Getting down perfectly straight on the ball?

[FranCrimi]

The order how to correct the issues/habits-- that s what sometimes is the first you have to plan. And without detecting really the habits/issues....then it would be a dead-end-street

hope all is wel for you, too
lg
Ingo

Well said, Ingo. I agree with you completely!

 

[sfleinen]

Ocular dominance is actually a misnomer

Scott, I can't find anywhere where it says that up to 20 percent of the population don't have dominant eyes. All of my research shows that everyone does have a dominant eye and if they didn't, they would probably have double vision.

Where did you find that info? I'd like to read it.

Fran:

Try this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocular_dominance

Notice the opening paragraph. I agree with Scott, and it's a blatant mistake to say "everyone has a dominant eye, whether they know it or not" (that quoted last phrase, btw, is an escapist "walking the fence" sales/marketing technique from those trying to sell products based on ocular dominance).

In fact, what many confuse to be "eye dominance" is actually specialization among the eyes. Take me, for instance. When reading small print unaided (e.g. the fine print on the boxes of cold medicines), I tend to "prefer" my left eye. Anything that requires close-up sharp focus, I find I prefer my left eye.

However, when I try to focus on and make things out at a distance (e.g. firing a rifle or a bow -- both of which I used to do competitively), I "prefer" my right eye.

In pool, my vision center -- that at which the cue's shaft splits the vision circle right in half, and doesn't "come in from one side or the other" -- occurs when I have the shaft centered right between my eyes (i.e. when I "chin the cue" and have my face square to the shot line). The mind has the natural ability to merge the two distinct vision pictures from each eye into one cohesive picture -- irrespective of the fact that one eye "prefers" close-up and the other "prefers" far away. I've tried moving my vision center towards my left eye (progressively, starting a wee bit, all the way until the cue was fully under my left eye) with DISASTROUS results. The same thing happened when I tried the same experiment with my right eye.

Don't forget, both hemispheres of the brain operate equally on the information fed by either eye, so "ocular dominance" is actually a misnomer -- barring eye injury or disease, it has NOTHING to do with the eye itself, but rather which hemisphere of your brain you prefer for operating on the information.

Hope this is helpful,
-Sean

 

[dr9ball]

Scott, I can't find anywhere where it says that up to 20 percent of the population don't have dominant eyes. All of my research shows that everyone does have a dominant eye and if they didn't, they would probably have double vision.

Where did you find that info? I'd like to read it.

Fran,

Perhaps Scott is referencing this article:
The Dominant Eye
By Porac, Clare; Coren, Stanley
Psychological Bulletin, Vol 83(5), Sep 1976, 880-897.

"Sighting dominance may be predictive of some pathological visual conditions ... 19S2), Coren and
Kaplan (1973), Porac (1974), and Washburn et al., (1934), 48% of the com- bined samples showed
preference for the right eye, 32% favored the left eye, and 19% were ambi-ocular"


Here's also an older but still interesting study done by the USAF on eye dominance. http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=AD0003567

Specifically see Page 4 Table 1

 

[FranCrimi]

Fran:

Try this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocular_dominance

Notice the opening paragraph. I agree with Scott, and it's a blatant mistake to say "everyone has a dominant eye, whether they know it or not" (that quoted last phrase, btw, is an escapist "walking the fence" sales/marketing technique from those trying to sell products based on ocular dominance).

In fact, what many confuse to be "eye dominance" is actually specialization among the eyes. Take me, for instance. When reading small print unaided (e.g. the fine print on the boxes of cold medicines), I tend to "prefer" my left eye. Anything that requires close-up sharp focus, I find I prefer my left eye.

However, when I try to focus on and make things out at a distance (e.g. firing a rifle or a bow -- both of which I used to do competitively), I "prefer" my right eye.

In pool, my vision center -- that at which the cue's shaft splits the vision circle right in half, and doesn't "come in from one side or the other" -- occurs when I have the shaft centered right between my eyes (i.e. when I "chin the cue" and have my face square to the shot line). The mind has the natural ability to merge the two distinct vision pictures from each eye into one cohesive picture -- irrespective of the fact that one eye "prefers" close-up and the other "prefers" far away. I've tried moving my vision center towards my left eye (progressively, starting a wee bit, all the way until the cue was fully under my left eye) with DISASTROUS results. The same thing happened when I tried the same experiment with my right eye.

Don't forget, both hemispheres of the brain operate equally on the information fed by either eye, so "ocular dominance" is actually a misnomer -- barring eye injury or disease, it has NOTHING to do with the eye itself, but rather which hemisphere of your brain you prefer for operating on the information.

Hope this is helpful,
-Sean

Is Wiki a reliable source for the truth?

Eye dominance is actually a physicality determined by the way in which the nerves extend from the eye to the brain. The eye with the most nerves that extend straight back to the brain as opposed to criss-cross is the dominant eye. It's hard to imagine that each eye has the exact same nerve configuration to the brain. That would be pretty incredible.

 

[FranCrimi]

Fran,

Perhaps Scott is referencing this article:
The Dominant Eye
By Porac, Clare; Coren, Stanley
Psychological Bulletin, Vol 83(5), Sep 1976, 880-897.

"Sighting dominance may be predictive of some pathological visual conditions ... 19S2), Coren and
Kaplan (1973), Porac (1974), and Washburn et al., (1934), 48% of the com- bined samples showed
preference for the right eye, 32% favored the left eye, and 19% were ambi-ocular"


Here's also an older but still interesting study done by the USAF on eye dominance. http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=AD0003567

Specifically see Page 4 Table 1

That seems to be a 1952 review of literature from years earlier than that. Isn't there anything more recent than that? I would still like to hear where Scott got his info. I'd really like to read it.

 

[ENGLISH!]

Scott, I can't find anywhere where it says that up to 20 percent of the population don't have dominant eyes. All of my research shows that everyone does have a dominant eye and if they didn't, they would probably have double vision.

Where did you find that info? I'd like to read it.

Delete. Sorry I 'clicked' incorrectly.

 

[sfleinen]

Is Wiki a reliable source for the truth?

Eye dominance is actually a physicality determined by the way in which the nerves extend from the eye to the brain. The eye with the most nerves that extend straight back to the brain as opposed to criss-cross is the dominant eye. It's hard to imagine that each eye has the exact same nerve configuration to the brain. That would be pretty incredible.

Fran:

It appears you have your view "wired" in how you think the eyes are linked to the brain. I really think you should reference some medical sources to compare your "impression" with actual medical truth.

Also, concerning wikipedia, rather than focus on the "posted source" of the information (i.e. wikipedia), why not take a look at the bibliography at the bottom of that link? If you don't trust the author of the wikipedia article, then perhaps bypass him/her, and go straight for the sources he/she used to write the article.

You'll find many medical papers in there, and you'll be able to draw your own conclusion.

-Sean

 

[FranCrimi]

Fran:

It appears you have your view "wired" in how you think the eyes are linked to the brain. I really think you should reference some medical sources to compare your "impression" with actual medical truth.

Also, concerning wikipedia, rather than focus on the "posted source" of the information (i.e. wikipedia), why not take a look at the bibliography at the bottom of that link? If you don't trust the author of the wikipedia article, then perhaps bypass him/her, and go straight for the sources he/she used to write the article.

You'll find many medical papers in there, and you'll be able to draw your own conclusion.

-Sean

My source is an ophthalmologist student of mine. While I taught him about pool, he taught me about eyes. I can't imagine why he would have cause to lie to me or to be misinformed.

 

[ENGLISH!]

My source is an ophthalmologist student of mine. While I taught him about pool, he taught me about eyes. I can't imagine why he would have cause to lie to me or to be misinformed.

I resently read a post by Mr. Lee where he said that he too has consulted with opthalmologist. I have not, but I tend to agree with you Ms. Crimi. All of my research says the same as yours. There seems to be some mis-information. I do not 'see' how it can be both ways.
I personally, in all of my years of coaching baseball & other sports, have never run across anyone that did not have at least a slightly 'dominant' eye.

I think it would be very good to get a clarification as so many of us, including myself with my 'dominant eye' astigmatism, have eye & seeing issues.

I hope we can get a definitive answer.

 

[sfleinen]

My source is an ophthalmologist student of mine. While I taught him about pool, he taught me about eyes. I can't imagine why he would have cause to lie to me or to be misinformed.

Ok, Fran -- that's cool. At least you have an authoritative source for the info. My source is also an opthalmologist -- albeit with myself as a patient, not as an instructor.

I resently read a post by Mr. Lee where he said that he too has consulted with opthalmologist. I have not, but I tend to agree with you Ms. Crimi. All of my research says the same as yours. There seems to be some mis-information. I do not 'see' how it can be both ways.
I personally, in all of my years of coaching baseball & other sports, have never run across anyone that did not have at least a slightly 'dominant' eye.

I think it would be very good to get a clarification as so many of us, including myself with my 'dominant eye' astigmatism, have eye & seeing issues.

I hope we can get a definitive answer.

Here's the thing -- it is well known that you CAN CHANGE YOUR DOMINANT EYE, as long as there is no injury or disease involved. Read any of the links (and their associated bibliographies), and you'll see where, in the study, a group was forced to wear an eye patch on their "dominant eye" for a period of time, and their brain "rewired" itself to depend on the information given by the other eye. After the eye patch was taken off, the group experienced that their formerly-recessive eye is now the dominant eye, and this stayed that way until the experiment was repeated, but moving the eye patch to the formerly-recessive-now-dominant eye.

So although the precise number and synapse points of the eye's optic nerve contacts in the brain may vary between each eye, it is the BRAIN, not the eye itself, that determines the "pathway preference" for the information. That pathway preference *can* be changed.

And again, all of this is SANS disease or injury to the eye -- obviously those conditions are "grand overrides" for any of this. I say this, because the conditions of astigmatism, eye, and "seeing" issues have to do with the eye as an individual organ itself. If the eye is injured or otherwise has a defect, no amount of rewiring the brain is going to fix that -- rather, the eye itself needs to be corrected.

Just as an aside, in high school I suffered for many years with a condition colloquially known as "lazy eye." My left eye would drift inwards towards the bridge of my nose, and I'd look like I were "cross-eyed just in the left eye." It was an eye muscle problem, and forced my brain to depend entirely on my right eye to get my visual input. An opthalmologist created a very special eyeglass prescription for me that essentially blocked my right eye with a special polarizing lens -- I could barely see out of the right lens. Now I was forced to depend on the information being fed by the left eye, and in the beginning, that information was very WEAK due to atrophy. However, after time, my brain learned to "rewire" itself so that it would use the information fed by the left eye. After about a year of wearing these glasses, my lazy eye was completely cured, and I had nearly true binocular vision after that -- for the rest of my life (presumably). That was 30 years ago.

-Sean

 

[ENGLISH!]

Ok, Fran -- that's cool. At least you have an authoritative source for the info. My source is also an opthalmologist -- albeit with myself as a patient, not as an instructor.



Here's the thing -- it is well known that you CAN CHANGE YOUR DOMINANT EYE, as long as there is no injury or disease involved. Read any of the links (and their associated bibliographies), and you'll see where, in the study, a group was forced to wear an eye patch on their "dominant eye" for a period of time, and their brain "rewired" itself to depend on the information given by the other eye. After the eye patch was taken off, the group experienced that their formerly-recessive eye is now the dominant eye, and this stayed that way until the experiment was repeated, but moving the eye patch to the formerly-recessive-now-dominant eye.

So although the precise number and synapse points of the eye's optic nerve contacts in the brain may vary between each eye, it is the BRAIN, not the eye itself, that determines the "pathway preference" for the information. That pathway preference *can* be changed.

And again, all of this is SANS disease or injury to the eye -- obviously those conditions are "grand overrides" for any of this. I say this, because the conditions of astigmatism, eye, and "seeing" issues have to do with the eye as an individual organ itself. If the eye is injured or otherwise has a defect, no amount of rewiring the brain is going to fix that -- rather, the eye itself needs to be corrected.

Just as an aside, in high school I suffered for many years with a condition colloquially known as "lazy eye." My left eye would drift inwards towards the bridge of my nose, and I'd look like I were "cross-eyed just in the left eye." It was an eye muscle problem, and forced my brain to depend entirely on my right eye to get my visual input. An opthalmologist created a very special eyeglass prescription for me that essentially blocked my right eye with a special polarizing lens -- I could barely see out of the right lens. Now I was forced to depend on the information being fed by the left eye, and in the beginning, that information was very WEAK due to atrophy. However, after time, my brain learned to "rewire" itself so that it would use the information fed by the left eye. After about a year of wearing these glasses, my lazy eye was completely cured, and I had nearly true binocular vision after that -- for the rest of my life (presumably). That was 30 years ago.

-Sean

Sean, I'm glad you were able to solve your eye problem. One day I may opt for surgery, but not yet.

On your side note, I was taught, although I can not remember exactly what class it was, Biology or Physics, that our brain actually flips the image on our retina for 'proper' reference. I was told that NASA did an experiment where subjects wore a type of gogles with lenses that flipped the image up side down. After a period of time, I do not know how long, the brain inverted the images so the subjects saw 'right' side up. The gogles were removed & the subjects saw up side down again until the brain inverted the image back again after a period of time. I do not doubt that for some the brain may even be able to alternate preference from one eye to the other 'at will'.
So, I understand of which you speak.

However, I have never encountered anyone in all of my coaching & life experience someone that did not have at least a slight preference in one eye or the other. 20% is 1 out of every 5 people. Maybe Mr. Lee's assertion is inaccurate. Maybe it is 20% of an Opthalmologist's patients have a problem with eye preference.

The bottom line is it seems that many on AZB have 'sighting' problems & an accurate clarification, if we could get one might deter some mis-leading information.

I for one could never shoot pool effectivly without sighting properly. To this day I use my blurry 'dominant' right eye with an astigmatism to line up & sight the shot rather than my 'better', clear, 'NON-dominant eye. I play very well this way & have played very poorly when I tried to sight down the cue with my 'good' non-dominant eye. It does not work well. One needs to know how to 'see' the shot correctly.

Sincerly, with nothing but good intentions,
Rick

PS I would think that every instructor would want know the correct answer without any doubt. I would like to know simple out of curiousity.

 

[sfleinen]

Sean, I'm glad you were able to solve your eye problem. One day I may opt for surgery, but not yet.

On your side note, I was taught, although I can not remember exactly what class it was, Biology or Physics, that our brain actually flips the image on our retina for 'proper' reference. I was told that NASA did an experiment where subjects wore a type of gogles with lenses that flipped the image up side down. After a period of time, I do not know how long, the brain inverted the images so the subjects saw 'right' side up. The gogles were removed & the subjects saw up side down again until the brain inverted the image back again after a period of time. I do not doubt that for some the brain may even be able to alternate preference from one eye to the other 'at will'.
So, I understand of which you speak.

However, I have never encountered anyone in all of my coaching & life experience someone that did not have at least a slight preference in one eye or the other. 20% is 1 out of every 5 people. Maybe Mr. Lee's assertion is inaccurate. Maybe it is 20% of an Opthalmologist's patients have a problem with eye preference.

The bottom line is it seems that many on AZB have 'sighting' problems & an accurate clarification, if we could get one might deter some mis-leading information.

I for one could never shoot pool effectivly without sighting properly. To this day I use my blurry 'dominant' right eye with an astigmatism to line up & sight the shot rather than my 'better', clear, 'NON-dominant eye. I play very well this way & have played very poorly when I tried to sight down the cue with my 'good' non-dominant eye. It does not work well. One needs to know how to 'see' the shot correctly.

Sincerly, with nothing but good intentions,
Rick

PS I would think that every instructor would want know the correct answer without any doubt. I would like to know simple out of curiousity.

Rick:

Thank you for the civil, respectful response. Believe me, I read the good intentions you have even without the "Sincerely ..." sign-off.

I don't doubt that you find many people that have a "preference" for using a certain eye. My question to you is this: doing what? That is to say, your experience with these people has been limited to throwing a ball, or swinging a bat onto a ball, right?

If you were to encounter me, you might try to classify me as a "left eye dominant" person, because in close-in tests (like reading fine print), I naturally prefer my left eye. And if you did classify me in this way -- "as being left eye dominant," YOU'D BE WRONG. Because although close-in stuff I tend to prefer my left eye, making details out at long-distances (e.g. picking out fine details in far-off woods), I tend to prefer my right eye. And as I mentioned in a previous response, my vision center is smack-dab in the center of the bridge of my nose. When I cue, my chin is on the cue and my face is square-on to the cue. If I look down with my eyes, and not move my head, my nose is directly over the cue shaft.

Let me put it to you another way. Let's say you're facing down a long hallway. You're asked to stay put at one end of the hallway, and sight something down at the other/far end of the hallway -- to "laser in on the object," so to speak. Do you turn and angle your head so that your "dominant eye" is facing down the hallway? Or do you square your face to the hallway, and view it normally?

If you're like most people, you square your face to the hallway, and perhaps lean forward a bit to "cheat" if you like.

This is the way you view the world, and how your brain processes the world -- by integrating the pictures from two separate eyes. You are a binocular-eyed creature for a reason -- for depth perception. The human species is considered a predator, and predators have their eyes placed on the front of their heads specifically for binocular vision, for depth perception. Prey animals have their eyes on the sides of their heads, for the opposite reason.

Again, sans disease or defect to the eye (or to the optic nerve / synapse points), you naturally go through life processing information from both eyes. Although you, as a person, may "prefer" to do certain things with a certain eye, that doesn't mean that you do *all things* with that eye.

I'll bet there's some skill, somewhere, that you'll prefer what you think is your recessive eye. It might be that you're doing it now, and not even know it. Maybe it's something simple like if you hear a noise behind you, you turn around in the direction of your "recessive" eye side to view what caused that noise behind you. Or anything like this.

If you didn't, and truly did "all things" with your "dominant" eye, your "recessive" eye would get weaker and weaker to the point of complete atrophy / uselessness. Fortunately, it doesn't work that way.

As far as where Scott Lee got his data, sure, I'd love to hear where he got those statistics as well. I have my ideas where, but I'm just as curious as you.

Let's see! Hopefully Scott will catch this thread soon.
-Sean

 

[ENGLISH!]

Sean, I just did a little near / far test for myself & I am right eye 'prefered' for both.

Just to be clear, are you saying, for instance that you see the CB & tip with one eye & then look at a full table away OB or corner pocket & see them with the other eye? If so, is that an advantage or disadvantage when you actually sight the cue stick? If so which do you look at when stroking or you do you stroke with a non preferred peripheral type vision. If you do 'see' them both with the same eye then you would be that eye 'prefered' for shooting pool. You might be the other eye 'prefered' for throwing a ball to home plate from the outfield. I do understand the issue as I have an ambidextrous son. Eye preference can be an alignment problem in golf because of the opticle illusions it can create when standing on the side & trying to line up properly. Your level head comment is what I have had to correct somewhat often when coaching hitting in baseball. Your eyes should be level as that is how we spend almost all of our time 'seeing'. To cock or tuck the head on an angle is putting up a road block to success in these types of activities. I hope you don't mind the converation. It is a very interesting topic & I have not had the occasion to cross paths with anyone with this type of condition. I hope condition is the correct word.

 

[sfleinen]

Sean, I just did a little near / far test for myself & I am right eye 'prefered' for both.

Just to be clear, are you saying, for instance that you see the CB & tip with one eye & then look at a full table away OB or corner pocket & see them with the other eye? If so, is that an advantage or disadvantage when you actually sight the cue stick? If so which do you look at when stroking or you do you stroke with a non preferred peripheral type vision. If you do 'see' them both with the same eye then you would be that eye 'prefered' for shooting pool. You might be the other eye 'prefered' for throwing a ball to home plate from the outfield. I do understand the issue as I have an ambidextrous son. Eye preference can be an alignment problem in golf because of the opticle illusions it can create when standing on the side & trying to line up properly. Your level head comment is what I have had to correct somewhat often when coaching hitting in baseball. Your eyes should be level as that is how we spend almost all of our time 'seeing'. To cock or tuck the head on an angle is putting up a road block to success in these types of activities. I hope you don't mind the converation. It is a very interesting topic & I have not had the occasion to cross paths with anyone with this type of condition. I hope condition is the correct word.

Rick:

No problem -- I don't mind the conversation at all. Understand, though, that I hit AZB on my breaks at work, so I may not be "immediately responsive" to posts here.

To answer your question, I don't "prefer" either eye when I'm at the table. I made it a point to study my eyes over many years, as they are the windows to our pool-shooting world, and I wanted to make the best use of them.

When I'm at the table, standing, I view the table with both eyes. I don't "prefer" my left eye "just because the objects fall within what I would consider 'close range'." (That "close range" comment meaning what I said earlier about prefering my left eye for reading of fine print). As I start to line myself up, as I start to step onto the shot line (I use a snooker stance), my face and my body is 100% square to the shot line. I step onto the shot line, and bend down onto it, lined up, chin on the cue. At no point do I turn my head to "prefer" my left or right eye. As mentioned, when my chin is on the cue, if I were to keep my head still, and just move my eyeballs downwards to look down at my nose, the shaft is running directly under my nose. No kidding.

As far as when I start to make a transition to "preferring" one eye over the other, that occurs at extremely close ranges (left eye), or very far ranges (right eye). However, as you say, we view the world with two eyes, and your brain absolutely is capable (and does it every day, in fact) of "melding" the two images from each eye into one cohesive picture. If it didn't, you'd prefer one eye to "do everything," and that weaker eye would atrophy to the point of near uselessness.

Now, mind you, that can, and possibly is, a conditioned ability from 1.) having had my "lazy" left eye corrected with that special right-eye-obfuscating prescription, and 2.) years of competitive rifle shooting (including putting food on the table by big and small game hunting in the woods of upstate NY, since I was a child). I don't rule that out at all -- that my vision "specialties" are just that -- built over years of specialization.

What is true, though, is that ocular dominance is not a hard-written, commited-to-stone-for-the-rest-of-your-life thing. And it doesn't mean that your vision preference pathways are welded to one eyeball for everything you do for the rest of your life. It's only because one has built "comfortability" skillsets with a certain eye, which is something that I feel, with practice, can be changed.

-Sean

 

[ENGLISH!]

Rick:

No problem -- I don't mind the conversation at all. Understand, though, that I hit AZB on my breaks at work, so I may not be "immediately responsive" to posts here.

To answer your question, I don't "prefer" either eye when I'm at the table. I made it a point to study my eyes over many years, as they are the windows to our pool-shooting world, and I wanted to make the best use of them.

When I'm at the table, standing, I view the table with both eyes. I don't "prefer" my left eye "just because the objects fall within what I would consider 'close range'." (That "close range" comment meaning what I said earlier about prefering my left eye for reading of fine print). As I start to line myself up, as I start to step onto the shot line (I use a snooker stance), my face and my body is 100% square to the shot line. I step onto the shot line, and bend down onto it, lined up, chin on the cue. At no point do I turn my head to "prefer" my left or right eye. As mentioned, when my chin is on the cue, if I were to keep my head still, and just move my eyeballs downwards to look down at my nose, the shaft is running directly under my nose. No kidding.

As far as when I start to make a transition to "preferring" one eye over the other, that occurs at extremely close ranges (left eye), or very far ranges (right eye). However, as you say, we view the world with two eyes, and your brain absolutely is capable (and does it every day, in fact) of "melding" the two images from each eye into one cohesive picture. If it didn't, you'd prefer one eye to "do everything," and that weaker eye would atrophy to the point of near uselessness.

Now, mind you, that can, and possibly is, a conditioned ability from 1.) having had my "lazy" left eye corrected with that special right-eye-obfuscating prescription, and 2.) years of competitive rifle shooting (including putting food on the table by big and small game hunting in the woods of upstate NY, since I was a child). I don't rule that out at all -- that my vision "specialties" are just that -- built over years of specialization.

What is true, though, is that ocular dominance is not a hard-written, commited-to-stone-for-the-rest-of-your-life thing. And it doesn't mean that your vision preference pathways are welded to one eyeball for everything you do for the rest of your life. It's only because one has built "comfortability" skillsets with a certain eye, which is something that I feel, with practice, can be changed.

-Sean

Sean,

I too, use a snooker stance. I think it makes it easier to keep one's eyes level. I, however, have the cue directly under my right eye. I get low for most all shots, but not as low as Alison Fisher with the cue rubbing her chin. I have tried it & wound up looking out of the top side of my eye sockets, plus it caused discomfort in the back of my neck. I guess I am taller than her. Sean, thanks for the insights. Again I'm glad you were able to work out your eye issues.

Best wishes,
Rick

 

[FranCrimi]

Ok, Fran -- that's cool. At least you have an authoritative source for the info. My source is also an opthalmologist -- albeit with myself as a patient, not as an instructor.



Here's the thing -- it is well known that you CAN CHANGE YOUR DOMINANT EYE, as long as there is no injury or disease involved. Read any of the links (and their associated bibliographies), and you'll see where, in the study, a group was forced to wear an eye patch on their "dominant eye" for a period of time, and their brain "rewired" itself to depend on the information given by the other eye. After the eye patch was taken off, the group experienced that their formerly-recessive eye is now the dominant eye, and this stayed that way until the experiment was repeated, but moving the eye patch to the formerly-recessive-now-dominant eye.

So although the precise number and synapse points of the eye's optic nerve contacts in the brain may vary between each eye, it is the BRAIN, not the eye itself, that determines the "pathway preference" for the information. That pathway preference *can* be changed.

And again, all of this is SANS disease or injury to the eye -- obviously those conditions are "grand overrides" for any of this. I say this, because the conditions of astigmatism, eye, and "seeing" issues have to do with the eye as an individual organ itself. If the eye is injured or otherwise has a defect, no amount of rewiring the brain is going to fix that -- rather, the eye itself needs to be corrected.

Just as an aside, in high school I suffered for many years with a condition colloquially known as "lazy eye." My left eye would drift inwards towards the bridge of my nose, and I'd look like I were "cross-eyed just in the left eye." It was an eye muscle problem, and forced my brain to depend entirely on my right eye to get my visual input. An opthalmologist created a very special eyeglass prescription for me that essentially blocked my right eye with a special polarizing lens -- I could barely see out of the right lens. Now I was forced to depend on the information being fed by the left eye, and in the beginning, that information was very WEAK due to atrophy. However, after time, my brain learned to "rewire" itself so that it would use the information fed by the left eye. After about a year of wearing these glasses, my lazy eye was completely cured, and I had nearly true binocular vision after that -- for the rest of my life (presumably). That was 30 years ago.

-Sean

I went through the links on the bottom of that wiki page and I couldn't find that eye patch study you mentioned. Can you tell me which link that was? I'd like to know if the study continued on to prove whether or not the change in dominance was permanent or whether or not the former dominant eye tried to eventually take back over. I wonder if over-strengthening a recessive eye's muscle would give it a false dominance; 'false' meaning that it would only be temporary.

In the case of strengthening the muscle of a lazy eye, it would make sense that once that eye muscle was brought to equal or nearly equal to the other eye muscle, that normal vision would occur, but I'm not a doctor and I've never discussed any of this with a doctor.

 

[BilliardsAbout]

What do you guys think about the importance of getting down perfectly straight on the shot, meaning having your back foot, arm, and cue on the aiming line before you get down on the ball.

When I take practice strokes in the air, my cue and arm is slightly to the left of the aim line, then as I get down on the ball, my cue comes into the aim line. Is this important? Does it really matter?

Also what is your opinion about what Hohamann says in the first minute of this video. He is basically saying that you should turn your stance so your arm swings forward/straight naturally?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPn3Wzp4NT8

Thanks!
Also who do you think gets down on the ball the best?

You don't hit the ball with your rear leg so its position may matter but a little. You do, however, want to have:

1. Your vision center over the line or set so you can best see crisply your target

2. The balance needed to bring the cue tip forward and a bit downward unimpeded

As for the stroking arm, players can get a bit obsessive over placing the whole arm/wrist/shoulder/whatever on line. A better way to say this is to find the optimal position for your shotmaking and then do that over and again for the rest of your playing career.

But in general two ways to get online are to 1) ensure your shooting hand is online then step to the stance 2) stand with your head on the "full line" then bend to the stance:

Pro Blended Stance

Full Line Aim

It matters little if your cue in the air is offline as you wrote. Many fine players are in "port arms" position when the cue is in the air.

 

[FranCrimi]

You don't hit the ball with your rear leg so its position may matter but a little. You do, however, want to have:

1. Your vision center over the line or set so you can best see crisply your target

2. The balance needed to bring the cue tip forward and a bit downward unimpeded

As for the stroking arm, players can get a bit obsessive over placing the whole arm/wrist/shoulder/whatever on line. A better way to say this is to find the optimal position for your shotmaking and then do that over and again for the rest of your playing career.

But in general two ways to get online are to 1) ensure your shooting hand is online then step to the stance 2) stand with your head on the "full line" then bend to the stance:

Pro Blended Stance

Full Line Aim

It matters little if your cue in the air is offline as you wrote. Many fine players are in "port arms" position when the cue is in the air.

I'm absolutely stunned by this line:

"You don't hit the ball with your rear leg so its position may matter but a little."

And you say you're a teacher? Seriously?

 

[The Renfro]

I'm absolutely stunned by this line:

"You don't hit the ball with your rear leg so its position may matter but a little."

And you say you're a teacher? Seriously?

While I do believe in putting the rear foot on the striking line for normal shots a good many shots dictate that you cannot do this so I think it may matter "but a little" as long as your body position is consistent and gets the arm and cue on the proper line....

There are always BEST practices and they are based on even the "but a little" areas where we can be more solid......

<<<< Not an instructor (Sorry I have been diligently trying to stay out of this section)

 

[ronscuba]

I used to play a bit of golf and there was a good book about body type and setup positions/swing to match the body. Tall skinny Davis Love has a different setup and swing than short heavy Craig Stadler.

Maybe for each of us there is a particular stance, foot position/angle, wrist position, that encourages a straight pool stroke ? People seem to have a natural foot and wrist angle. Some point straight, some angled out, some angled in.

When I played golf, I noticed the angle my foot pointed affected my hip angle, which affected my shoulder angle, which affected my swing.

Then again, the golf stroke is a lot more complicated than the pool stroke. Sometimes I have to turn my brain off and just put the ball in the hole.