Calling All Cross Dominant Players

[Sloppy Pockets]

I agree the line should be in between both eyes. The angle of the camera is a bit off putting. The shot isn't dead straight and is a slight cut to the left so the line should not go vertically up in the picture but should be slanted to the right slightly. Thus, in between both eyes.

I measured the distance from the red vertical line to the end of the photo and based on that, it appears that the line is tilted very slightly to the left. Correct that and it centers the line over his nose.

Fran is correct, he is aligned directly through his nose, but the line Jon put in is not vertical. I used the grid function in Photoshop to make sure that the rail in front on Ronnie was truly horizontal, then I put in a yellow line that was perpendicular to the rail using the same grid.

I also overlaid a protractor image to show how far off the original line is from vertical. Looks like a lot, but it's really only 1.5º off plumb. It's amazing the human brain can detect angular deviations of less than 1º, but if we couldn't, we wouldn't even be able to play the game.

 

[Sloppy Pockets]

I maintain that cross dominance is an advantage since in a 45 degree stance for any player, right or left handed, it would be your dominant eye that is closest to the shot.

You really think so?

 

[chevybob20]

I'm right eye dominant with my vision center closer to my left eye and shoot pool with my left eye. I do everything else (that I can tell) with my right eye.

So, please be cautious when using the "eye dominance" term.

 

[Cornerman]

I maintain that cross dominance is an advantage since in a 45 degree stance for any player, right or left handed, it would be your dominant eye that is closest to the shot.

I don't necessarily agree that it's an advantage, but just to list out other cross dominant players, that list would include among many othersGareth Potts, Cisero Murphy, and some guy named Mosconi.

If I were to guess, I'd say 1/3 of all players are cross dominant, since there seems to be only three major choices.

Freddie <~~~ cross, but not very dominant

 

[ENGLISH!]

I'm right eye dominant with my vision center closer to my left eye and shoot pool with my left eye. I do everything else (that I can tell) with my right eye.

So, please be cautious when using the "eye dominance" term.

Yes I agree as I just learned that FOR POOL I am cross but for shooting a rifle, pistol, etc. I would still be right eye 'dominant'.

 

[FranCrimi]

I'm right eye dominant with my vision center closer to my left eye and shoot pool with my left eye. I do everything else (that I can tell) with my right eye.

So, please be cautious when using the "eye dominance" term.

Wow. Finally one person who shoots with their recessive eye. I've been looking for someone who does this, because so far there hasn't been anyone without an eye pathology, as far as I know, who shoots with their recessive eye over the cue.

I've worked with hundreds and hundreds of players and have yet to come across a player like this.

Do you have any eye pathologies? How long have you been shooting pool like this?

 

[chevybob20]

Wow. Finally one person who shoots with their recessive eye. I've been looking for someone who does this, because so far there hasn't been anyone without an eye pathology, as far as I know, who shoots with their recessive eye over the cue.

I've worked with hundreds and hundreds of players and have yet to come across a player like this.

Do you have any eye pathologies? How long have you been shooting pool like this?

I have very bad vision, astigmatism and nearsightedness. I can't read the numbers on the pool balls at arms length without my glasses. I think this is a contributing factor.

 

[Cornerman]

Wow. Finally one person who shoots with their recessive eye. I've been looking for someone who does this, because so far there hasn't been anyone without an eye pathology, as far as I know, who shoots with their recessive eye over the cue.

I've worked with hundreds and hundreds of players and have yet to come across a player like this.

Do you have any eye pathologies? How long have you been shooting pool like this?

I thought you asked this before, Fran, I'm right eye dominant, but shoot pool cross dominant. I'm guessing a whole slew of players are like this.

It's tough to answer if there's an eye pathology at work since I assume there could be any number of potential reasons, including that a left eye could slightly better, even if both are 20/20.

 

[chevybob20]

Wow. Finally one person who shoots with their recessive eye. I've been looking for someone who does this, because so far there hasn't been anyone without an eye pathology, as far as I know, who shoots with their recessive eye over the cue.

I've worked with hundreds and hundreds of players and have yet to come across a player like this.

Do you have any eye pathologies? How long have you been shooting pool like this?

On some days I couldn't hit a short shot straight into the pocket. I hadn't considered where I was lining up my eyes until reading several threads on here.

I set a camera up and lined up a cue stick up the table in line with the center diamonds. When I recorded myself bending over and lining up the stick straight down the line, the stick was on my left eye just inside the nose. So, I made a concerted effort to shoot on the left eye. My game shot up a step.

I've been shooting this way for a few years now. I'll catch myself naturally going back to center because I'll start missing balls. I'm not a great player so analyzing what's off with my game can take a while with so many stroke inconsistencies in my game.

I have played sports my whole life. When I was born, my father put a baseball in my crib. I could hit the ball very well and usually had one of the top batting averages in any league that I played in. I shoot all weapons very accurately and shoot in the 70's on the golf course. I was MVP of the wrestling team and participated in state championships multiple times in a state I no longer live in. I never considered anything with my eyes and sports until I started playing this frustrating game. For me, pool was harder to learn than golf. I think I know the reason why.:thumbup:

 

[Pidge]

A more telling question would be are there any world class players that play with the cue under their recessive eye? I know of a handful of current and former top 16 snooker players who play with the cue evenly between both eyes, but I know of none that have it under their recessive eye.

 

[Colin Colenso]

Syncronicity... I did the same analysis a few weeks ago!

I have some captures of Ronnie that I edited a few weeks ago.

Regarding the right eye from the back, it's interesting, but perhaps he is just getting in the ball park, or perhaps he likes to sweep into the line as he gets into the final bridge position.

Here's some shots I took. Note that his left eye isn't perfectly over the cue and that his eye over cue alignment is pretty much the same when playing left handed.

 

[cookie man]

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply he's sighting the shot with his right eye exclusively. Just that it [at least] appears that he has his right eye on the line while standing. To me it seems that as he his turning his torso to make clearance, that's what causes his head to move to his right and gets his left eye on the line.


I believe he plays the shot with a little stun run through.

He could be sighting the ball overlap with his left eye, and his right eye just happened to fall on the aim line while standing.

 

[TomInFaribo]

I think his left eye iris and his left edges of CB and OB and (center of pocket?) line up perfectly when I run a straight edge.
Edge to Edge sight picture is a common CTE alignment that some use for straight ins. Geno might use this Edge alignment for straight ins too not sure.
Love to see his upright alignment on about a 10-20 degree cut with the protractor overlay. We could tell for sure just what kind of aiming he may be using then.

Go to aiming thread if you want to start an aiming war do not pass go and do not collect $200 bucks.

 

[drhanson]

I'm right handed and shoot pool with a left eye dominance. One thing that I discovered fairly recently was that it's just as critical to make sure that my nose is pointed parallel to the shot line as it is to have the cue under my left eye.

My personal vision center requires my eyes to be aligned about the same as Ronnie's are in the pictures Colin posted. What I mean about my nose being pointed parallel to the shot line can be seen in those photos: in photo one, Ronnie's nose is parallel to the shot line. In photo two, Ronnie's stance has forced his nose to be pointed to the right so it is no longer parallel to the shot line. I've found that I miss a lot more when my nose isn't parallel to the shot line.

Bottom line is that I think regardless of eye dominance, it's important that both eyes be equidistant to the target for more accurate depth perception. I think the key for me was to adjust my stance so I could have the cue aligned in my vision center and keep both eyes equidistant to the target. I've had variations of my stance in the past where my head naturally turned the right slightly (to make it more comfortable to get my left eye over the cue), causing perception errors. Since I've been working on this, my accuracy and consistency have increased.