No, the other eye

So I took my boys out to learn how to shoot the new paintball gun and much to my surprise both of my boys are cross dominant. For those of you not in the know cross dominance is where your dominant eye is opposite of your dominant hand; so if you're dominant hand is your right, your dominant eye would be your left. An easy way to tell which eye is your dominant eye is to hold up an ink pen in your hand with your arm fully extended, then close one eye and then the other, when you close your dominant eye you'll see the pen appear to shift.

There's nothing wrong with being cross dominant, but it can mess you up in some things, like aiming a gun or shooting pool, two things I plan to pass on to my boys. Alex was able to do pretty good after I got him keeping both eyes open even though is still shooting right handed, but Zach didn't start hitting anything until I got him to switch over to shooting left handed. Hear are a couple of photos from our outing.

 

Alex with both eyes open:

 

 

Zach before switching hands:

Comments

[Dawn Lovitt]

So, I tried your eye test to determine which of my eyes is my dominant eye…and the pen does not seem to shift with EITHER eye…what does that mean. I am duo-dominant or dually dominant or non-dominant or am I really blind and in denial?

[Ed Buford]

Just as you can be ambidextrous with your hands, you can be ambidextrous with your eyes. If you don’t have a dominate eye it’s not a bad thing, in fact for combat shooting it can be a very good thing.

Since most people do have a dominate eye they tend to close the other eye and slightly tilt their heads when shooting (which is quite understandable when using a firearm with a scope). This is a bad practice that needs to be unlearned when combat shooting as it limits depth perception and causes tunnel vision.

So all in all, you really should get a gun and go shoot something!

[Dawn Lovitt]

I always wanted to try paintball....now, I have a reason. I can hear the conversation now..."but honey, Ed told me to do it"