Correcting "wrong eye dominance" possible?

ShortBusRuss · Oct 25, 2019

So.. I am left eye dominant, and I play right-handed. I am pretty sure this is severely effecting my game, as I often struggle to know whether I am "on line" when shots get out past about 6 feet, and even if I make these balls, I often hit them slightly too thick or thin.

I never really payed much attention to this aspect of my game, but thinking back, it might be the main reason for inconsistent results.. When I am playing a lot, I naturally correct in whatever way, whether it be tilting my head, or simply I start subconsciously using my right eye, (or both eyes) as both eyes corrected with contacts, I'd say both eyes are of about equal strength.

I did a quick search, and people have mentioned that cross dominance can possibly be corrected by wearing a patch to force use of the nondominant eye at all times. Some people automatically revert to the dominant eye as soon as the patch is removed. Also, wearing an occluded contact in the currently dominant eye has been mentioned.

I'd really like to correct this issue, and I am simply not coordinated enough to switch hands. All this came about because a relative neophyte pool player friend of mine here in Germany mentioned going to an optometrist who happened to be a pool player, who gave him a new contact lense prescription that somehow corrected his cross dominance.

I do realize everyone is different anatomically, and he might have just gotten lucky, but, considering that both my eyes are equally strong, it seems I might have other options.

Any opinions/experiences?

bbb · Oct 25, 2019

Find your vision center and maintain that head position

bbb · Oct 25, 2019

""......l.l............

garczar · Oct 25, 2019

ShortBusRuss said:
So.. I am left eye dominant, and I play right-handed. I am pretty sure this is severely effecting my game, as I often struggle to know whether I am "on line" when shots get out past about 6 feet, and even if I make these balls, I often hit them slightly too thick or thin.

I never really payed much attention to this aspect of my game, but thinking back, it might be the main reason for inconsistent results.. When I am playing a lot, I naturally correct in whatever way, whether it be tilting my head, or simply I start subconsciously using my right eye, (or both eyes) as both eyes corrected with contacts, I'd say both eyes are of about equal strength.

I did a quick search, and people have mentioned that cross dominance can possibly be corrected by wearing a patch to force use of the nondominant eye at all times. Some people automatically revert to the dominant eye as soon as the patch is removed.

I'd really like to correct this issue, and I am simply not coordinated enough to switch hands. All this came about because a relative neophyte pool player friend of mine here in Germany mentioned going to an optometrist who happened to be a pool player, who gave him a new contact lense prescription that somehow corrected his cross dominance.

I do realize everyone is different anatomically, and he might have just gotten lucky, but, considering that both my eyes are equally strong, it seems I might have other options.

Any opinions/experiences?

Have surgery and switch eyeball sides???

pt109 · Oct 25, 2019

ShortBusRuss said:
So.. I am left eye dominant, and I play right-handed. I am pretty sure this is severely effecting my game, as I often struggle to know whether I am "on line" when shots get out past about 6 feet, and even if I make these balls, I often hit them slightly too thick or thin.

I never really payed much attention to this aspect of my game, but thinking back, it might be the main reason for inconsistent results.. When I am playing a lot, I naturally correct in whatever way, whether it be tilting my head, or simply I start subconsciously using my right eye, (or both eyes) as both eyes corrected with contacts, I'd say both eyes are of about equal strength.

I did a quick search, and people have mentioned that cross dominance can possibly be corrected by wearing a patch to force use of the nondominant eye at all times. Some people automatically revert to the dominant eye as soon as the patch is removed.

I'd really like to correct this issue, and I am simply not coordinated enough to switch hands. All this came about because a relative neophyte pool player friend of mine here in Germany mentioned going to an optometrist who happened to be a pool player, who gave him a new contact lense prescription that somehow corrected his cross dominance.

I do realize everyone is different anatomically, and he might have just gotten lucky, but, considering that both my eyes are equally strong, it seems I might have other options.

Any opinions/experiences?

I don’t know why you think this needs correcting.
Willie Mosconi was right handed and left eyed...
So was Joe Davis and George Chenier.
I’m right eyed and right handed....I would prefer your set up...it looks comfortable to me.

DecentShot · Oct 25, 2019

ShortBusRuss said:
So.. I am left eye dominant, and I play right-handed. I am pretty sure this is severely effecting my game, as I often struggle to know whether I am "on line" when shots get out past about 6 feet, and even if I make these balls, I often hit them slightly too thick or thin.

I never really payed much attention to this aspect of my game, but thinking back, it might be the main reason for inconsistent results.. When I am playing a lot, I naturally correct in whatever way, whether it be tilting my head, or simply I start subconsciously using my right eye, (or both eyes) as both eyes corrected with contacts, I'd say both eyes are of about equal strength.

I did a quick search, and people have mentioned that cross dominance can possibly be corrected by wearing a patch to force use of the nondominant eye at all times. Some people automatically revert to the dominant eye as soon as the patch is removed.

I'd really like to correct this issue, and I am simply not coordinated enough to switch hands. All this came about because a relative neophyte pool player friend of mine here in Germany mentioned going to an optometrist who happened to be a pool player, who gave him a new contact lense prescription that somehow corrected his cross dominance.

I do realize everyone is different anatomically, and he might have just gotten lucky, but, considering that both my eyes are equally strong, it seems I might have other options.

Any opinions/experiences?

I would like to help. My rate is the same as Sigel's though.

bradsh98 · Oct 25, 2019

I am also right-handed and left-eye dominant. I simply corrected my form, to ensure that my left eye is over the cue. I only notice ill effects, when I do not play for several weeks, and get careless with my form.

ShortBusRuss · Oct 25, 2019

DecentShot said:
I would like to help. My rate is the same as Sigel's though.

I had a lesson with Sigel last year. Yours would probably be about as useful as his.

And for the other users advising me to "just deal with it", and "it doesn't sound like an issue to me"....

Well, if it weren't an issue, and I could just "decide to see better", then I wouldn't have posted in the first place. My muscle memory is not the best in the first place, so I have to practice a LOT to achieve consistency in the first place. And that is exacerbated by having cross dominance.

Does anyone have specific experience with:

1. Wearing an eye patch to force dominance over to the other eye

2. Wearing an occluded contact lense to force dominance over to the other eye

3. Specifically in the case of equal strength eyes, forcing oneself to aim out of the "correct" eye.

Changing one's head position to compensate for cross dominance can, and has been known to, cause discomfort and/or pain in the long term.

For the record, I have often found myself watching tv, or doing some other activity, and noticed I was naturally using my right eye.... So, was looking for feedback from someone who has had a similar issue, and found a way to address it in someway by forcing the "correct" eye to do it's job.

garczar · Oct 25, 2019

ShortBusRuss said:
I had a lesson with Sigel last year. Yours would probably be about as useful as his.

And for the other users advising me to "just deal with it", and "it doesn't sound like an issue to me"....

Well, if it weren't an issue, and I could just "decide to see better", then I wouldn't have posted in the first place. My muscle memory is not the best in the first place, so I have to practice a LOT to achieve consistency in the first place. And that is exacerbated by having cross dominance.

Does anyone have specific experience with:

1. Wearing an eye patch to force dominance over to the other eye

2. Wearing an occluded contact lense to force dominance over to the other eye

3. Specifically in the case of equal strength eyes, forcing oneself to aim out of the "correct" eye.

Changing one's head position to compensate for cross dominance can, and has been known to, cause discomfort and/or pain in the long term.

For the record, I have often found myself watching tv, or doing some other activity, and noticed I was naturally using my right eye.... So, was looking for feedback from someone who has had a similar issue, and found a way to address it in someway by forcing the "correct" eye to do it's job.

What if you went thru all this and played even worse? I'd be pissed.

ChopStick · Oct 25, 2019

ShortBusRuss said:
So.. I am left eye dominant, and I play right-handed. I am pretty sure this is severely effecting my game, as I often struggle to know whether I am "on line" when shots get out past about 6 feet, and even if I make these balls, I often hit them slightly too thick or thin.

I never really payed much attention to this aspect of my game, but thinking back, it might be the main reason for inconsistent results.. When I am playing a lot, I naturally correct in whatever way, whether it be tilting my head, or simply I start subconsciously using my right eye, (or both eyes) as both eyes corrected with contacts, I'd say both eyes are of about equal strength.

I did a quick search, and people have mentioned that cross dominance can possibly be corrected by wearing a patch to force use of the nondominant eye at all times. Some people automatically revert to the dominant eye as soon as the patch is removed.

I'd really like to correct this issue, and I am simply not coordinated enough to switch hands. All this came about because a relative neophyte pool player friend of mine here in Germany mentioned going to an optometrist who happened to be a pool player, who gave him a new contact lense prescription that somehow corrected his cross dominance.

I do realize everyone is different anatomically, and he might have just gotten lucky, but, considering that both my eyes are equally strong, it seems I might have other options.

Any opinions/experiences?

Not a problem. Many players do this. I had a lesson from Rodney Morris on this same subject. It is just simple adjustment in your stance. My right handed stance for example, if I shoot using my right eye in the dominant position, the line of my stick is over the bottom of the shoelaces on my right foot. If I shoot under the left eye then the stick is over the top of the shoelaces on my right foot. The span from the top to the bottom of the shoelaces is about the distance between your eyes.

So, a right handed left eye dominant player will align the stick closer in to the body than a right handed right eye dominant player. Even the professionals do this.

I believed for years that the stick goes in the center of the visual field. The problem with this method is the eyes do not age the same and the strength of one eye will change relative to the other as you age. I started out with a stronger right eye which has gotten weaker than the left over the years. The center of my visual field had moved to the left and as a result I believed I had become left eye dominant. Rodney showed me a simple eye dominance test that showed me that I was very much right eye dominant even though the right eye is a weaker eye in terms of clarity. I altered my stance accordingly and my consistency improved.

ShortBusRuss · Oct 25, 2019

garczar said:
What if you went thru all this and played even worse? I'd be pissed.

That's always a risk. But I have periodic issues with my neck and upper back muscles, so I'm just not interested in changing my head position in any sort of unnatural way, and causing pain.

With relatively equal-strength eyes, there should be a way to fix this by training myself to use the correct eye...

ShortBusRuss · Oct 25, 2019

ChopStick said:
Not a problem. Many players do this. I had a lesson from Rodney Morris on this same subject. It is just simple adjustment in your stance. My right handed stance for example, if I shoot using my right eye in the dominant position, the line of my stick is over the bottom of the shoelaces on my right foot. If I shoot under the left eye then the stick is over the top of the shoelaces on my right foot. The span from the top to the bottom of the shoelaces is about the distance between your eyes.

So, a right handed left eye dominant player will align the stick closer in to the body than a right handed right eye dominant player. Even the professionals do this.

I believed for years that the stick goes in the center of the visual field. The problem with this method is the eyes do not age the same and the strength of one eye will change relative to the other as you age. I started out with a stronger right eye which has gotten weaker than the left over the years. The center of my visual field had moved to the left and as a result I believed I had become left eye dominant. Rodney showed me a simple eye dominance test that showed me that I was very much right eye dominant even though the right eye is a weaker eye in terms of clarity. I altered my stance accordingly and my consistency improved.

I might try this.. Does this require any tilting of the head?

ChopStick · Oct 25, 2019

ShortBusRuss said:
For the record, I have often found myself watching tv, or doing some other activity, and noticed I was naturally using my right eye.... So, was looking for feedback from someone who has had a similar issue, and found a way to address it in someway by forcing the "correct" eye to do it's job.

The correct eye is the one you naturally use regardless of which one is stronger.

ShortBusRuss said:
I often struggle to know whether I am "on line" when shots get out past about 6 feet, and even if I make these balls, I often hit them slightly too thick or thin.

Take you alignment from the position of the ghost ball not the actual object ball position. Even if you don't use the ghost ball to aim, always use the ghost ball the align the shot because no matter what aiming system you use the stick is always going to move through the ghost ball line. That inch or so alignment error at 6 feet is enough to make you stroke across the line instead of down the line.

DecentShot · Oct 25, 2019

ShortBusRuss said:
I had a lesson with Sigel last year. Yours would probably be about as useful as his.

And for the other users advising me to "just deal with it", and "it doesn't sound like an issue to me"....

Well, if it weren't an issue, and I could just "decide to see better", then I wouldn't have posted in the first place. My muscle memory is not the best in the first place, so I have to practice a LOT to achieve consistency in the first place. And that is exacerbated by having cross dominance.

Does anyone have specific experience with:

1. Wearing an eye patch to force dominance over to the other eye

2. Wearing an occluded contact lense to force dominance over to the other eye

3. Specifically in the case of equal strength eyes, forcing oneself to aim out of the "correct" eye.

Changing one's head position to compensate for cross dominance can, and has been known to, cause discomfort and/or pain in the long term.

For the record, I have often found myself watching tv, or doing some other activity, and noticed I was naturally using my right eye.... So, was looking for feedback from someone who has had a similar issue, and found a way to address it in someway by forcing the "correct" eye to do it's job.

Seriously though, I would check out a book I came across that deals with this subject in depth. I've mentioned it before, Its called "An answer to a pool player's prayers." By Richard Kranicki, goes over feet alignment as it relates to eye dominance as well.

ShortBusRuss · Oct 25, 2019

DecentShot said:
Seriously though, I would check out a book I came across that deals with this subject in depth. I've mentioned it before, Its called "An answer to a pool player's prayers." By Richard Kranicki, goes over feet alignment as it relates to eye dominance as well.

Nice. This is helpful. I will check it out.

flyrv9 · Oct 25, 2019

There isn't anything you can do to train your eye to be dominant. Wearing a patch won't work because after about age 5 your eyes are hardwired to your brain and other than some vision correction via glasses or contacts or some surgeries there isn't anything you can do to change things. That's one reason why not everyone has 20/20 vision thanks to glasses. I'm also right handed and left eye dominant due to being born with problems in my right eye. I wore a patch over my left eye (until I was 5) to help make my right eye stronger and it did help some. What you can do is what has been suggested: altering your stance, finding your vision center (Dr. Dave has a video on that) and practicing. You might also get with a qualified instructor to see if changes in your shot routine etc. could also help.

jrctherake · Oct 25, 2019

OP,

I've known a few people to change their eye dominance/perspective. I only know "1" person that was able to improve by doing so. Other than the one guy, all others that I've known to try that have failed miserably.

IMO, most of them didn't put in enough table time (as in enough hours a week) nor did they give it enough time (as in enough months) to adjust and let "muscle-memory".....be "relearned".

Some things are minor and take almost no adjustment but, some things are major and they can/will be a huge adjustment that may take a lllooonnnggg time to be fully ingrained into your routine.

To me, it's very similar to having a steering issue. After someone, Bob Jewett for example, has tip steer (to the left...from memory) but, I think Dr. Dave said he has been doing it so long and since he is able to play at a high level with the tip steer, it wouldn't be worth the many, many hours to fix it.

You mentioned earlier that you have back or neck issues. Sometimes changing things with our stance, head alignment or even our bridge/grip position can and usually does cause further pain.

I would for sure have a very knowledgeable instructor/coach involved if I decided to actually try to change anything that could potentially cause physical problems with my neck/back.

I can play a higher level if I force myself into a lower and more square stance but, all the metal in my back doesn't agree with the changes.

So, in the end, improve where you can but, don't let a "temporary improvement" be the downfall to your game in the long haul.

Jeff

Cornerman · Oct 25, 2019

pt109 said:
I don’t know why you think this needs correcting.
Willie Mosconi was right handed and left eyed...
So was Joe Davis and George Chenier.

Add the following to cross dominant players

Buddy Hall
Jayson Shaw
Mark Selby
Neil Robertson
Cisero Murphy
Alex Pagulayan
Freddie Agnir

The list goes on and on.

Andrew Manning · Oct 25, 2019

ShortBusRuss said:
Changing one's head position to compensate for cross dominance can, and has been known to, cause discomfort and/or pain in the long term.

It's not really clear that this is true (John Morra, for instance, never saw a doctor to diagnose his neck pain, he just decided on his own to switch to lefty to try to fix it), but even if it is true in some cases, it's what top players who have this trait do. You get your cue in your vision center by modifying your body and head position, you don't teach your eyes to work differently.

ShortBusRuss · Oct 25, 2019

jrctherake said:
OP,

I've known a few people to change their eye dominance/perspective. I only know "1" person that was able to improve by doing so. Other than the one guy, all others that I've known to try that have failed miserably.

IMO, most of them didn't put in enough table time (as in enough hours a week) nor did they give it enough time (as in enough months) to adjust and let "muscle-memory".....be "relearned".

Some things are minor and take almost no adjustment but, some things are major and they can/will be a huge adjustment that may take a lllooonnnggg time to be fully ingrained into your routine.

To me, it's very similar to having a steering issue. After someone, Bob Jewett for example, has tip steer (to the left...from memory) but, I think Dr. Dave said he has been doing it so long and since he is able to play at a high level with the tip steer, it wouldn't be worth the many, many hours to fix it.

You mentioned earlier that you have back or neck issues. Sometimes changing things with our stance, head alignment or even our bridge/grip position can and usually does cause further pain.

I would for sure have a very knowledgeable instructor/coach involved if I decided to actually try to change anything that could potentially cause physical problems with my neck/back.

I can play a higher level if I force myself into a lower and more square stance but, all the metal in my back doesn't agree with the changes.

So, in the end, improve where you can but, don't let a "temporary improvement" be the downfall to your game in the long haul.

Jeff

Yeah.. I have Alexy Lely and Ingo Peter with a few hours of me..I do think I will reach out.

That being said.. I think I am going to go to the same optometrist and say "give me the same treatment" as the other pool player, and give it a shot. It might be as simple as a stronger contact prescription that sharpens everything in the 6-15 foot range, and that, along with plenty of cardio and practice, will be enough.

Correcting "wrong eye dominance" possible?

Short Bus Russ - C Player

AzB Gold Member

AzB Gold Member

AzB Silver Member

WO double hemlock

AzB Silver Member

Bradshaw Billiard Service

Short Bus Russ - C Player

AzB Silver Member

Unsane Poster

Short Bus Russ - C Player

Short Bus Russ - C Player

Unsane Poster

AzB Silver Member

Short Bus Russ - C Player

AzB Silver Member

AzB Silver Member

Cue Author...Sometimes

Aspiring know-it-all

Short Bus Russ - C Player