Contact lens - playing with near and far lens?

r9ball

r9ball

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Recently forced to switch to soft lens after 30 years playing with hard/gas perm lenses. Those years were all with both lenses corrected for clear distance vision. My eye Dr. said I could try a far lens in my dominant eye and a weaker lens in other eye so I could see better up close and less use of reading glasses.
Haven't made a final decision yet.

Has anyone played with or switched to a near and far lens? Did you notice any difference on the pool table when you switched? Thin distant cut shots?

Won't be able to test it out myself for a few days.

Thanx
 
I play with what my Dr. calls a 'mono' lens prescription. My right lens if for reading, up close, about 2 feet for good vision, and my left lens, at my request, is set to 10 feet out, or enough to cover the length of a 9 ft pool table. Works for me. Only problem is that I wish my right eye was still my dominant eye, as it was when I was younger, so that I could use the 10 ft lens in it, and keep it over the cue since I'm right handed. Unfortunately, that's the eye that my vision has deteriorated the worst in, so my left eye has become my dominant eye. It's been a bigger adjustment keeping my left eye over the cue now more than dealing with the two different prescriptions. I adjusted to those in about 2 weeks time. Good luck to you!
 
I switched to multifocal contacts 6 months ago. It took me at least a month to adjust to how I was seeing the table but eventually I got used to them, and play well (for me anyway). I got new glasses at the same time and I cannot play at all with them after wearing the contacts. My perception is just way different, I'll miss a straight shot by 1 diamond or more with the glasses.
 
I play with a multifocal lens in my dominant right eye and nothing in my left eye. The left eye is for distance and the contact in my right eye can be used for close up work. It took a couple of days to get used to it.

After years of playing, I've found I can play without the contact altogether. It sometimes fatigues my eye, so I play without it.

Best,
Mike
 
Contact lens

I tried using one contact for distance and one for up close. Couldn't see good either way. Switched to just distance lenses and reading glasses. That worked for me. Used just the distance lenses for pool. About eight years ago I had lasik surgery. It has corrected the distance vision, but I still use reading glasses. I can see 20/17. This is the best solution. I'm seeing better for playing pool than ever.
 
After 1 year trying with contact lenses, I switched back to normal glasses!!
Too much of dry eyes, weird light reflections and so and so......
Got light weight glasses with extended lenses (slightly over eye-brush), custom made.
Best solution for me, so far......

Happy shooting! :)
 
r9ball said:
Recently forced to switch to soft lens after 30 years playing with hard/gas perm lenses. Those years were all with both lenses corrected for clear distance vision. My eye Dr. said I could try a far lens in my dominant eye and a weaker lens in other eye so I could see better up close and less use of reading glasses.
Haven't made a final decision yet.

Has anyone played with or switched to a near and far lens? Did you notice any difference on the pool table when you switched? Thin distant cut shots?

Won't be able to test it out myself for a few days.

Thanx
Click to expand...

I did just that for about 3 years. My ophthalmologist made me try out contacts for that long before he would do lasik on me. I thought I'd have to wear contacts for a few weeks maybe, but he said because I wore glasses for 35 years, I might not be able to ever see well without them, thus the long timeframe for the contacts trial. It was a very interesting time for pool for me. I struggled greatly with every shot.

I had the doc's office sell me a batch of daily wear contacts, with my choice of the correction for each eye. I went through literally dozens of combinations to try to get the proper prescription balance. It was quite a chore but I think it was worth it.

I finally settled on having 40/20 done for both eyes as that allows me to read the computer, see the balls up to 6 feet clearly, and still be able to legally drive without correction. It's not perfect, especially the 6 foot maximum clear focus on 9-footers, but overall I think I made the best choice.

Two pieces of advice I wish to share with you:

1. Be patient. Taking YEARS to determine the best for your situation could be a good thing. Get a whole slough of those Daily lenses and try ever combination of correction you can think of and give that an honest go for a few weeks each.

2. Get Gene Albrecht to give you a once over so you know which eye is dominant for your pool game. I didn't know Gene at the time and I'm sure his advice would have shortened my experimenting and may have made my choice a little different.

I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.


Jeff Livingston
 
swisslife77 said:
After 1 year trying with contact lenses, I switched back to normal glasses!!
Too much of dry eyes, weird light reflections and so and so......
Got light weight glasses with extended lenses (slightly over eye-brush), custom made.
Best solution for me, so far......

Happy shooting! :)
Click to expand...

That reminds me.....

Use tear replacements drops at every opportunity during your experimenting stage and after surgery as dry eyes can radically change how you see the table.

Jeff Livingston
 
Two Different Contacts

I use 2.75 on left eye and 1.25 on right eye and they seem to work fine even on 9 foot tables. My main problems with contacts is that by 9 or 10 pm they sometimes start to lose their shape or get fuzzy so I try to change into new ones before a night match or playing session. Hope this helps.
 
swisslife77 said:
After 1 year trying with contact lenses, I switched back to normal glasses!!
Too much of dry eyes, weird light reflections and so and so......
Got light weight glasses with extended lenses (slightly over eye-brush), custom made.
Best solution for me, so far......

Happy shooting! :)
Click to expand...

I can't play with my contacts in. I have an astigmatism in one eye pretty bad and if it spins my right eye will go blurry. Plus with all the smoke where I play I'm better off with glasses. Need to have the lasik done.
 
r9ball said:
Recently forced to switch to soft lens after 30 years playing with hard/gas perm lenses. Those years were all with both lenses corrected for clear distance vision. My eye Dr. said I could try a far lens in my dominant eye and a weaker lens in other eye so I could see better up close and less use of reading glasses.
Haven't made a final decision yet.

Has anyone played with or switched to a near and far lens? Did you notice any difference on the pool table when you switched? Thin distant cut shots?

Won't be able to test it out myself for a few days.

Thanx
Click to expand...

Don't do this, this will mean different eye dominance between shots.

I have to deal with this because contact correct both of my eyes identically well, and when they shift around or lipids build up, dominance will switch from one to the other. This is an aiming nightmare. I end up doing a ton of my shooting with only one eye open lately.
 
New here, so hello everyone.

This has been a vexing challenge to me for sometime. I am nearsighted, so FWIW I end up taking the contact out of my dominent eye. For situations up to 10-14 feet, it works perfectly (it was my Dr.'s suggestion). The multi-focal length were not really an option for me.

Hope that helps. It absolutely takes some time to adopt to, but if you give it a try, it may work out.
 
Adding to my OP.

I am right eye dominant but it is also has the worse vision,,,, so I have it corrected for distance and left is a little under powered for closer vision.
Everybody is different so it may work out fine.

I was fortunate enough to never have any dry eye/tear problems and had great luck with hard/gas perms for 30 yrs.

Plan on playing around on tonight for a while but it is only a bar table.....we'll see.
thanx for the replies
 
Contacts

The only time I wear my contacts is when
playing pool. I don't even wear them for
practice. I too have an astigmatism but it
doesn't seem to be much of a problem. I
need correction both near and far but my
contacts only correct distance. I figure up
close and fuzzy isn't the problem a seven
foot thin cut would be. Good luck with
whatever you decide to do.

Joe
 
I also have astigmatism. It was a bastard about 20 years ago, because NOBODY made contacts for astigmatism with little/no corrective action. So I played blurry for a few years.

Then my vision finally got worse (-1.25) and was able to get some. Pocketing improved on longer shots. Then my eyes got worse to -1.75/2.0, so I got a new set. Seemed to be missing more..so I had doc move the focal range to 6-8 ft as seeing 30" was never the problem.

The caveat is that I cant read a menu with them in, as my arms are not long enough....

And I have different Rx for each eye to compound things...and I can razor cut them backwards at 6 ft, but cant make a straight in...lol

I also only wear them when playing.
 
Wore glasses for 5 or 6 years daily and began playing pool with them. Switched to contacts and did well unless I was drinking which loosens up the muscles.
I haven't worn either for 3 years and am doing ok. No far/near issues just Astigmatism. Readers are great due to being 48, but I really don't give 2 sh#ts if I can read the menu or make those long shots.

Aging, it's a blast.

Sent from my SCH-S968C using Tapatalk
 
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