How to know for absolute sure which of your eyes is dominant

Which method do you use to determine your dominant eye?


  • Total voters
    61
  • Poll closed .
If one eye is dominant, does that mean that the other is submissive ??
:shrug: :grin-square: :p
 
Make a triangle with your 2 hands. Look through the triangle at something off in the distance with both eyes open. Now close your left eye. Then, try closing your right eye. When doing this, the object you are looking at will move out of the triangle. That is the weak eye. The eye open that kept the object in the triangle is your dominant eye.

This is the test I use. I think Geno says it can be misleading.
But I believe you have it backwards.
If the object jumps when you close an eye, the eye you just closed was your dominant eye.

Think about it like this.
If you have both eyes open and close one, and nothing moves, that's because
the still-open eye was doing all the work anyway. The eye you just closed was useless and 'decorative'.
So closing it didn't change anything since it wasn't contributing anyhow.

Whereas when you close the dominant eye, everything shifts because suddenly the eye that was
doing all the work isn't available anymore, so your brain is forced to shift to the other eye to get visual information.
 
If you point the top of your finger just under an object several feet away more from your index finger, you can make either eye dominant just by making one eye closer to the object (do the test of closing turn your head to the right and do the same thing turning your head to the left). It takes a little getting used to this to be able to keep the object over the tip of your finger but I can do it with a little practice. I like to think that I am right eye dominant but I believe the eye dominance thing is normally determined by which eye is stronger.

In this manner you can make either eye dominant.

Sometimes we have one eye stronger than another and by visual experience, we naturally favor the stronger eye in most cases. In other cases, I suppose that we might favor one eye over the other because of other reasons.

I also have a theory that for straight in shots, most people are better off learning to center their chin and shaft over the shot line.

I also believe that cut shots can be more easily made by most people, using Perfect Aim. I also believe that some people do not have to use Perfect Aim to obtain a perfect sight picture. Learning Perfect Aim cannot hurt your game and just being around Gene, your pool game has to improve.

There are lots of contradictory stuff that is written about the dominant eye and even Gene continues to learn about how BOTH eyes contribute to seeing the shot more clearly as he learned from DocHutch.

That being said, all aiming systems have value. It is up to you to determine whether or not you need an aiming system to get you to the PERFECT SIGHT PICTURE.

My theory on the distance between pupils and that having a bearing on how you perceive cut shots is still just a theory but one that I hold strongly. Some people can simply aim at all shots best by simply centering their eyes on the shot line, with their cue directly centered under their eyes and chin. Others, not so; hence the need for aiming systems.

There are many benefits to aiming systems like CTE/Pro1, Perfect Aim and others, besides getting your eyes in the correct position but that's been discussed before.

The short answer is don't dwell on what you think is your dominant eye. Just get your particular pair of eyes in line for how YOU see EACH particular shot best.


JoeyA
 
Make a triangle with your 2 hands. Look through the triangle at something off in the distance with both eyes open. Now close your left eye. Then, try closing your right eye. When doing this, the object you are looking at will move out of the triangle. That is the weak eye. The eye open that kept the object in the triangle is your dominant eye.

Do this same test, and turn your head to the left. The do the same test and turn your head to the right. In this manner you can keep the object in the same position. (Eye closest to the object can become dominant).
JoeyA
 
+1 JoeyA

The point that most people seem to miss is that eye dominance can and will change depending on many factors. Just cause you 'think' you have figured out which one it is at some point, does not mean the lesson is done. Do any one of these "tests' and if you try, with very little practice, you can obtain the opposite results.

In fact there a percentage of people who never sustain a consistent position of eye dominance, some fall in grey areas in between, these group also never seem to get addressed.

I believe this is the angle in which Scott was coming from. Your mind doesn't not intend to work with just one eye and while it may slightly lean towards one on certain occasions, to bank everything you do based on that one occasion, well is less than prudent. (To be nice)
 
People naturally aim very easily and very accurately. Where they fail is in delivering the cue into the straight line they perceive. .

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

Actually, they don't. It does not come so easily to many, many folks, and thus why their head alignment (eyes over cue) are wrong for many folks. I can't be the only one that corrects folks head alignment when shooting cause they just don't know where to go, and due to bad habit, they have tendancies to lead with the non dominat eye..... thus why they should know which is their dominant eye, and why the correction is absolutely necessary.

I'm not looking to argue with the resident AZB House Pro, because I have a great deal of respect for you, but a generality about folks aiming naturally and very accurately is just not so for many folks with very good strokes. I'm not saying it is the only thing, but it is important, and I've taught firearm courses, and it's the difference between being an Expert, Sharpshooter or Marksman....

Every sport discpline has their own theories, and every coach has their own way of doing things that others don't. But one thing I know for sure, is that nobody, in any sport, has all of the answers, and the only truth is to keep trying and learning new things and sometimes pleasant surprises happen :)
 
Do this same test, and turn your head to the left. The do the same test and turn your head to the right. In this manner you can keep the object in the same position. (Eye closest to the object can become dominant).
JoeyA

JoeyA you may be bi-dominant.... OK Ambi-Ocular if you don't want the guys at the pool room calling you out for being bi :grin:..... small percenatge of the population doesn't have dominance....

Usually one eye works faster and sees shading better.. turning your head won't change that but may cause image omission where the brain says screw the one from the eye you just kept from getting a good look.....

Being unable to cross my eyes I do that trick quite natually... My brain takes whichever image it thinks is best and throws the other one away for sharp focus.. If I get both eyes in a good position I sometimes end up with double vision.... Happens on long straight ins every time I center the cue under my chin if I really try and focus instead of using quiet focus.... If I center the cue and soft focus I usually don't see double but you can flip a coin as to me making the ball LOL...

Chris
 
After reading the replies in this thread, there seem to be quite a few different individual ways of visualizing the shot line. We're as different as can be, yet we individually figure out the best alignment either knowingly or naturally without conscious thought.

One person says the dominant eye is a fallacy or a waste of time, while others have significantly improved their game by using it for alignment. What one sees, the other dismisses because they aren't familiar with each other's perception of a straight line.

As a contractor for many years, I can literally see something out of level an eighth of an inch from across the room. I think this comes from experience and/or training, but many others I work with don't have this ability. I may be lucky enough to see "differently". I'm sure this may be a truth in pool, also. I may not be as lucky as the next player and have to work harder to get my eyes in the correct position to see the shot line.

Unless a player realizes their deficiency, they will tinker with their game and flounder. I would like to see more research or ideas about aligning the eyes in pool. I do get frustrated when I get dismissive answers because people don't understand the problem. They never had it, so they say just put the stick here or there and your brain will figure it out. The only place I haven't put the stick is where the sun don't shine and it didn't fix anything. If you don't have the problem you probably will never understand. That's fine...doesn't mean it's not there for somebody else.

Best,
Mike
 
an ATF agent/friend, couldn't believe that i was left-sighted AND left-handed. (i had just brought back an arsenal from Daddy's estate @ TX & he was reviewing w/ me).

he gave me The Test: put your fingers together in a circle & look @ the lightswitch....

i've trained my son & KK9 to shoot; my son's almost an Expert shot @ 100' - left-sighted & now chooses to be right-handed. (KK9's a newbie, so he doesn't count!)

@ RHEA - if you knew that you were LEFT sighted & rated Expert, and then suddenly told you were RIGHT - what would you do?
 
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RJ..To be fair, I was speaking in generalities...not just about pool...and yes, most people do aim pretty easily and accurately. With a little practice, most people can shoot a basketball into a hoop, throw a football through a tire (if it's fairly close), hit a dartboard, strike a golf ball, throw a baseball to someone else, serve a tennis ball over a net, and many many other sports activities that involve some sort of hand/eye coordination. I still am of the opinion that if you have a straight stroke you will find a way to aim pretty accurately. Dominant eye can certainly be ONE of those ways. I never said it doesn't work for some people. I said, imo, it's not the end all, be all solution for everyone.

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

Actually, they don't. It does not come so easily to many, many folks, and thus why their head alignment (eyes over cue) are wrong for many folks. I can't be the only one that corrects folks head alignment when shooting cause they just don't know where to go, and due to bad habit, they have tendancies to lead with the non dominat eye..... thus why they should know which is their dominant eye, and why the correction is absolutely necessary.

I'm not looking to argue with the resident AZB House Pro, because I have a great deal of respect for you, but a generality about folks aiming naturally and very accurately is just not so for many folks with very good strokes. I'm not saying it is the only thing, but it is important, and I've taught firearm courses, and it's the difference between being an Expert, Sharpshooter or Marksman....

Every sport discpline has their own theories, and every coach has their own way of doing things that others don't. But one thing I know for sure, is that nobody, in any sport, has all of the answers, and the only truth is to keep trying and learning new things and sometimes pleasant surprises happen :)
 
Mike...To be completely fair, I wouldn't say it's a total waste of time and effort (I did clearly state that if you "see" a straight line with the cue under your dominant eye, then put it there). I would say it is only one of several ways to aim...and certainly not the only accurate way to aim. Neither my wife nor I are contractors but we both can notice something out of level, even a little bit from across the room...just like you. I think many people have this perception. I guess what I get tired of is Gene's assumption that it is the ONLY way to aim, and that his "programming" is a "home run" for every player. It clearly is not, as I have received many PM's and emails stating the contrary after getting "the lesson". That said, I also have students who have benefitted from Gene's advice (and I have personally suggested to many of my students to give Gene a call, and take advantage of the free phone lesson, just to see if it helps them), so one has to look at the big picture with a grain of salt.

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

After reading the replies in this thread, there seem to be quite a few different individual ways of visualizing the shot line. We're as different as can be, yet we individually figure out the best alignment either knowingly or naturally without conscious thought.

One person says the dominant eye is a fallacy or a waste of time, while others have significantly improved their game by using it for alignment. What one sees, the other dismisses because they aren't familiar with each other's perception of a straight line.

As a contractor for many years, I can literally see something out of level an eighth of an inch from across the room. I think this comes from experience and/or training, but many others I work with don't have this ability. I may be lucky enough to see "differently". I'm sure this may be a truth in pool, also. I may not be as lucky as the next player and have to work harder to get my eyes in the correct position to see the shot line.

Unless a player realizes their deficiency, they will tinker with their game and flounder. I would like to see more research or ideas about aligning the eyes in pool. I do get frustrated when I get dismissive answers because people don't understand the problem. They never had it, so they say just put the stick here or there and your brain will figure it out. The only place I haven't put the stick is where the sun don't shine and it didn't fix anything. If you don't have the problem you probably will never understand. That's fine...doesn't mean it's not there for somebody else.

Best,
Mike
 
A whole 50 lessons huh? Wow. :rolleyes: If you honestly believe everyone has a dominant eye, then you are delusional. Do some actual research and you'll find out you're incorrect, and that up to 20% of the population don't have one.

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

I really don't know how anyone can say the dominant eye doesn't matter or that some players do not have a dominant eye. Experiencing over 50 lessons that Gene has given since I met him, a few thought they didn't have a dominant eye. About 1/3rd thought their opposite eye was their dominant eye.

They all had a dominant eye and once that was determined , and only then could their aiming be tweaked to their full potential.

This dominant eye thing is a no brainer once you know how all this works.
 
She made this assessment after seeing 50 but.....

A whole 50 lessons huh? Wow. :rolleyes: If you honestly believe everyone has a dominant eye, then you are delusional. Do some actual research and you'll find out you're incorrect, and that up to 20% of the population don't have one.

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

Sorry to sound like a broken record Scott but 50 is all that she has personally seen in 2 months on the road. She has personally seen that everyone has a dominant eye and I have shared the info that in the last 4 1/2 years that i have found every players dominant eye including the ones that started out saying they didn't have one. Many of these players were surprised though when the dominant eye turned out to be the other one.

I have talked to eye doctors and they do tell me that everyone has a dominant eye!

Where do you get this info that you say you have?

No disrespect but your statements about the dominant eye are so far out of whack.

Our brain does do a pretty good job of getting the dominant eye in the correct position but pretty good doesn't get it done when you really need to zero in. To really zero in you really need to know where this natural sight is and work at it just like lining up the sights on a gun.

Without this knowledge we keep missing the same shots over and over no matter what not knowing why.

Your in good company. There are many good teachers out there that don't understand the whole dominant eye thing but the ones that I have worked with and helped with this changed their thoughts on this immediately.

Dr Don Wardel, that helped Mark Wilson with one of the best pool instruction books ever, saw how this works at the Brickyard about 6 months ago. try telling him and players like him that understand how this works that this doesn't matter.

Dr Hutch in New orleans helped me big time with figuring out the missing pieces about this dominant eye thing.

I'm sure he would get a chuckle about hearing that some people don't have a dominant eye along with the 2,000 plus players that I have helped find it. Not counting the 10,000 plus mini lessons that I have given to players just to show them that this is something that they need to know. And they didn't have a clue how important this was until they saw it with their own eyes.

Nobody in pool has ever figured out this whole process like i have. I keep looking for more because i don't want to shut the door on knowledge I try to leave no stone unturned.

Many good teachers do a great job at teaching the stroke, stance, kicking, banking, eye patterns, break, ball patterns and so many other parts of the game. These things are not rocket science but it takes a good teach to teach it well.

And for years teachers everywhere have just said to stand up there in the preshot where you perceive a straight line and come down on the shot.

This is flawed at best once a player or teacher learned how bad the brain actually sorts this out on it's own. Repetition will make this better but if your not very close to begin with this will take forever to let the brain just sort it out naturally.

The dominant eye is everything when it comes to envisioning a pool shot. .
 
Here's a fun little story I made up at the beginning of teaching the dominant eye

QUOTE=tattoosbyjay]will you be in south jersey at all i have a private table in my place of buisness id like to take a lesson[/QUOTE]

Hi there Jay,
I sure wish I was there or going there soon because I would love to give you a personal lesson. Unfortuanately I'm not, at least not right now in the immediate future.
I have so much fun showing this or should I say showing this off.
It sounds like you are in the tattoo business. Let me see? tattoosbyjay. Yep! I'll bet when someone sees the great work that you do, that helps you to get more business. That way if they get a tattoo they know if you do it they won't have a mess on their body. And they would be proud to show someone your work because now it is their work because it is on their body. It is now part of them. So now you have a walking ,talking billboard.
It is no mistake that the real good tattoo places are so busy. And the real good places can charge a little more for the good work because they know you certainly wouldn't want to save $50.00 and have a mess on my body.
In you business these are very true phrase:

Bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.

OR

There never was an article made , that couldn't be made worse for less money.

Jay, I'm in a story type of mood. I just had a dream and I want to share it with you and anyone that might read this thread.
Once upon a time there was this guy named Jay. He had a tattoo shop. He lived about 30 miles from work and at this place in time everyone had square wheels on their cars. This was just the way it was. You could only go about 5 miles per hour if that. It took Jay about 6 hours to get to work because all kinds of bad things would happen to the car if he tried to go to fast. Bumpers would fall off,wheels would fall off,oil leaks would happen,anyway you get the picture. But not only these things but the 6 hours to get to work was a long time but nobody knew any difference because everyone had these square wheels. It was just the way it was. Noone had ever seen a round wheel yet.
Then one day this guy named Geno came to town and said to everyone, Hey I got a great idea. I got some of these round wheels I would like you to try out. I know once you try then you will never go back to the square one. I guarantee it.
People were talking about how rediculous that was. Can you imagine. Round wheels. He's just trying to rip us all off. My square wheels work just fine.
Some of the smarter people in the town would say, I'm going to wait until I see how these round wheels work for eveyone else before I'm going to be seen with those stupid things on my car. You got to be kidding, round wheels.
In the meantime Jay starts thinking, what if this guy is actually right. What if I could drive 50 miles per hour instead of 5 ? What if I didn't have to get the car repaired every month because of all the shaking, what if, what if, what if ?????
Well, Jim bought himself some of those round wheels. He went the back way to work because he didn't want all his smart friends to see that he was foolish enough to put these round wheels on his car.
On his first trip to work he realized it only took him 30 minutes to get to work. So he started having people come in to get their tattoos earlier so he could do more and make more money. This was great. Plus he would get home earlier so he could sit in his favorite chair and be there in time to watch his favorite television show. The wife was happy because Jim was home alot earlier too. He even got lucky more often.
Soon Jim was showing of his round wheels to everyone. But there were still alot of people that were still saying. Do you believe that? Round wheel. How rediculous. Poor Jim just got ripped off. How could Jim be so foolish. I thought I knew Jim better than that. Oh well, his money. You know what they say about a fool and his money.
This is exactly what has happened with this dominant eye thing. . The people that are using it are feeling Just LIKE JIM. He's having the time of his life with the round wheels. It's almost like putting round wheels on your cue stick when they used to be square.
Pretty much the only advertising that has been done so far with Perfect Aim has been AZ and word of mouth and my mouth. Kind of like Jim in the story. I'm trying to tell as many players as possible but I'm only one person. This is why I started the web site www.perfectaimbilliards.com so players can read and see what other people are talking about. Kind of like Jim's friends in the story.
AZ is probably the best pool site in the world. It's helped catipult PERFECT AIM as being one of the top selling pool videos of all time.
And you will have to take my word for that the same as you would have to take my word that Perfect Aim does really work.
But wait. Just like in the story, now you don't have to just take my word for it because so many people are using it and are just loving it and they are telling everyone they can, especially their friends. And you can just read about the great result on AZ and the Perfect Aim site.
And then there are those who don't want to tell anyone because they know it will make the competition a lot tougher. Good luck with trying to borrow their Perfect Aim video.
But then there are those people that are still saying how can this be.
In the story the people were laughing at Jim for buying the round wheels. Soon they weren’t laughing anymore because they were buying the round wheels themselves. . They had wasted alot of time by being so slow to act.
The people that have learned Perfect Aim I know are kind of laughing when they read someone trying to say that dominant eye might not work.
Why would you want to waste your time trying to do something that you love to do one way or the other way you always have. when there is this new thing called Perfect Aim that lines the dominant eye up correctly and can make it easier to do what we all love to do and that is to kick somebody's ass. It's easy,simple and it works ! ! !

Bottom Line.

Have a great pool day. Geno.......
 
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