The Dominant Eye Theory Is Totally Wrong!

[Terry Davidson]

As I said previously, I totally believe if you are standing somewhat 'correctly' with a good technique, your 'natural eye' will find itself. I had an hour on the practice table earlier and although I started off (because of this thread) thinking about sighting, I had within 10 minutes completely forgotten about this whole sighting fiasco.

My advice. Look after your technique and your sighting will look after itself. Who am I to speak.....only 1000's of centuries to my name and originally terrible eyesight....?

Food for thought.

Also, many of you might remember Cliff Wilson from Wales. 100% blind in one eye. Used to pot everything. Bob Chandler from Bristol, unbelievable player, terrible eyesight....coached me as a kid and he had a pretty decent 147 against one of his students. When I asked him as a young teenager how he does it as an older badly sighted person, he replied, "I play from memory, can barely see the balls past 6 feet".

He never played with glasses on and when I tried his reading glasses on, I realised that his eyes were even worse than mine. Tell me now where sighting comes in!

I happen to agree with you Matt as after my eye surgery I had to change to sighting out of my left eye (head turned right slightly) and previously it was my right eye (head straight ahead, centre-chin). I believe everyone develops a natural sighting line which might not be 'perfect' but the brain will eventually correct for this 'imperfect' view.

By the way...you ain't in Canada anymore so change that frikkin flag over to the Union Jack or something (maybe the flag of Bristol?).

[MattB147]

Ha! Thanks Terry. Great coaching minds think alike. And how do you know I am not in Canada??? I may be lurking somewhere in the subway system with my John Parris waiting to pounce at any given moment! Hope you are well...

[Terry Davidson]

Your FB postings gave it away. Things are going well for me at the moment and I hope things are humming along for you too.

[vmax4steve]

I'm teasing - I don't usually like messing with my sighting or even being aware of it - I prefer the natural approach - last time I did it really messed with my marbles my timing went and I could not pot a ball but I will give it a go and report back if you explain further - I am not really sure what you mean here though buddy?

When in the address position, focus your vision on the cue ball for about ten seconds and let us know what you see of your cue in your peripheral vision. No messing with sighting going on, just an experiment to find out exactly what info from your eyes the brain is blocking out.
Do you see just one cue, are there two, one from each eye, (as in the finger test to show eye domination) or do you also see what I see, a second ghostly image of your cue from the non dominant or non preferred eye that doesn't go to the cue ball and ends at your bridge hand.

[golferson123]

Eh ----those double doubles in yer drink at the club there buddy??

I think thats normal, spectacle wearers only see one lens,at least i do

[Shockerz]

I think thats normal, spectacle wearers only see one lens,at least i do

Yep. Just one lens for me.

[Nic Barrow]

Really like the way you explain it to be a preferred eye rather than dominant eye,and also I've noticed in myself as you explain in the video.. That my preferred eye is my weakest too(in terms of clarity of vision..even tho I don't need glasses).... Right handed but left eye preferred ....

Yes everyone one is unique...
And that is what we all have to aim for - INSTEAD OF trying to look like other players at the table!

[Nic Barrow]

I have a SightRight device here and frankly cannot find a good use for it with students, as it only works when you fremove the paper hiding the line extension and then only for a fraction of a second. I'm still baffled by the claim for the SightRight Cue though as the player has to place the cue first, check it, and then walk into the cue...which is not the way most players assume the address position.

Mistaken on my post on your other string, I didn't notice this post until after I made the comment.

Agreed - Stuart never looked at the lines on the cue during the world... and it would be a distraction to a player to do so... Better to find out your correct vision centre, and 'set and forget it'.

[Nic Barrow]

Thanks for answer. Do you suggest that baring major eyesight issues you should try and cue centre chin? I would have thought that would help with consistency when you adapted to it.

I have never really bought into the whole eye dominance theory. I'm sure I have read somewhere that this can change from day to day - stress, tiredness, hangovers etc?

Maybe eyes get tired and the strength can modulate slightly especially if one is on front of a computer? I think one has to assume that once we have confirmed our correct vision centre, we 'set it and forget it' and let the eyes adapt to any minor day to day fluctuations in the (rare?) even there are any. Otherwise you would second guess and feel you did not always know why you missed. That is, you need to know if you missed due to incorrect cueing, or incorrect aiming. Eye alignment and vision centre need to be eliminated as a variable or reason to miss a pot.

[Nic Barrow]

Personally I have a strong dominant right eye, which is also the eye that requires most optical correction (weaker). I've watched Nick's piece. I have to say I find it confusing. I don't understand the difference he's trying to make between preferred and dominant eye. To me it seems that what he is describing is a dominant eye, and it being important!

Dominant eye is nothing about strength of vision. It's the one your brain chooses to frame (or sight, if you prefer) with in that particular scenario, the other eye follows....your brain takes the line of sight from the dominant eye. I have tested a range of scenario’s for me....I'm pretty much always strongly right eye dominant, and putting that eye over the cue makes a big positive difference to me. I first came across this as a result of Frank Callan's coaching, and it made a step difference in my potting consistency (for the level I'm at).

I understand that it might be different for other people, but I have no doubt that for me this is a significant factor.

I don't like to use dominant to describe the framing eye because the word gives the wrong impression that that eye is stronger. In 10% of tests, I find that the 'preferred' (usually known as 'dominant') eye is actually WEAKER than the other.

The test I have in the bonus video area for the product has a test which will tell us all our vision centre - which is unique for everyone and incorporates the weighting the brain assign to preferred eye, stronger eye, and any binocular vision issues.

[Nic Barrow]

managed to find footage of various tsf members the day after trying out different sighting techniques after seeing this thread.

'rofl' .

[Nic Barrow]

Tell me about it, story of my life

The question is not 'How can I miss that pink after potting such a blue', but 'How can I pot that blue when I am still able to miss those pinks'. Start by getting consistent on the easy ones first (which also need a great level of concentration to make consistently) and then build out the skills. Also, a great pot may in fact be three mistakes cancelling each other out so it is unfair to judge yourself negatively when you miss anything less than your best pot of the day.

[Nic Barrow]

As I said previously, I totally believe if you are standing somewhat 'correctly' with a good technique, your 'natural eye' will find itself. I had an hour on the practice table earlier and although I started off (because of this thread) thinking about sighting, I had within 10 minutes completely forgotten about this whole sighting fiasco.

My advice. Look after your technique and your sighting will look after itself. Who am I to speak.....only 1000's of centuries to my name and originally terrible eyesight....?

Food for thought.

Also, many of you might remember Cliff Wilson from Wales. 100% blind in one eye. Used to pot everything. Bob Chandler from Bristol, unbelievable player, terrible eyesight....coached me as a kid and he had a pretty decent 147 against one of his students. When I asked him as a young teenager how he does it as an older badly sighted person, he replied, "I play from memory, can barely see the balls past 6 feet".

He never played with glasses on and when I tried his reading glasses on, I realised that his eyes were even worse than mine. Tell me now where sighting comes in!

Sighting is 90% peripheral vision and knowing where the edges of the table (and therefore the pockets) are. The rest is memory and looking at the balls in the correct sequence to 'gather visual data'. You can test this theory by getting down to shots and never looking at the object ball (just look only at the cue ball for the whole duration that you cue up, backswing and deliver).

[Nic Barrow]

My problem is that although I have found I can now send the cue ball exactly where I am looking I need to be millimeter perfect on where I am seeing the contact point.
I have found that when I am playing pool (against myself) by putting marker spots underneath the balls on shots I struggle with I can fine tune where I think the correct place is to aim the cb.
I have found being ocd about pre-prep before making the shot has helped my success rate improve as well.
I think it is called linear path memory that I need to work on so I can think less about the prep and more about the shot and cb path after contact.
Now I can't blame a miss on sighting I have to work on the other stuff as well!

Going from snooker to pool will usually give thicker contacts than expected due to ball size differences.
The speed you adapt to this depends on how regularly you switch between both games.

[tetricky]

I don't like to use dominant to describe the framing eye because the word gives the wrong impression that that eye is stronger. In 10% of tests, I find that the 'preferred' (usually known as 'dominant') eye is actually WEAKER than the other.

The test I have in the bonus video area for the product has a test which will tell us all our vision centre - which is unique for everyone and incorporates the weighting the brain assign to preferred eye, stronger eye, and any binocular vision issues.

I know that is your approach. I just don't understand it. To me your 'clarification' adds confusion. Dominant eye is a technical description with a specific meaning. One might as well use it, as learn what you mean by 'preferred eye'. I don't understand how that makes things any easier.