Justin:
Yup -- I can. In fact, in my room, there are two players (including myself) known for switch-hitting. I've been known, while in the midst of a 14.1 run, to "forget" I'd switched to lefty (I'm a righty), and shoot several shots in succession like that, before I "remember" that I'm using my off-hand. I can even break lefty, albeit not nearly as good as righty.
Sean, I'm in the same boat as you, I think. And maybe Mike Sigel.
I was born a righty, but because of vision issues that I was born with (I've talked about it on here a bit. I have a double-vision issue), I picked up a cue and shot as a lefty from my beginnings in the game. Same way with a gun or bow.
After a 15-year hiatus from the game, I came back to a situation where I had to shoot with only one eye open to make it work out for me, simply so I could see one image. It's tough at times.
I had shot a bit right-handed, here and there, 15-20 years ago and it was enough to get me by. The past year I've been doing some practicing while alone as a righty and realized that because it puts my head in a different position.....I can shoot with both eyes open and see one clear image.
I've played maybe 30-45 min. at a time against my best friend in spurts and suffered no drop-off in my speed. As a matter of fact, I might be a ball better, even tho it felt a bit awkward, yet......"right"......all at the same time. I could just see much more clearly.
Well, last night I played about 4 hours straight, strictly off-handed, against a very strong player. I put together my very first ever career 2-pack in 9-ball. Never even done that as a lefty that I can remember. Now, the first game was a break with a half-rack run to a 9-ball combo for the win.....then a complete break-n-run.....then a break and a few more balls on the 3rd rack, so that's my new personal record. I think I had ran out once practicing alone, but this was the first in competition. It was against the best player in our room and I had him scrambling for a while, which I've never been able to do. Now, he eventually turned up his game and pulled away from me, but I think in spurts, I was 2 balls better than I normally am.
Anyway, I'm actually thinking about switching over to righty full-time and going to lefty when cue ball position dictates.
When I toyed with the idea several months ago, I cringed at the idea of "starting over", but after the past week, I think it would actually speed up my overall improvement as a player.
