How to know for absolute sure which of your eyes is dominant

Mark said you wont play him.

Rhea said:

Travelling with Gene, and learning Perfect Aim myself, I have seen numerous times where players were using different methods to find their dominant eye. I am amazed at how many of these tests come up with the incorrect eye being dominant.

This is a poll to see which method players are using to find their dominant eye.

If you have a unique way of finding it other than the ways listed on the poll please share your method.

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I don't believe you need to know what your dominant eye is. All you need to do is know how to see a straight line as straight. There are several easy ways to do that.

How you test doesn't matter IMO, there are no tricks needed to figure it out.

Understanding dominance is the important part and being aware of which eye is dominant and when is the key.

Rhea said:

Not knowing which of your eyes are dominant only allows your brain to sort this picture out naturally. If the non-dominant eye is working just a little like the dominant eye the picture going to the brain will be flawed for sure.

When a player gets down on a shot, and the shot doesn't look quite right it is because this has happened. The brain just doesn't do this very well naturally at all. This is why many of the skill level 2's and 3's in leagues have the wrong dominant eye in the dominant position and have a hard time making a ball at all.

Once they are shown the dominant eye and how to position it correctly the results are rediculous. The same ball they miss 5 times in a row they can now pocket 5 times in a row with the dominant eye in the most correct position. We can manually get the dominant eye in the correct position instead of letting the brain just try to sort this mess out on its own.

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I totally agree with your statements about the lower levels not being over the cue properly. I disagree with the need to know which eye is dominant. There are several methods for determining how to get your head properly over the cue. I won't go into them here. I'm not out to discourage anyone from Gene's lessons.

.. I think the correct answer is going to be... buy the Perfect Aim dvd !

how did I do?

nb92 said:

.. I think the correct answer is going to be... buy the Perfect Aim dvd !

how did I do?

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Sorry Gene, but that was funny.

Rhea said:

Mark said that? I was looking for Mark last night just praying he would be there, trust me after Midlothian, VA I am gonna talk Gene into going to Indianapolis since we wont have another tournament to go to until around January 7th.

I hope Mark will be ready by then.

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Can I come play you? I'm only 2 hours away. Slide down 81, I'll give you action.

Rhea said:

Can you imagine when shooting a rifle, not knowing that one eye had to be lined up with the back sight in line with the front site and on the target? This is why they use a scope for shooting long distances. The eye really has to be lined up correctly and this enables that to happen.

Or we could just forget about the scope and let the brain and eyes naturally line up knowing there is a better way to do it. To me this would be ridiculous because now I know there is a better way.

Your brain really does not naturally sort this out very well and you understand this once you learn how to get the eyes in this more perfect position on every shot. Like using a scope on a rifle for the first time at 200 yards.

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I am 62 ad have played for better than 40 years and never gave this issue uch thought. That is until recently, I encountered some eye probles all due to diabetes ad underwent my first treatment on mt left eye Monday ad was scared to death.
AS soon as two ohours after the treatment I could see much better and so much clearer and was gong nuts wanting to hit some balls.
WWe went out that night and played a little tournamntt here in town and I played so much better but rusty after a 4 month lay off.
I get the right eye done next monday and if the improvemnet is is equal to waht the left was I am gong to stirp off naked and run down the street..
Even wiwth all the frustration of the past 4 months and ho badly I was playng. I was amazed at wht I made just from instinct
Beong right handed and right eye dominant, I was surprised at how much better everything was having the left eye done first.
I ran around with a very good player for years in Denver, AL Hogue who had couble vision in his rifht eye andit was brown and his left was blue. He was a very good player too and a few here knew him and I bet they did not know that about him.
Another Ady Hudson always said vision had little to do with pool
All I can say is that vision is a peculiar thingand I would fight King Kong for 20/ 20/20 again.
MY pint? eyue dominance? I do not have the first dam clue!!

I don't know which eye of mine is dominant, and don't care. I see the balls just fine. I'd be willing to bet I see them better than you do. Another man and no aiming system. Do people really need all these gimmicks to play pool?also when you shoot a rifle, you shoot with one eye closed. When you shoot a pistol or slingshot, you shoot with both eyes open. Just like pool. So are you saying you shoot pool with one eye? That's pretty funny.

Neil said:

I totally agree with your statements about the lower levels not being over the cue properly. I disagree with the need to know which eye is dominant. There are several methods for determining how to get your head properly over the cue. I won't go into them here. I'm not out to discourage anyone from Gene's lessons.

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I think it helps with folks to "know" why they do certain things, why they have been setting up the shot wrong for so long. And once they know which eye is dominant, they can understand why "their" way was wrong for so long, which helps a lot instead of saying "well, just do this cause I said so"....

It might help them concentrate more on their positioning because they favor one eye over another.... plus, might as well know just to know

I think that is why a lot of right handed baseball players decided to bat lefty, they hit better because their dominant eye gets to see the pitcher just a little better, pick up the ball just a nano second quicker... not many guys that are left handed decide to become right handed batters....

Ricky Henderson comes to mind, but very few folks ever do that.... I mean, I don't think they know why they did it, but it just worked for them, and they did it, but that's my theory, and I'm sticking with it

ChicagoRJ said:

I think it helps with folks to "know" why they do certain things, why they have been setting up the shot wrong for so long. And once they know which eye is dominant, they can understand why "their" way was wrong for so long, which helps a lot instead of saying "well, just do this cause I said so"....

It might help them concentrate more on their positioning because they favor one eye over another.... plus, might as well know just to know

I think that is why a lot of right handed baseball players decided to bat lefty, they hit better because their dominant eye gets to see the pitcher just a little better, pick up the ball just a nano second quicker... not many guys that are left handed decide to become right handed batters....

Ricky Henderson comes to mind, but very few folks ever do that.... I mean, I don't think they know why they did it, but it just worked for them, and they did it, but that's my theory, and I'm sticking with it

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I found this out after a twenty year layoff. When I came back, I read about the dominant eye right here on AZB. Through trial and error, knowing which eye was dominant showed me I was setting up incorrectly on certain types of shots.

I always had trouble, but never knew why. I was using my non dominant eye and missing badly on some easy shots. If I get lazy, it still happens. Knowing which eye is dominant allows me to see a straight line.

People who don't have these issues look at me like I'm nuts. I unknowingly trained myself to switch eye dominance in sports over the years and it carried over to my pool game. I'm training my eyes to be in the right position. Some days they don't have any trouble lining up correctly. Other days I struggle and have to force my dominant eye into the leading position. Mainly when tired and get a little lazy on my PSR.

Best,
Mike

People naturally aim very easily and very accurately. Where they fail is in delivering the cue into the straight line they perceive. Dominant eye plays no role in being a poolplayer...unless putting the cue under your dominant eye is where you "see" a straight line. Many people don't see it there, and as such should put the cue where they "see" a straight line. We have binocular vision...we see with both eyes. The dominant eye accepts visual information 10/1000th's of a second before the non-dominant eye. Far too fast to make any difference. Once your vision moves past hands reach (appx. 30") your eyes triangulate. We normally sight shots much farther away than thirty inches from your eyes...many times 8 or 9 feet away.

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

ChicagoRJ said:

I think it helps with folks to "know" why they do certain things, why they have been setting up the shot wrong for so long. And once they know which eye is dominant, they can understand why "their" way was wrong for so long, which helps a lot instead of saying "well, just do this cause I said so"....

It might help them concentrate more on their positioning because they favor one eye over another.... plus, might as well know just to know

I think that is why a lot of right handed baseball players decided to bat lefty, they hit better because their dominant eye gets to see the pitcher just a little better, pick up the ball just a nano second quicker... not many guys that are left handed decide to become right handed batters....

Ricky Henderson comes to mind, but very few folks ever do that.... I mean, I don't think they know why they did it, but it just worked for them, and they did it, but that's my theory, and I'm sticking with it

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Here's a video that explains what I learned to do being right handed and right eye dominant. It's a golf tip, but it addresses the aiming line up and approach. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nPpwgnEXQxg

I batted right handed in baseball and trained my left eye to be dominant. In sparring I fought with my left side forward, again using my left for information. Shooting pool, I tend to want to turn and have my left eye forward because it feels comfortable. I naturally move into this position by letting my body decide where it wants to be. Too bad the balls have to go in the pockets. Didn't work years ago and doesn't work today.

I had to consciously put my dominant eye in charge and my game jumped up immediately. Such a simple thing and I'll bet there are thousands of players out there missing balls because like me, they didn't know and nobody showed them.

I struggled running 50-60 balls and figured I just sucked. I went to several top instructors and they told me not to worry about it. So, I sat down and figured it out on my own. I've run over a hundred balls a couple of times since. It's not perfect and I still get crossed up, but it gets better everyday now that I know how to fix it.

Best,
Mike

Rhea said:

Can you imagine when shooting a rifle, not knowing that one eye had to be lined up with the back sight in line with the front site and on the target? This is why they use a scope for shooting long distances. The eye really has to be lined up correctly and this enables that to happen.

Or we could just forget about the scope and let the brain and eyes naturally line up knowing there is a better way to do it. To me this would be ridiculous because now I know there is a better way.

Your brain really does not naturally sort this out very well and you understand this once you learn how to get the eyes in this more perfect position on every shot. Like using a scope on a rifle for the first time at 200 yards.

Click to expand...

You sure this is Rhea and not Gene posting here??