Beginning Archery: What is my Eye Dominance?

What is my Eye Dominance?

In the previous post, you chose your type of archery/bow style based on your interest but before choosing a bow, now that you have a better idea of which type of archery you want to practice, it’s important to know which eye is dominant.

Here is a little test to determine your eye dominance which will usually dictate your draw hand side, especially if you are to shoot with both eyes open, which gives a much brighter and more realistic field of view that you can't get with only one eye open.

If you prefer to position yourself as per your hand dominance while having the opposite eye dominance than closing an eye would become important for your shooting precision.

Most people have a visual preference for one eye or the other, often without even realizing it. This is known as eye dominance.

Eye dominance can be weak or strong and does not have anything to do with hand dominance. For example, you might be right-handed but left-eye dominant. Studies show that about two-thirds of people are right-eye dominant, one-third are left-eye dominant and a small percentage of people do not favor either eye.

 

5 easy steps to test eye dominance:

1. Go where you can see an object that is at least 10-20 ft away.
2. Hold your hands out at arm’s length and make a circle about 1″ in diameter.
3. Keeping both eyes open, use the circle to frame the object visually.
4. Making sure you can always see the object, pull your hands slowly back to your face.
5. Your hands will come back naturally to your dominant eye.

 

In rare cases, a new archer will not feel a preference for either eye. When this happens, it is best to use the dominant hand to draw the bow.

 

Thank you for reading! Stay tuned for the next post!

Other suggested posts:

• Archery Terms and Definitions
• Beginning Archery: Hunting or Target Shooting, What to pick?
• Beginning Archery: What do I need for my recurve bow?