Eye Dominant?

[BlueRaider]

I’m left handed, right eye dominant. Putting my cue under my right eye doesn’t do anything for me. I center it under my chin.

However, aiming with my right eye/allowing my right eye to dictate how I find the shot line made a big difference in my game. It was an extremely subtle change but it resulted in a much more consistent stroke and better ball pocketing.

 

[CocoboloCowboy]

Neils is legally blind in his left eye.

But he did what was necessary to overcome being different.

Different is not a wall you can not over come, it takes effort to get over.

 

[Patrick Johnson]

...the cue usually ends up nearer your dominant eye.

True. But not necessarily directly under the dominant eye..

The dominant eye is usually the main factor in determining the vision center, whether or not they're aligned together.

pj
chgo

 

[measureman]

I shoot right handed and am left eye dominate.
In Boot camp when we were learning to fire the 1911 pistol I closed my right eye and aimed with my left eye, the Marine instructor soon fixed this for me in a not so nice way.LOL.
At that time I had no idea about eye dominance, I just did what seemed natural.

 

[Matt_24]

There is no right or wrong way. Shotmaking, lining up the shot, getting onto a shot is about perception, and the perception that works best for YOU. Some players don't get down much at all. Players have all kinds of different styles. It's interesting as the young players evolve, who grew up on youtube matche,s all seem to have a very similar style and method for addressing the cue ball. Yet, in the early era before the internet you'd have 20 different pool players with 20 different styles (think, Hopkins, Reyes, McCready) who were more self-taught.

 

[Stickman9]

The dominant eye is usually the main factor in determining the vision center, whether or not they're aligned together.

pj
chgo

I agree that the vision center is closer to the dominant eye. My point is that knowing which eye is dominant does not tell you exactly where your vision center is. Randy G's exercise will tell you that. My vision center is under the tear duct of my right eye. If I centered my cue under my pupil (the middle of my dominant eye), my sighting would be off.

 

[Siz]

The dominant eye is usually the main factor in determining the vision center, whether or not they're aligned together.

pj
chgo

Patrick,

Sorry for being a bit late to the party, but you seem to be making a distinction between eye dominance and vision center that I do not really understand.

The way I think about it, an individual's eye dominance will be on a scale ranging from 100% left eye dominant to 100% right eye dominant. The location of an individual's vision center tells you where you are on that scale. So if your vision center is exactly central, then you would be described as not having an eye dominance. Conversely, if your vision center was directly below your left eye, then you would be described as 100% left eye dominant. etc

Are you defining terms differently or thinking about it in a different way?

[Edit: I think I might be able to answer my own question (but please let me know if you disagree). In short, the vision center is one of a number of ways of defining eye dominance, and is the one most relevant to billiards players.

People referring to eye dominance normally refer to dominance as determined (defined?) by the results of by one of a number of standard tests. The tests will not necessarily all give the same result.

For billiards players, one could include another test, which would be where the eyes are in relation to the shot line when it looks 'most right' (leading to the 'vision center'). This test will not necessarily give the same result as others, but is the one that is most relevant to billiards.

So billiards players should concentrate on the vision center and ignore other measures of eye dominance.]

 

[soyale]

i just get down with the cue under my chin

 

[Patrick Johnson]

The way I think about it, an individual's eye dominance will be on a scale ranging from 100% left eye dominant to 100% right eye dominant. The location of an individual's vision center tells you where you are on that scale. So if your vision center is exactly central, then you would be described as not having an eye dominance. Conversely, if your vision center was directly below your left eye, then you would be described as 100% left eye dominant. etc

Interesting theory, but…

Vision center is not intended to be a measure of eye dominance strength, and I doubt that it is. How our eyes and brain work together to give a “true” picture of a shot alignment (from above) is likely more complicated than that. My guess is that two players with identically strong dominance in the same eye can have different vision centers (though likely similar).

pj <- but whadda I know?
chgo