Hello Guys and Gals, I bought my son a bow when he was 8, he is now 12. He is right handed. Never thought to check eye dominance when we purchased it. Was just excited to get him shooting. Well the other day we setup my daughters bow and we happen to check his eye dominance. He is left eye dominant. What is my next move? Keep him shooting right handed since he has been for 4 years, or get him a left handed bow to match his dominant eye. Thoughts?
You actually can do whatever you want. Few guys on here struggle with it. You can use your non dominant as long as it's in correspondence with the dominant arm. Just don't "cross the streams" How is he shooting as is?
He is shooting fairly decent. Don't get much practice in because he is in baseball right now. I think if he practices a bit more it will be alright.
Another consideration would be to remove the peep from the string and install a kisser button and/or nose button to give him two anchor points. This would allow him to shoot with both eyes open and his dominant arm. Some right - to - left adjustments to his sight maybe necessary if you go this route.
You didn't mention if he's shooting traditional or recurve. With or without sights. I am one of those left eye but rt hand shooters. Decades, I do not use sights I shoot instinctive..So lots of practice. If he's comfortable now and shooting good don't push a change. Offer to let him try shooting a left handed bow. This can be done by "bow shopping " and asking to shoot a " prospective" bow. If the sighting is an issue now, offer an eye patch he can flip down over the lft. to give his rt eye better focus.
Thanks all. Definitely valuable info. He is shooting a compound. Has a kisser on the string already. I will just keep letting him go right now and see how it goes.
I am naturally RH and severely Left eye dominant (severely far-sighted in my right eye, my dominant left eye is fine.) As long as your son can see both his sites and the target clearly at the same time with his non-dominant eye, it's not that big of a deal to shoot with your dominant eye closed. Optimal no, but not a big deal. I did it for years, and won many 3d shoots as a kid doing it. Then as I got older, my weaker eye got to the point I had to wear a contact lens so strong that to see the sights clearly I could no longer see the target clearly. Eventually I made the switch to shooting left handed (with a LH bow) to use my dominant eye. I made that switch in my early 30s, and never looked back. The switch was pretty easy, actually. I was hunt-ready after my first session. Took a season or 2 to get all my muscle-memory re-trained, but it was little things like putting my release on the wrong hand at the bottom of the stand and dumb stuff like that.
Have you noticed, does he shoot using his right eye or is he anchoring in some way to use his left eye? Don't laugh, I have seen kids do this who were left eye dominant, but shot right handed. Awkward. If you boy has been shooting for four years now using his right eye you don't need an eye patch for him, he has learned how to use his right eye. At 8 years old we see kids come in to lessons who can shoot either way and eventually determine for themselves which way feels best. Sounds like your son has done that. We had one youngster who was right handed, but left eye dominant. His dad bought a right handed bow for him and an eye patch for his left eye. After some months of shooting he no longer needed the eye patch. He learned how to do it with his non dominant eye. Obviously your son has done the same. Actually better, there are far more used right handed bows and accessories in the world than left handed.
I am right handed and left eye dominant. I haven't had any issues. The only thing he won't be able to do is to shoot with both eye open. Other then that, he will be good.
