Published September 01, 2015 in TrainingBy P.J. Reilly

Simple test for eye dominance

Coach Heather Pfeil stretches her hands out creating a triangular hole with her index fingers and thumbs to see Coach Laura Reed.
Most of us have a dominant eye.That means our brains tend to prefer visual input from one eye over the other.Ideally in archery, you shoot so that your dominant eye is the one looking through the bowsight. Archers with a dominant right eye should shoot right-handed, and vice versa for lefties.Doing so allows you to keep both eyes open while you aim, which, in turn, allows greater focus on the target.In the video above, you can see Lancaster Archery Academy instructors Heather Pfeil and Laura Reed demonstrate a test to determine eye dominance. If you don’t know yours, check it out.If you’ve been shooting for a while, but you’ve never actually tested your eye dominance, give it a try as well. You might find the eye you thought was dominant actually isn’t.Sometimes a person’s eye dominance and hand preference are opposite. It’s not necessary to switch hands to match your eye dominance, but you might want to give it a try to see if it works for you. If not, you can always close the dominant eye while aiming.