Introduction to Dominant Eye

Whether you’ve just taken up archery or are a part of the world for a while now, I’m absolutely sure you’ve heard a great many people mention the concept of the dominant eye. Now, they might use a different term, such as master eye or power eye, but they’re essentially talking about the same thing – the eye that receives the visual information and that, basically, does all of the seeing for you.

This might sound like a silly idea, I mean, you have two working eyes, how can they’re not receiving the same amount of information? Well, it’s kind of like your hands. Unless you’re really lucky and can use both of them equally, you normally use one of them, while the other is there for “support”.

Knowing your dominant eye is extremely important if you’re an archer (or planning on becoming one) since it can make all the difference in the world when shooting. Taking into the equation your power eye can improve your accuracy, stability (especially if you’re used to close one eye when shooting) and overall performance. And who doesn’t want that?

Many times the dominant eye corresponds with the dominant hand (right hand – right dominant eye, left hand – left dominant eye), which is great since there’s no doubts or hesitation as to which bow to use, right or left.

However, there are people who are cross-dominant, meaning their right hand is the dominant one, but their dominant eye is the left one (and vice versa: left hand – right dominant eye). For them, there’s a bit of an issue because they have to make a decision which bow works best for them. If these are new archers and they don’t have a lot of experience, the general recommendation is to go with their dominant eye (so, left dominant eye – left bow; right dominant eye – right bow).

If not, if the archer has experience and has been shooting arrows for a long time, then there’s a decision to be made – use the bow as per the dominant hand and squint the non-dominant eye (and lose a bit of stability by doing so), or choose the bow as per the dominant eye and re-train the body to adjust to the change (which can be quite frustrating).

I’m guessing some of you might be thinking something along the way of – that’s all great, but how do I figure out which is my dominant eye?

How to Determine Your Dominant Eye

https://www.youtube.com/embed/EIm-oOZ_TcE
There are a few methods and dominant eye test you can use, all of which should give you the same result. These are the most common and reliable one, and two out of three can be done by yourself.

Method 1 

1. Pull up your arms to shoulder height, palms facing away from your body and cross your thumbs and your fingers in a way that they form a small triangle.
2. Search for an object about 10-20ft away and look at it through the triangle with your both eyes opened.
3. Close one eye and take a mental note of what happens. Open the eye.
4. Close the other eye and take a mental note of what happens. Open the eye.

Normally, with one eye the object stayed in place, while with the other one it got covered by your hands (it seemed like either your hands or the object moved). The eye you had opened when the object stayed in place is your dominant eye.

Method 2

1. Pull up your arms to shoulder height, palms facing away from your body and cross your thumbs and your fingers in a way that they form a small triangle.
2. Search for an object about 10-20ft away and look at it through the triangle with your both eyes opened.
3. Start moving your hands back towards your face without losing the object from the triangle.

You’ll, automatically, move your hands back towards your dominant eye, so once your hands touch your face you’ll know exactly which is your power eye.

Method 3

For this method, you’ll need an assistant, but it’s just as easy as the first two.

1. Pull up your arms to shoulder height, palms facing away from your body and cross your thumbs and your fingers in a way that they form a small triangle.
2. Look at your assistant through the triangle.
3. The assistant should ask you to close the eye you’re looking him with (he’ll see it through the triangle).
4. Once you close the eye and your assistant disappears you’ll be certain that that’s your dominant eye.

Now you know

…which one is your dominant eye. The next step is to compare this information with your “main” hand and see if there are any changes or adjustments in your bow that you might consider doing.

If you’re cross-dominant, there’s no right or wrong answer. It’s a matter of preference and will to work, especially if you need to re-train your body to get used to a different side bow. If you’re not entirely sure on how to proceed, I would highly recommend you consult with an experienced archer to see what they suggest for your situation. But whatever you decide, remember to always have fun and be safe!