EYE DOMINANCE AND HEAD POSiTION
- Thread starter bbb
- Start date
I am just a hack, but here are some things that have been recommended to me and what I have experienced.
Shoot a rack of straight in shots in the different positions to see which works best for you.
For me it's either directly under chin/nose or half way in between my nose and dominant eye.
How high/low is your head in your stance ? That might also have an affect. For me, my cue alignment looks better in one of the 2 positions I mention above, depending on how high or low my head is. When my head is higher, I like under nose/chin. When very low, I like in between my nose and dominant eye.
There may be some science behind this.
Shoot a rack of straight in shots in the different positions to see which works best for you.
For me it's either directly under chin/nose or half way in between my nose and dominant eye.
How high/low is your head in your stance ? That might also have an affect. For me, my cue alignment looks better in one of the 2 positions I mention above, depending on how high or low my head is. When my head is higher, I like under nose/chin. When very low, I like in between my nose and dominant eye.
There may be some science behind this.
Last edited:
Your eyes should be positioned where you perceive your cue is properly aligned, when the cue is actually properly aligned.
You can find this position by shooting a light colored stripe from the head spot to the far cushion and back looking for it to return to your tip and the strip rolling like a tire. Adjust your head slightly left and right until it looks like your aligned through the center of the cue ball to the center of the far rail. Shoot, watch your results, and make small adjustments.
You need a good stroke or the results will be misleading. Check the chalk mark on the stripe to make sure you are hitting dead center.
Alternatively, you can lay your cue accurately on the long string, then without moving the cue, get into your shooting position over the cue. Adjust your head slightly left and right until it looks like the cue is clearly and accurately aligned to the center diamond on the far rail. This is the eye position for you.
You can find this position by shooting a light colored stripe from the head spot to the far cushion and back looking for it to return to your tip and the strip rolling like a tire. Adjust your head slightly left and right until it looks like your aligned through the center of the cue ball to the center of the far rail. Shoot, watch your results, and make small adjustments.
You need a good stroke or the results will be misleading. Check the chalk mark on the stripe to make sure you are hitting dead center.
Alternatively, you can lay your cue accurately on the long string, then without moving the cue, get into your shooting position over the cue. Adjust your head slightly left and right until it looks like the cue is clearly and accurately aligned to the center diamond on the far rail. This is the eye position for you.
My take on eye dominance, or more accurately head position, is that if you don't have symptoms of your head being in the wrong position you should not seek a cure.
How do you do on Mark's test? Do you frequently get unwanted side spin? Capture a video or ask someone to watch to find out if you have a lot of side-to-side motion of your back hand in your shots (AKA swoop). When you shoot straight shots without side spin do they look straight? Use a stripe as the cue ball as Mark mentioned for some straight stop shots. Can you stop the "cue" ball keeping it on the stripe?
If you don't have a problem with the above, your head is probably in the right place.
it seems when i stood over the cue stick on the table midline seemed best or may be a tad to my right eye.
when i first get on the table to warm up as i practice stop shots i do get some unwanted side spin and back hand "swoop" as you call it
as i warm up and get grooved the swoop extinguishes i get in the "channell" and lose the side spin
also as i get grooved the straight ins begin to look straight in
when it doesnt feel right i get up and start over with my preshot routine
i definitely need to video myself more
will do the stripe test and report back
thanks to all so far who have responded
that is a very precise observation
i did the drill with the stripe
i am able to repetitively keep the stripe rolling like a tire and the cue seem to be under my right tear duct
when im off i usually put alittle left spin on the ball
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBi5PZK2vxs&feature=youtube_gdata_player
I found, putting my iphone beneath me on the floor tell me alot bout my eye alignment. I tend to move my head in the back stroke, anyways the from underneath angle gives you alot of info.
I found, putting my iphone beneath me on the floor tell me alot bout my eye alignment. I tend to move my head in the back stroke, anyways the from underneath angle gives you alot of info.
Move your body and head to the right..........
Move your head to the right as far as you can while you are lining up a straight in shot. The degree of your dominance will dictate where your proper alignment is. The dominant eye will also tell you where your stroke and your body should be.
Your dominant eye is everything when you are lining up.
The hard part is keeping it in the proper position when you are cutting balls to the right or to the left. This is what I teach.
Learning how this all works will pretty much for sure spike your ability to aim. There are 100's of testimonials all over the forum on how well this works.
Move your head to the right as far as you can while you are lining up a straight in shot. The degree of your dominance will dictate where your proper alignment is. The dominant eye will also tell you where your stroke and your body should be.
Your dominant eye is everything when you are lining up.
The hard part is keeping it in the proper position when you are cutting balls to the right or to the left. This is what I teach.
Learning how this all works will pretty much for sure spike your ability to aim. There are 100's of testimonials all over the forum on how well this works.
Correct
All of the above is correct. If you want to see a guy with left eye dominance but shoots right handed go through the first set of pics of DCC. John Mora won the banks competition. His left eye is directly above his cue, while shooting right handed. This might be considered the most extreme representation, but any eye position up to this that gives you a true line works. This looks odd when seeing John do this but it works quite well for him.
All of the above is correct. If you want to see a guy with left eye dominance but shoots right handed go through the first set of pics of DCC. John Mora won the banks competition. His left eye is directly above his cue, while shooting right handed. This might be considered the most extreme representation, but any eye position up to this that gives you a true line works. This looks odd when seeing John do this but it works quite well for him.
He shoots with only one eye............
I saw John Mora shoot in Vegas at the Cue Club. He asked me to play some sets but I was already to tired.
He is one of the one eyes wonders. He could shoot with a patch over one eye maybe. When he cuts a ball to the right his right eye might be seeing the shot but I doubt it. He's pretty much directly under that left eye all the time.
Us other players have both eye trying to fight each other naturally to work as the dominant eye. On some shots your dominant eye loses the battle. When the non dominant eye works like it's a little dominant the shot is doomed.
Once somebody really understands how this works and how to use the dominat eye Perfectly nobody can tell them any different because they have seen it with their own eyes.
Seeing is believing. There are maybe 10,000 perfect aim players out there and I'll guarantee that they don't want any of the other players out there to know it. And i don't blame them.
Have a good day Geno..........
I saw John Mora shoot in Vegas at the Cue Club. He asked me to play some sets but I was already to tired.
He is one of the one eyes wonders. He could shoot with a patch over one eye maybe. When he cuts a ball to the right his right eye might be seeing the shot but I doubt it. He's pretty much directly under that left eye all the time.
Us other players have both eye trying to fight each other naturally to work as the dominant eye. On some shots your dominant eye loses the battle. When the non dominant eye works like it's a little dominant the shot is doomed.
Once somebody really understands how this works and how to use the dominat eye Perfectly nobody can tell them any different because they have seen it with their own eyes.
Seeing is believing. There are maybe 10,000 perfect aim players out there and I'll guarantee that they don't want any of the other players out there to know it. And i don't blame them.
Have a good day Geno..........
I agree with you Geno, especially the part about the degree of dominance. Players with a severely dominant eye will position the cue squarely under that eye. In extreme cases of eye dominance, like Earl, for example, there will be a tendency for drifting the cue to the outside edge of the eye.
There are posters here who feel that eye dominance does not matter and that the player should place the cue wherever they see reality. I would like to suggest to them that they start taking statistics on how many of those cases the player sees reality with the cue under their dominant eye.
I do have a concern for players who are not guided to place their cues under their dominant eye. I could probably make some shots with my cue poorly placed under my chin. But when it comes down to actual long-term playing it might be a different story. As an instructor, I will always take the players dominant eye into consideration when it comes to cue placement.
I have been keeping track of my students over the last 20 years and where they place their cues. I have found that the only time they needed to place their cue under their recessive eye was when there was a specific eye pathology. One student was missing an eye. Another had a severe condition in his dominant eye and was nearly legally blind in that eye.
Players who don't have severely dominant eyes are able to place the cue closer to the center point between both eyes.
Last edited:
Fran. I'm not trying to be difficult here, but how does Allison manage to shoot so well with the cue actually touching her chin? Is she just one person who doesn't have a dom-eye, or has she just learned to see that reality with the cue centered between both eyes?
I don't think there is a hard and fast rule on this topic. Everyone is going to have one spot where they see the actual line most accurately, and it may or may not be under one eye or the other. Earl seems to actually have both eyes on one side of the cue some times.
I don't believe that dom-eye doesn't matter, as it plays an important part in how we all see that line. I do believe it's different for everyone.
Steve
I don't think there is a hard and fast rule on this topic. Everyone is going to have one spot where they see the actual line most accurately, and it may or may not be under one eye or the other. Earl seems to actually have both eyes on one side of the cue some times.
I don't believe that dom-eye doesn't matter, as it plays an important part in how we all see that line. I do believe it's different for everyone.
Steve
I'm not an instructor but I can tell you about my own personal experience.
I'm 65 and have been playing on and off since 1963.
About 13 years ago I started taking lessons from Harry Sims (3C Billiard Champion). I'm at the table and Harry says to me "shoot that ball into the corner pocket" so I get down to shoot and Harry says "which eye are you using to pick an aiming spot on the object ball?"
I stood up and said "what are you talking about?" Now Harry gets into this lecture about using the domentant eye.
Its funny that he should bring this up. I know this may sound a little crazy but before I started using the domenant eye I would look at an aiming point on an object ball and the aiming point would keep changing. My eyes were fighting each other. First one of my eyes would see the spot then the other eye would see the spot.
Now after many years of playing using the domenant eye, right in my case,
I have discovered, taking a phone lesson from Gene (Perfect Aim), that I am right eye domenant (from the finger and spot on the wall exercise) but when I bend down to shoot my left eye is in line with the shot not the right. Go figure.:frown:
John
I'm 65 and have been playing on and off since 1963.
About 13 years ago I started taking lessons from Harry Sims (3C Billiard Champion). I'm at the table and Harry says to me "shoot that ball into the corner pocket" so I get down to shoot and Harry says "which eye are you using to pick an aiming spot on the object ball?"
I stood up and said "what are you talking about?" Now Harry gets into this lecture about using the domentant eye.
Its funny that he should bring this up. I know this may sound a little crazy but before I started using the domenant eye I would look at an aiming point on an object ball and the aiming point would keep changing. My eyes were fighting each other. First one of my eyes would see the spot then the other eye would see the spot.
Now after many years of playing using the domenant eye, right in my case,
I have discovered, taking a phone lesson from Gene (Perfect Aim), that I am right eye domenant (from the finger and spot on the wall exercise) but when I bend down to shoot my left eye is in line with the shot not the right. Go figure.:frown:
John
Stranger things have happened, John. So where do you go from here? Are you planning on shooting with your cue under your recessive eye?
Fran.....that is a really really good question. After I read it I had to move to the table for some testing to better answer your question.
Here we go. Standing behind the QB, my right eye has told my chin where it needs to be so that I can get into my stance, to be in line with the shot. When I bend over to shoot the ball and close my right eye it looks like the shot is straight in. When I close my left eye it looks like the CB will miss the OB to the left.
I'll tell ya, perception is tricky. Maybe what you think you are seeing is not real (accurate). But I have learned to accept the way I see things. (spots)
At least I know about my eyes and the tricks they can play. 13 years ago I couldnt figure out what the heck was going on, drove me nuts.
My cue is between the bidge of my nose and my right tear duct. My vision is centered.
John
Last edited: