in a child with limited fusional amplitude or make an underlying strabismus worse (such as an intermittent strabismus becoming constant).  In any case, the purpose of all of my posts was to make people aware that messing with the visual system without first discussing it with a qualified doctor can result in problems a kid's visual system.   I would bet that most people who don't work in a profession relating to vision would have no idea that patching a child's eye COULD create unnecessary  problems for that child.

[Pistolpete9]

I'm pretty sure that everyone who posted already on this topic is a better shooter than me, but I'll say this; Too often we're convinced that there is an exact right way to do something and it is holding us back.  More often the case is that we should simply be doing it more so that we can get better at it.  I understand the idea of practicing correctly and there are SOME non negotiables, but there's a lot of room for each person to make it their own.

Watch a PGA tour event and see how different swings can look (let alone equipment and putting style!) and these guys are all at a level that is absolutely incredible.  Watch some NBA player shoot 3 pointers with a cross faced stance and still hit over 80% in practice.  Look at batting stances in the MLB.  Shooting is much the same.  There are ways of doing it that we call "ideal", but if you find a way that works for you, do it.  Me personally, I squint a little and have never once had it hurt my score (misses and being out of shape do that for me and I'd way rather work on those things than switching dominant hand/eye).  

[m700]

My daughter is 2, so I have a ways to go but its looking like she will be lefty. Im waiting to find out her eye dominance to see if we'll be keeping her.

 

My thought would be try MRD on pistols and buy her left handed rifles.

[sweatpants]

Left eye dominant, right handed here.  What I did to solve it is - nothing.  Shoot pistols to your dominant eye.  Shoot long guns to your dominant dexterity.  

[nikdanja]

I saw a guy shooting this weekend that I could tell was cross eye dominant. He held the gun so sideways so his other eye could see the sights. 
 

I don’t have much experience at all dealing with this but I could tell that was the wrong way to go about it. 
 

maybe since he’s so young it might be better to train him to golf the gun with the non dominant hand so the sights appear to the dominant eye? This way the gun is parallel to the ground and not canted?

[mrd]

Left eye dominant, right handed. Here's how I shoot, I find this the most natural, fastest and best for me. 

 

Pistol with iron sights - I shoot right handed, holding the pistol in front of my dominant left eye which focuses on the front sight. (Exception is right barricade, where the barricade works as a natural patch of sorts and I use my right eye.)

Pistol with red dot - I shoot right handed, using my dominant left eye FOR TARGET FOCUS, keeping the pistol in front of my right eye, using the right eye to pick up the dot

 

Rifle with magnified optics - shooting right handed, squinting/closing my left eye.

Rifle with red dot - shooting right handed, both eyes open. Dominant left eye for target focus, right eye picks up the dot. 

I don't shoot rifles with iron sights. I can imagine this would be a slight disadvantage, being cross-dominant, but I imagine I would just squint as I do when shooting with magnification.

 

For red dots, pistol and rifle both, I think being cross dominant is actually an advantage, since you use target focus and pick up the dot with your non-dominant eye.

 

 

[TonyMartin]

On 9/3/2019 at 11:38 AM, Benji said:

My oldest son is 8 years old and cross eye dominant. Unfortunately for him I'm not and have no clue what to do about it. What do you guys and gals that are cross eye dominant recommend to help him out?

When I first started shooting, we knew that I was cross eye dominant. So, we started with trying every combination: right hand right eye, right hand left eye, left hand left eye, and left hand right eye. Me and my trainer determined that I should continue progress right hand right eye and train my eyes and brain accordingly. To do that, we covered the inside left lens of my shooting glasses with smoked Scotch tape. This meant I could shoot with both eyes open but only see with the right eye, forcing my brain to use that one. After a short time we peeled some of the tape off and continued training. After a while some more tape came off. In less than two days I was able to train my brain to use my right eye as dominant eye for shooting. Because of my true cross dominance though, I have been able to train to use it to my advantage now. I can now shoot right or left handed off of my right or left eye with a pistol or a rifle just by telling myself ahead of time what I was going to do and how I was going to transition the firearm in different positions. It took about 2 years for me to get fully comfortable with it.

[Hockeycor22]

On 9/3/2019 at 11:47 AM, Mcfoto said:

Beatings until he gets it right... 

 

Okay, seriously. I'm cross eyed dominant. When learning to shoot, I found myself using a modified Weaver stance with my feet canted to the right. Worked great in most applications but really sucked around the left side of walls. Since, I've been using more of an Isosceles with my head turned. That seems to work in almost all applications.

Exactly. I’m right handed and left eye dominant. Modified isocoles and just turn my head to the right so I can keep both eyes open. I tried the tape or smudging of the left lens but my brain couldn’t figure it out. I just have to close my left eye on a rifle and shotgun. 

[eric4069]

For somebody like my wife who doesn’t shoot much and is cross-dominent,

we have found that a carry optics gun (mini-red dot sight) works very well.   
(held in dominent hand grip in front of dominent eye)

[alien_pickles]

I'm right handed and very cross-eye dominant. I just don't see well out of my right eye. Occluding the left eye is just going to make it impossible to see anything, and shooting left handed would be a joke. I honestly don't notice it mattering... About the only time it comes up is when deciding which direction to shoot an array, because I prefer to shoot right to left while my fellow right eye dominant shooters generally prefer left to right. But that's only if you have a stage where entries and exits aren't more important in deciding the shooting order of the targets... 

[pjb45]

On 10/15/2019 at 5:07 PM, B585 said:

Never patch a young kid’s eye unless prescribed by optometrist/ophthalmologist!!!! You are risking creating amblyopia which is an eye that is not capable of reading 20/20, a strabismus (eye turn), reduced depth perception, etc.  You don’t have to believe me, but at least Google it.  There is a reason vision screenings are recommended at 6 months old and that is trying to catch amblyopia before it becomes permanent.  Patching a good eye on a young child can cause amblyopia and/or the other problems I just mentioned.

+++++++  

 

[BradH]

I didn't realize how many people shoot this way. My right eye was my dominant eye until a few years ago, and i could notice it slowly switching. I have a astigmatism in my right eye it makes red dots really awkward to use now. Is it true that reflex sights aren't affected the same way, the shape and image of the dot? Don't know if that has anything to do with cross eye dominance or not but figure some of you guys might be dealing with both as well.

[Patrickxx]

I’m also one of the lucky ones. Dominate left eye with a dominant right hand. I can’t find any issues with using my strong hand with a pistol. I was younger when we found it so I swapped to left hand for Long guns.  It’s actually really nice for week hand reloads because my weak hand when shooting left handed is my dominant hand. It’s also kinda nice running a right handed shotgun if there’s any issues it gives me a better line of sight for clearing. Watch out though with the backwards safety’s it’s almost resulted in a Dq you’ve gotta explain the safety was reveresed.