Monovision ... WTF?

In the '90s my contacts were monovision. My left was corrected for close in while my right eye was corrected for distance. I adjusted rather quickly and had no problems with it. But after time I started to suffer strain after about 5 hours on the table. The headaches were pretty good. It just so happened that about that time I had other priorities and my playing days were over for about 12 years. I stopped using contacts and went to progressive glasses from then on.

I started playing again a few years ago but now I just take my glasses off and go for it. On some of my long shots my vision is blurred and I have to decide which ball to aim at (oh crap, that's another thread entirely).

I did like the monovision and I'm thinking of trying it again. Normally I only play a couple of hours at a whack. The only time I'm playing any longer is when I'm in a tournament.

Good luck with your monovision. I hope it works out for you.

I need to tell you..........

Hungarian said:

Typing right now while my eyes are still dilated. Can barely see the screen and my eyes are burning and I'm confused if this mono vision shite is going to make me bionic around a pool table or something..

So here's the deal .. my correction is very minor and my Doctor tells me I've got a good chance my near sightedness will improve.

My right eye focuses clearly up to about 1 yard out with no correction and my left eye works well far but needs minor correction. So what he did was give me one contact lens for my left eye. He called it mono vision ... see link below.

What he tells me is that I essentially have both eye dominance related to the pool table depending on how far out I'm looking. Right eye dominant for about half the pool table and left eye dominant for the far end of the table with the contact lens.

WTF. Can't see anything right now with one contact lens on and my eyes are about to explode. Everything is fuzzy. He said it takes a while to adjust to it. Link says it's for reading. Will this shite work for playing pool for 10 hours straight?

This is great!!!!

http://www.allaboutvision.com/contacts/monovision.htm

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It just won't work very well at all........but sounds good.........

I had the same thing done except I had eye surgery. it was a little more permanent than a contact.

I wanted to play on the big table but I couldn't see good enough. This is why i was always known as a bar table player.

A friend of mine had the RK surgery where they put little cuts in the eyes to flatten them out. This was before laser was approved.

The doc told me that i could do the slickest thing. He could fix the left eye for seeing far away and just leave the other one so I could read with it. i thought ,,,Cool. Let's do it.

This way it was half the money. only had to do one eye.

Let me tell you. this was the start of Perfect Aim.

I went back to my pool room and tried to hit some balls. I'm left eye dominant so i had him fix the left eye.

As i was playing I felt like I had a film over my right eye. then I realized it only happened when I cut to the right.

Then as I was opening and closing my eyes while down on the shot I found out that my right eye was actually doing the aiming when I cut to the right. My left to the left. Unreal.

So when i was cutting to the right it was impossible to use the left eye, the one I had fixed. The eyes just don't work that way. The right eye has to shoot this shot.

Just open and close your left eye when you are cutting a ball to the right and you will see that your right eye is actually doing the aiming. And this is why it will still look fuzzy because this eye doesn't see as good.

When I cut to the left I was just fine. it looked great.

I had a tourny at the Black Bear casino that next weekend so i called the Doc up and told him I needed the other eye fixed. He said he could get me in, in about 2 weeks. I told him I needed it done before the weekend.

I drove down to Rockford and had the right eye done the next morning before anyone else even got there. And i won the tourny. $4,000 for 1st if I remember right.

You'll see the same thing I saw. this is not a theory but just the way it is.

Monovision just doesn't work for pool unless you are one of the one eyed wonders that shoot with just one eye like a telescope. They can close the other eye and it makes no difference. 99.5% of all players are like we are and use one eye or the other depending on which way we are cutting the ball.

My advice is get laser surgery and wear glasses when you read. If your younger than 40 you might not even need the glasses at all for close up yet.

Good Luck with that. Please let us know what you see.

Been there and done that..............

even the concept of monovision can work good for reading, office time.., it isn't IMHO a perfect solution for pool, because it affects the depth perception & angular perception , which are important functions for cue sports , less or more depending of the game you play.
( <-- as for example, to play straight rail & balkline needs more depth perception & angular abilities than 3 cushion , because of the variety of ball distances/shots)

in addition, the perturbation done to your non dominant eye affects often the body position/aiming . remember than a "normal" human ocular system is based on 2 eyes with equilibrate/similar eyesights . monovision is based on a modification of this system : dominant eye for far vision, the non dominant corrected for reading . ---> body position/aiming altered (+/-) and unconfort after a few hours (convergence modified)

monovision can work for pool , but not on everybody. There isn't any magic solution with contact lenses for pool. when you're a young presbyopian , set the lenses for 3m . +0.25 to +0.50 added to the normal refraction, it works under 54-55 usually.
over 55 , best results with multifocal contact lenses with low addition (med at max) , even the results will be luminosity-dependant (a good light = good result . low ambiant light with pool table light only with lower the confort )

I have naturally occurring mono-vision. Near sighted in one eye and far-sighted in the other. Have been playing 30 plus years without a problem with depth perception. The one thing that my eye-doc has told me is that my eyes and brain have adapted very well to the mono vision in the way that my dominate eye switches from one eye to the other depending on what I am looking at.
You may just be having some adaption issues due to your brain not being used to switching from one eye to the other.

erriep said:

even the concept of monovision can work good for reading, office time.., it isn't IMHO a perfect solution for pool, because it affects the depth perception & angular perception , which are important functions for cue sports , less or more depending of the game you play.
( <-- as for example, to play straight rail & balkline needs more depth perception & angular abilities than 3 cushion , because of the variety of ball distances/shots)

in addition, the perturbation done to your non dominant eye affects often the body position/aiming . remember than a "normal" human ocular system is based on 2 eyes with equilibrate/similar eyesights . monovision is based on a modification of this system : dominant eye for far vision, the non dominant corrected for reading . ---> body position/aiming altered (+/-) and unconfort after a few hours (convergence modified)

monovision can work for pool , but not on everybody. There isn't any magic solution with contact lenses for pool. when you're a young presbyopian , set the lenses for 3m . +0.25 to +0.50 added to the normal refraction, it works under 54-55 usually.
over 55 , best results with multifocal contact lenses with low addition (med at max) , even the results will be luminosity-dependant (a good light = good result . low ambiant light with pool table light only with lower the confort )

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To clarify your post for me, please define "confort". What about the effect on one's pool visuals having the dominant eye corrected for close up/reading and the passive eye 20/20 at a distance?

Best,
Mike

Guess its time for me to chime in. I had monovision laser surgery about 10+ years ago. At the time I wasnt playing much pool and had the monovision surgery more for convenience than anything. Typical laser surgery will fix your eyes for distance or close up...and you will require glasses for what your eyes cant see. Monovision fixes both distance AND close.

A few years after I had the laser surgery...I took a trip to the Philippines and rediscovered my love of pool. I havent noticed any problems with monovision and pool. In fact, I have suggested and postulated that monovision may be the ultimate vision for older pool players. Monovision allows you to see BOTH close and far distances, unlike the typical close or far vision only you get with typical laser corrective surgery.

The brain is an amazing organ that can adapt and see angles and images used in pool even with monovision. Whats better?....2 images both in proper focus (ie cb and ob) or 2 images where 1 is in good focus and the other is not?

Give your brain some time to adjust. I think you will find that you will like monovision.

Cheers

StrokeAnalyzer said:

Guess its time for me to chime in. I had monovision laser surgery about 10+ years ago. At the time I wasnt playing much pool and had the monovision surgery more for convenience than anything. Typical laser surgery will fix your eyes for distance or close up...and you will require glasses for what your eyes cant see. Monovision fixes both distance AND close.

A few years after I had the laser surgery...I took a trip to the Philippines and rediscovered my love of pool. I havent noticed any problems with monovision and pool. In fact, I have suggested and postulated that monovision may be the ultimate vision for older pool players. Monovision allows you to see BOTH close and far distances, unlike the typical close or far vision only you get with typical laser corrective surgery.

The brain is an amazing organ that can adapt and see angles and images used in pool even with monovision. Whats better?....2 images both in proper focus (ie cb and ob) or 2 images where 1 is in good focus and the other is not?

Give your brain some time to adjust. I think you will find that you will like monovision.

Cheers

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100% agree
Excellent posting!

Has anyone else had laser vision correction and taken the Monovision option? How did it work out for you while shooting pool? How is using a computer post surgery? Any drawbacks?

Thanks in advance. I'm planning to have it done this year.

Hungarian said:

Bob, Oh now I see why you PM'ed me. I forgot about this thread. I guess I should give an update. I tried the one contact lens for a while and I didn't like it. My Doctor made me some progressive glasses and I love them mainly for driving and night time. I play pool without glasses which works best for me. My vision wasn't bad enough to get surgery.

I hope your procedure goes well!!

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Thanks for the info. I'm so blind that i can't read the numbers on the balls at cue length. I'm unsure if I want to try monovision. I'm afraid it will ruin pool for me. The other way will require reading glasses.

Monovision Contacts

I am 65 years old and have monovision by means of contacts, one +2.75 and one +1.5. I'm no Shane VB but when I lose a match its usually not from missing balls, it is from getting out-safetied or otherwise out-played. For about a week after I first tried the monovision contacts I thought I was drunk/going blind, but my brain figured out how to re-scramble everything and it's great now. I'm pretty good at making long extreme cuts, so I think my eyes must be ok. Hang in there and I think the monovision will work for you.

Monovision - vision center?

LAMas said:

Monovision - vision center?

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No. It's when one eye is corrected for distance, usually the dominant eye, and the other is corrected for close in sight. The purpose is to eliminate the need for reading glasses.

I think I learned what "Perfect Aim" is by reading this thread, just because I realized what Gene is talking about now. I think I figured it out kind of the same way he did.

When I shot my best pool, my eyes were 20/20 in my right eye and 20/10 or whatever is better than 20/20 in my left eye. I think I am left-eye dominant. I had PERFECT vision up until my late 40s when I started wearing reading glasses and then bifocals. I had quit pool for the umpteenth time and for about a dozen years straight this time when I started back just 3 or so years ago. I tried playing with glasses a few times, but hated it because I never could get my eyes in line while trying to keep my eyes looking through the lenses and not over the frames or being blocked by the frames.

I went to the eye doctor and got a new prescription and had him make me some contacts for what I explained I wanted to do. I didn't get too "experimental" when I got the first pair but I had them kind of "tuned in" for the clearest vision being somewhere between 3 and 15 feet for the "best" clarity. I have two different lenses now...one with a greater "add" than the other which is mono-vision, or something similar.

My problem is that I have extreme astigmatism and my eyes are at or past the "limit" for rotation in degrees when the contact is sitting on my eye. The "weights" for my contact lenses are at the bottom which hopefully keeps the contacts in the right-side up position. Since my eyes are more "football" shaped than round, my contacts are more "oval-type" shaped than round. When I blink real fast or turn my head real quick the contact lens in one or both eyes sometimes will twist a little causing the contact to lose "contact" (no pun intended) with the surface of my eyeball. When this happens, I just need to keep my eyes steady and not blink or move after I have lined up the shot.

Long story short, I lost one of my contacts one day (I think my right one) and I had the options of playing with nothing but blurry vision or to play with one good eye, one bad eye.

The only way I could "see" the shot was to keep my head in a certain position over the cue. Once I figured it out, I was "seeing" the shot PERFECTLY and then all I had to do was execute it. This was on my "first" pair of contacts before I switched to more "add" on the second pair after I figured out what the deal was with my "seeing the ball" with only one contact.

I now know what I need to do in order to "see" the shot. Perfect aiming is easy for ME. Hitting where I know I need to hit is where I need to be more consistent, like I was in my younger days.

Aloha.