{"id":1505,"date":"2023-10-04T16:38:42","date_gmt":"2023-10-04T16:38:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/?p=1505"},"modified":"2023-10-04T16:38:42","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T16:38:42","slug":"how-to-determine-eye-dominance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/?p=1505","title":{"rendered":"How to Determine Eye Dominance"},"content":{"rendered":"


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By Massad Ayoob<\/a><\/p>\n

I<\/span>n case you know what I\u2019m talking about, I know what you\u2019re thinking. \u201cI already know which of my eyes is dominant, so I don\u2019t need to read this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Please,\u00a0<\/em>set that thought aside. Take a few minutes to read this, and when you\u2019re done,\u00a0then\u00a0<\/em>go ahead and write in the forum thread \u201cI knew all that already, you old fart, and you wasted my time!\u201d<\/p>\n

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Massad Ayoob demonstrates the Triangle Method of determining eye dominance. To start, the student looks at you or a target with hands like this and his arms extended. Image:\u00a0Gail Pepin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What we\u2019ve learned for ourselves has not yet been learned by those we teach to use guns, whether for sport or for life-or-death self-defense. We\u2019ve all likely taught someone else to shoot, whether as a friend or as a paid instructor or something in between.<\/p>\n

And we\u2019ve all, if we\u2019ve done it long enough, seen the student who can\u2019t seem to shoot their way out of a sandwich bag with a magazine full of armor piercing and didn\u2019t know why they were shooting that badly. It\u2019s often something as simple as the shooter not knowing which is the dominant eye they need to be aiming with.<\/p>\n

Early Warnings<\/h2>\n

Watch for the student whose head seems to be moving around or back and forth as they try to align the firearm with the target. It\u2019s as if they\u2019re trying to find what they\u2019re supposed to be shooting at.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"how\n<\/picture>
The second step to determine which eye is dominant has the student slowly bring his hands toward his face while maintaining the triangle shape with his hands. Image:\u00a0Gail Pepin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sometimes, you\u2019ll see them looking over the top of the gun. If you spot that and tell them, \u201cYou want to watch your front sight,\u201d they\u2019ll often answer: \u201cI\u00a0am\u00a0<\/em>watching the front sight!\u201d<\/p>\n

If that happens, it\u2019s our fault as instructors, and not their fault as students. They know that front sight is out there somewhere in their field of view and perceive that as watching their front sight.<\/p>\n

We failed to tell them something like, \u201cUse the continuum of the fighter pilot: enemy plane identified, lock missiles on target, launch, follow up as necessary.\u201d Once the target is identified, the shooter\u2019s \u201clock missiles on target\u201d with an iron sight weapon is the hard focus on the front sight.<\/p>\n

\"eye\n<\/picture>
The student\u2019s hand continues back unto the hands are touching the face. Using the Triangle Method, the dominant eye is revealed. In this case, Ayoob\u2019s right eye is the dominant eye. Image:\u00a0Gail Pepin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But of course, the student has to align that sight with the target, and therein lies the problem. The two eyes are parallel, and only one can align sights with target, so they must know which eye is dominant and performing that alignment.<\/p>\n

Finding the Dominant Eye<\/h2>\n

When teaching basic students, we have to realize that a great many people go through life not realizing that there\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>such a thing as a dominant eye, let alone having figured out which of their eyes is the dominant one.<\/p>\n

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I wasn\u2019t born with perfect vision. I started wearing eyeglasses and going through eye examinations somewhere around age six or seven. I am now an old fart who has been through cataract surgeries and has long since lost count of how many corrective lens prescriptions I\u2019ve gone through\u2026and I don\u2019t remember\u00a0even one single\u00a0<\/strong>optometrist, optician, or ophthalmologist ever asking me which was my dominant eye! <\/em>That may be the case with your student \u2014 and you, for that matter.<\/p>\n

So, first: we have to establish which is the dominant eye. There are at least two proven tests.<\/p>\n

\"eye\n<\/picture>
You can take another approach to determining eye dominance. With both of your eyes open, aim at target. Close your\u00a0left<\/em>\u00a0eye. If the gun remains aligned, you are right-eye dominant. Image:\u00a0Gail Pepin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The most common is \u201cthe triangle.\u201d Have the student extend their arms in front of them and form a triangle with both hands, the thumbs crossing each other horizontally and the fingers forming an apex. Have them look through that triangle at a distant object \u2014 a target, your face, a treetop, whatever. Now, tell them to keep that target or face or treetop in focus, and slowly bring their triangulated hands back toward themselves until the hands touch their face. The triangle will now be in front of one or the other eye\u2026and that is their dominant eye.<\/p>\n

\"how\n<\/picture>
Keep the gun on the target and close the\u00a0right<\/em>\u00a0eye. If the gun\u2019s alignment appears to move, this confirms you are right-eye dominant. Image:\u00a0Gail Pepin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another method is to point their finger (or better yet, an unloaded pistol with a safe backstop) at a target. Have them keep the gun on target, and then close one eye, open it, and then close the other eye.<\/p>\n

Whichever eye remains in line with finger or target is the dominant eye. Whichever eye sees the finger or gun somewhat from the side and no longer dead in line with the target is the non-dominant eye.<\/p>\n

Yes, it is that simple.<\/p>\n

Outliers<\/h2>\n

Now, you\u2019ll find the rare person who does not have a particularly dominant eye. There are few things in marksmanship so subjective as vision. There may be a few such people who have to close one eye to guarantee that one eye will align the gun with the target. Fortunately, they do seem to be very few. The lucky ones will simply be able to align left eye with left hand and right with right, at will.<\/p>\n

In my experience, you\u2019ll more often find the \u201cless dominant eye\u201d person who can consciously align the left eye with the left hand when shooting a pistol, and the right eye with the right hand, at will with no problem. As my own vision has changed over the years, I\u2019ve found times when I could do that and times when I couldn\u2019t. You may find a student in the same situation. Tell that one to pick one eye and drill on aiming with that one. Believe it or not, it can be that simple.<\/p>\n

Often, you will find students who are cross-dominant: that is, they are right-handed with left master eye, or vice-versa. If that happens, neither you nor they should despair. There are countless cross-dominant shooting champions\u2026and in an upcoming segment here at\u00a0The Armory Life\u00a0<\/em>we\u2019ll show you and them how to deal with that. Spoiler: it doesn\u2019t always involve using the other hand to control the trigger!<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note: Please be sure to check out The Armory Life Forum, where you can comment about our daily articles, as well as just talk guns and gear. Click the \u201cGo To Forum Thread\u201d link below to jump in and discuss this article and much more!<\/em><\/p>\n

Join the Discussion<\/span><\/h5>\n

Go to forum thread<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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By Massad Ayoob In case you know what I\u2019m talking about, I know what you\u2019re thinking. \u201cI already know which of my eyes is dominant, so I don\u2019t need to read this.\u201d Please,\u00a0set that thought aside. Take a few minutes to read this, and when you\u2019re done,\u00a0then\u00a0go ahead and write in the forum thread \u201cI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}