Just got my 2 smallest daughters 9 and 7 new bows
Both are doing great
7 year old I just tested she is right handed left eye dominant
I know the basic school of thought is to have her learn to shoot left handed but she does not like it and wants to shoot right handed
What would u do ?
Getting a left handed new bow is no problem I really want her to get started right
Thanks
just let them have fun! :thumbsup:
I would switch her if she doesn't fight it too badly. One of my younger daughters started shooting a little before 5yo as a rightie. After she started getting her form down I could tell she was fighting "aiming" so I tested her eyes and sure enough strong left-eye dom. so I switched her and within 2 weeks she was shooting very comfortable lefty and much more accurate. Well 8 months later she started having the aiming issues again and when tested she had switched eye dominance so I switched her back to right hand and rapid improvement once again. She is 7 now and shooting righty and doing very well although switching hands twice. Just an opinion but seemed to make a difference for her.....Shawn
She does everything righty and she is shooting both eyes open and hitting well
She seems to be fighting shooting left hand
Thanks guys for the comments like I said just wanna do what is best for her
This will relate to shotgun shooting later on as well
The key is to have fun. Since she is hitting the target I don't see any reason to change. I have a grandson that is right handed but left eye dominant. He hits way left right handed so he is glad to shoot lefty where he hits the target.
Ron
I had the same problem with my son. I taught him to shoot everything left handed when he was about that age and have not regretted it. He now shoots left handed just fine with out thinking about it.
I see in the army where they try to get soldier to shoot off dominate hand verses eye and it really sucks trying to get them to qualify.
I'm right handed and left eye dominant. I shoot my bows right handed with both eyes open - no problems hitting the target. I shoot a shotgun with my left eye closed and I do as well as the rest of my friends. Maybe we're all bad shots. :dunno: One guy I know taught himself to shoot left handed because of his left eye dominance. I shoot way better than he does.I guess we're all different and there are no hard and fast rules.
Dave.
I agree with those who say the priority is letting them have fun. At age 7 she will have plenty of time to figure out later if she wants to switch but I can guarantee you that if shooting the bow no longer becomes fun it will not matter.
Good luck!!!
I think you guys are right I don't wanna discourage her in any way
Thx
let her be, I'm right hand left eye dominant, and I shoot good...I think, I wouldn't be able to shoot lefty. She might just do great. It is better to have here have fun, than having her quit shooting.
eye dominance is irrelevent shooting instinctively with both eyes open.
If you shoot instinctive, it doesn't really matter. Case in point, Howard Hill was obviously a great shot, Glenn St. Charles, & Fred Bear, yep all the same. Hill was left eye, the others switch to left hand and were right eye dominant.
Eye dominance is absolutely relevent in kids. I know the instinctictive principle tends to make you believe otherwise, but my olympic archery coach taught us all about developmental shooting in children, whats going on in their growing minds, and it unfortunately is relevent. It's not going to make or break her ability to shoot, but it does interfer.
I agree with others, let her have fun, fighting it now will frustrate her.
My son was the same, he eventually tried a left handed bow and never went back. Everybody's different, she may slide into that righty position just fine..
I absolutely do not agree with the idea that eye dominance is not important. My experience says otherwise. Fred Bear thought so too--I have a friend who was a sports caster for ABC back in the day and knew and was taught to shoot personally by Fred. The first thing Fred did was to check his eye dominance. One day Dave called me and wanted to drop off "a couple of bows Fred gave me." I figured this was an awesome opportuinity to latch on to a bit of history but also figured they would be useless to me since I am a lefty shooter (after many, many frustrating years trying to shoot right handed because I am right handed). To my great surprise, they were left handed Tamerlanes! Seems old Fred told Dave he needed to shoot left handed since he was left eye dominant (even though right handed).
I struggled horribly for years with cross dominance until Mike Fedora sent me a left handed riser for one of his bows I had--fortunately his limbs fit either way. From the very first arrow I knew this was the way I had to go! And yes, I was trying to shoot with both eyes open. But the sight picture is SO much better, clearer and crisper when shooting dominant eye side.
I would absolutely make sure to get a youngster started shooting dominant eye side--especially since they still have no habits instilled in them. Why risk years of frustration? And yes, I realize there are people who successfully do it, but my opinion is that they are in the minority.
Joe I had the same issue when I was a kid, when we would shoot (guns) my dad just put a patch on my left eye. After a few sessions I was right eye dominant.
That may sound a bit extreme, but it worked. In retrospect I dont think it much matters, especially if the child can shoot well left eye dominant.
I would start her out shooting lefty. My brother is 44 years old and shoots right handed and is left eye dominant. He has struggled with it all his life as he didn't make the move early. Once she builds up her muscles she will do better in my opinion.
I just changed my right handed/left eye dominate son to left handed. At first he did not like it much, but now says it is the best! He says it is much easier to hit the targets now, and he is a ton more accurate. I would say change her early.
God Bless,
Nathan
The first thing we do in NASP with 2.3 million kids this year is to determine eye dominance. We then strongly recommend but don't insist, they use a bow that matches their draw hand to the dominant eye.
This allows the archer to keep both eyes completely open for better depth perception, peripheral vision, and balance. If a person shoots "wrong-eyed" they often have to fuzz up or close the dominant eye to avoid windage misses.
I've witnessed many teachers and veteran archers switch from RH to LH during our trainings who do much better in just a couple of hours. Not everyone will put their heart in this dramatic change though. In archery, both hands do something important, and for the new archer, completely foreign to both hands. Matching the eye and string is more important than which hand holds the bow.
I'm RH and left-eye dominant. I shot RH for 28 years. I've shot LH since 1996. I switched not because I was having trouble with accuracy due to the eye/hand issue, I had extreme target panic. I tried a LH bow and the panic was and remains gone (thanks to God because I thought archery was soon to be lost for me.)
When I shot RH I had to shut the left-eye. I thought (maybe?) I was an instinctive shooter in the late 60's through about 1983. I think I was a gap shooter though. I didn't have any trouble being accurate. I used to shoot pennies off my sister's troll dolls at 33 yards with a RH Bear B Mag (the length of our sub-division backyard).
I check my grandchildren's eye dominance as soon as they put down the bottle. I get the bow that fits their eye dominance. They won't know any difference. (I need someone to hand my LH recruves down to!)
By the way, I'm pretty strong Left-eye dominant. However, during some shooting sessions that dad-burned right eye wants to chip in too much and I miss. Some times I have to wink the off-eye, let the dominant eye do its job and then open the right eye. I suspect sometimes, with certain bows the riser blocks a bit of my left-eye vision and the right eye takes over.
At 7 & 9 years old i wouldn't worry about it and keep it fun for now....
When the left eye dominant child starts getting serious about wanting to be more accurate, I'd keep a left hand bow on hand for her to try out.
just keeping it fun, is most important at that age.
QuoteOriginally posted by JParanee:
She does everything righty and she is shooting both eyes open and hitting well
I'm also in the camp that thinks that people make too big of a deal about eye dominance (and I would still love to see non-anecdotal evidence that correlates dominant eye with bow hand). The end product > accurate arrow placement, is all that matters. There are many ways to get it there.
But as others have said, the important thing at that age (or at any age, arguably) is just that it's fun.
I am left handed but right eye dominant and have always shot everything right handed with no issues.
My son had the same problem he switched to left handed and he shoots great. (http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj10/longbowben/DSC06864.jpg)
I have had the same problems with a couple of my kids. My oldest son is right handed, left eye dominant. At a young age I let him shoot both ways with a double shelf fiberglass recurve. As he got older he realized he shot better left handed. Now he has learned to shoot either way, he just squints his left eye slightly when shooting right handed and the right eye takes over. My other son is a lefty but right eye dominant. He tried both ways also and settled into right handed shooting. I also have twin girls, one right and one left eye dominant. I am doing the same with each of them, they will decide on their own what feels right. The advantage is they learn both ways. Like allot of them have already said, keep it fun and let them shoot, it will all work out in the end.
Shoot straight!!!!
Thanks guys
I have ordered some left handed bows I will let her decide
Really appreciate all the input guys
I use to shoot with a guy that was left handed, right eye dominate. I kid you not he was the best shot I've ever seen. He could shoot 40 yards like I shot 20. It absolutely had no affect on him whatsoever. He shot split finger, instinctive. Let her choose and have fun! 8^)
Good shooting, Jason
Being left eye dominant and right handed made me work harder as an archer.
But hitting a baseball? Man, what an advantage to hit righty and see the ball without looking around your nose! A cross dominant batter can zing 'em at any hole in the field.
Come on now Ben, you know he switched just so he could shoot all your MOABS. :bigsmyl:
The following is quoted from "Instinctive Archery Insights" by Jay Kidwell. this ook is excellent reading for instinctive archers. this theory may not apply to other disciplines, but for the instinctive archer, its spot on.
"...The inference then would be that the dominant eye should be directly above the arrow, thus allowing for more accurate horizontal( windage) adjustments. .....there is no evidence that suggests that we should change our shooting style if we find that the wrong eye is dominant.
In theory, a right dominant eye for a RH shooter will allow the dominant eye to align itself directly over the arrow thus providing a clearer sight picture in the peripheral vision of the arrow aligned with the target.
In reality, very few instinctive archers actually align their dominant eye directly over the arrow. A quick look at your favorite videos,magazines etc will prove this point.
Some of the fundamental charactoristics of insteinctive archery serve to explain why the dominant eye has little or no bearing when shooting with the instinctive method. When aiming instinctively we try to concentrate completely on the target.We cannot focus on the target completely, and on the relationship of the arrow to our eye and the target. If you are aiming using the arrow as a reference point, then you are not shooting instinctively.
It is true that the dominant eye doiminates our sight picture in our primary field of vision( where you are focusing) and at closer distances. It loses much of its dominance in our secondar field of vision(peripheral) and at greater dstances.
...with instinctive shooting we cant (tilt) the bow and our head. A target archer that holds the bow straight up and down keeps his his head straight and can place his eye directly aboe the arrow. When we cant the bow however, it places the arrow between both eyes. When you cant the bow, a number of other changes must necessarily occur in order. When you cant the bow, the string also naturally must cant. A canted string causes a canted anchor. To keep your anchor consistent, you must cant your head. Therefore, as you leave the perfect vertical alignment...that the target archer strives for....the arrow moves away from your dominant eye and falls somewhere in between both eyes until finally in ends up under the opposite eye with extreme canting of the bow. Try it for yourself. Look inthe mirror and draw your ow with an arrow and hold it at full draw in a vertical position. The arrow will line up dirctly under your eye. Now cant the bow. Notice how your head must tilt to correctly anchor and that the arrow now falls directly under and between both eyes in its vertical position.
Which eye is dominant with you? It doesnt matter."
Just get her started and into it. If down the road a ways she seems to have a little consistency issue, try switching her to lefty again. I shot for almost ten years before I switched because of the same issue and now shoot a whole lot better!
Im no shooting expert but i have some experience with being backwards. Thats a young age to start making corrections, you may run the risk of taking the fun out of it, but if a person wants to reach their best possible potential, you should probably be shooting with the natural visual ability given to you. I am left handed and right eye dominent and i shoot right handed with both eyes open. It "feels" good and natural to shoot left handed but the visual connection to that tiny target is at the wrong angle for me. Human possibility can overcome that thuogh i have been outshot with by several people that shoot that way. If i can remember the quote corectly, Lee Trevino pga golfer with a long winning career, had a sort of "different" swing. Someone asked him one time why he didnt have a swing coach and he replied i havent met a coach that can beat me, if i do i will take a lesson. So if she shoots good and likes it, then thats a tuogh one. Good luck and let us know how it goes. I have an 8 year old and a 2 year old. Im sure i will be dealing with the same problem
QuoteOriginally posted by Autumnarcher:
Which eye is dominant with you? It doesnt matter."
Kidwell makes good sense to me.
I am right handed but left eye dominant. I shoot lefty and have done so all my life. I am completely blind in my right eye but I can still shoot a bow right handed, not nearly as well as I can left handed, but I believe I could do well shooting righty if I practiced it more. When I do shoot righty I do lean into the canted bow a good bit and can hit that way which supports Tidwell's theory.
I had a funny realization about eye dominance myself just recently. I'm left eye dominant and shoot right handed, and found i could shoot left hand fairly well to, but everything else about it was foreign shooting left. i had most my problems trying to use a gap system correlating the arrow tip.... once i gave that up and just concentrated on the spot i wanted to hit, no more problems with windage..... the realization i'm talking about though is that even though my dominance is left eye, the vision in my right eye is considerably better. I'll bet i have 30 /20 vision going. so when i focus real hard on a spot it i see the spot clearer with my right eye. after realizing this, i shifted my anchor point to the tip of my nose, and found i could use my arrow tip again for a reference at down range targets again.... funny eh?
I learned to shoot a slingshot left handed. I'm right handed and didn't know any better. I was a very good shost.
I shoot bows and guns right handed and am right-eye dominant.
I developed a cataract in my right eye over the last two years. My vision in that eye is now 20/100, or worse--I think that's as far as the scale goes.
Pick a spot? With my right eye, there are no spots, just big blobs. So, I'm shooting right handed and my right eye is just short of useless.
Guess what. I'm shooting better than ever because I have to take my time and be disciplined about my shots. By the way, one day last summer I shot 8 carpenter bees out of the air with a BB gun, shooting right handed. (As a teenager, I could shoot tossed aspirins with a BB gun.)
I submit that eye dominance and anchor point are both irrelevant to shooters who don't use the arrow as a reference.
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
Jim
QuoteOriginally posted by Autumnarcher:
The following is quoted from "Instinctive Archery Insights" by Jay Kidwell. this ook is excellent reading for instinctive archers. this theory may not apply to other disciplines, but for the instinctive archer, its spot on.
"...The inference then would be that the dominant eye should be directly above the arrow, thus allowing for more accurate horizontal( windage) adjustments. .....there is no evidence that suggests that we should change our shooting style if we find that the wrong eye is dominant.
In theory, a right dominant eye for a RH shooter will allow the dominant eye to align itself directly over the arrow thus providing a clearer sight picture in the peripheral vision of the arrow aligned with the target.
In reality, very few instinctive archers actually align their dominant eye directly over the arrow. A quick look at your favorite videos,magazines etc will prove this point.
Some of the fundamental charactoristics of insteinctive archery serve to explain why the dominant eye has little or no bearing when shooting with the instinctive method. When aiming instinctively we try to concentrate completely on the target.We cannot focus on the target completely, and on the relationship of the arrow to our eye and the target. If you are aiming using the arrow as a reference point, then you are not shooting instinctively.
It is true that the dominant eye doiminates our sight picture in our primary field of vision( where you are focusing) and at closer distances. It loses much of its dominance in our secondar field of vision(peripheral) and at greater dstances.
...with instinctive shooting we cant (tilt) the bow and our head. A target archer that holds the bow straight up and down keeps his his head straight and can place his eye directly aboe the arrow. When we cant the bow however, it places the arrow between both eyes. When you cant the bow, a number of other changes must necessarily occur in order. When you cant the bow, the string also naturally must cant. A canted string causes a canted anchor. To keep your anchor consistent, you must cant your head. Therefore, as you leave the perfect vertical alignment...that the target archer strives for....the arrow moves away from your dominant eye and falls somewhere in between both eyes until finally in ends up under the opposite eye with extreme canting of the bow. Try it for yourself. Look inthe mirror and draw your ow with an arrow and hold it at full draw in a vertical position. The arrow will line up dirctly under your eye. Now cant the bow. Notice how your head must tilt to correctly anchor and that the arrow now falls directly under and between both eyes in its vertical position.
Which eye is dominant with you? It doesnt matter."
Good read, I liked it.
With developing kids ...it matters. Different mechanics. Just what I was taught by an Olympic archery coach , take it or leave it.
good point jim, i would add that if you only have one eye then that is your dominant eye.
another point is this, unless your nose and head are pointed directly to your target( where both your eyes have exactly the same angle just from opposite sides) which doesnt happen because you cant shoot like that, Then doesnt one eye have "better" view off the target? and if so wouldnt you want your dominant eye to have that advantage? Im just asking, and willing to be corrected if need be. I just havnt heard an example of dominant eye not mattering that made sense( to me)
jeremy
I can't say that one of my eyes has a 'better' view than the other of the target, as long as they are both open, and I'm focused on the target instead of the arrow.
thats a hard sell, and each side has some very good points. I really want the right answer when it comes time for my kids to shoot. I wonder if there is an eye dr on trad gang. maybe they can cast their opinion?
I shot right handed for 31yrs. I took up trad about 4yrs ago and loved it. I did fairly well, but occasionally had some flyers. I knew I was left eye dominate and tried a lefty bow at league one night. My first shot, I couldn't drop the string. It was funny to say the least. I managed to get a few shots off and my form was so bad, the feathers were hitting my hand and the bow sounded like it was being dry fired. People were staring it was so loud. In just a few arrows I shot just as well at 10yds as I did right handed with 3yrs of constant practice. I now shoot left only and do much better then I ever did right handed.
For those of you who say it doesn't matter, try switching. lol The way I see it, I have many more years of shooting, cause I'm effectively starting over with a new shoulder. 8^)
As for the original posters situation, let her do it her way for now. Others are right, keep it fun or she will quit. My kids tend to loose interest easily, doesn't help when I'm reminding them "how they should do it". I wanted them to start out with the proper form, but found the more I tried to help, the less fun it was for them. Let her do it her way for now, as I have found and many others have commented, switching to the dominate eye side is easy. The hardest part of switching is getting over the awkwardness of knocking an arrow and pulling arrows out of the target.
well said kenn about if you dont think it matters try switching, i was in a bow clinic a few years ago and the instructor had 2 people in the clinic that shot with non dominant eye. he insisted they at least try to shoot dominate, with some resistence they both tried and to my knowledge they still havnt gone back to the non dominate eye