Another eye dominance question

[Montie]

Hi all! First post on this forum, hopefully someone can help.

I've read lots of dominant eye theories in snooker but I seem to have confused my game beyond belief.
I am pretty heavily right-eye dominant when doing any of the tests. I am also right-handed. However I feel I play far more consistently if I cue on the left of my chin.
Am I handicapping myself by doing this or is it a case of whatever works?
Unfortunately I don't have the time to play snooker as much these days but I still play UK pool quite a bit. It could be the smaller table not showing alignment issues the same but I do remember trying this on a snooker table with similar results.
If I cue the way the dominant eye theory suggests I should look similar to this http://www.fcsnooker.co.uk/images/co...sighting_2.jpg But I find that far more difficult.
Could it all be in my head? I seem to aim before I get down and outside of the extremes I can pretty much pot balls regardless of head position I just find left of centre chin more consistent.
Any suggestions?

Cheers.

[DeanH]

It is in your head now!
forget about what "the books" say and do what is comfortable for you
do what pots balls and gets the white where you want it
get down the club and pot balls, have fun and enjoy
:biggrin:

[blahblah01]

I lost a reply as laptop went AWOL.

Yep totally to Dean's reply. I'll try and dig out the longish thread here sometime, but Terry explains it really well, and Dean(?) posted how few Pro's cue under same side eye as they cue with, which was a bit of a shocker, and ROS's was the best

[Mark187187]

It also depends how long you've been playing. I'm right eye dominant, but have always cued down the middle of my chin. If i'd known about eye dominance 30 years ago i might have had success cueing under that eye, but i'm too far gone to change something as fundamental as that now, and my brain seems to make the necessary adjustments anyway.

[blahblah01]

Yep, Terry's point was that the eye's adjust while cuing under the wrong one has some Cue Action advantage and avoids Back pain\issues from cuing under the same side eye.

Of all the technical type stuff this is by far the least important, imho, as a player will naturally place the cue in the best position for them ie the most natural?

[blahblah01]

Happy reading:
http://www.thesnookerforum.co.uk/boa...t=dominant+eye
and
http://www.thesnookerforum.co.uk/boa...t=dominant+eye

Hopefully these will confuse you enough to realise not to eff about with where the cue is as it isn't worth trashing your game for....

[Terry Davidson]

Dominant Eye Theory has really screwed up a lot of players ever since Joe Davis was cueing under left eye. Joe did it as he was nearly blind (very short sighted I assume) in his right eye. There are coaches out there who will tell you that you MUST cue under your dominant eye. This is just another junk theory.

It doesn't matter which eye you cue under but what is ESSENTIAL is to do the same thing all the time and over the years. Your brain, being the marvelous instrument it is will adjust. Besides which, mu argument is that every player has a 'sighting' eye which he uses to sight the cue when down in the address position and that sighting eye may not necessarily be his dominant eye and is more likely to be the eye he sees better out of.

I used to sight with my right eye but after eye surgery the surgeon made my left eye have the better sight and now I turn my head slightly to the right to bring the left eye over the cue, but I have always been and still am right eye dominant.

[chrisg]

Interestingly there was mention of this DE theory in the UK Championship and I can't remmeber the commentator it was but he mentioned something about a player cueing under his DE because it helped him deliver the cue straight rather than cueing across the line.

Funnily enough, I've tried all three ways of DE theory, i.e, cueing under Right Eye as I'm very right eye dominant, also tried cueing under centre of chin and also cueing over left of chin on left eye. Strangely all three have same affect that the cue does get delivered straight. However, when I cue under left eye, the position of the balls seemed weird! SO crossed that off!

Under centre chin, it didn't seem too bad and I think naturally, my cue position does rest on centre, but I don't find it offers any consistently as I tend to cue across ball sometimes.

When I placed it right of chin, the cue seemed to get delivered much more consistently straight - after about twenty strokes on baulk line, I am convinced that cueing over right eye for me is way to go!

What you need to do is experiment and when you find a position that feels comfortable and works - stick with it.

One other thing to mention is stance. I'm finding that if I stand too central on the approach i can't see the angle very well, but if I'm slightly to the right of the cue ball, it's much better!

Again, experiment with these variables and get to know your ideal approach...It may take trial and error to start off with but you'll eventually find the ideal for you and that may well not be the textbook ideal!

[Terry Davidson]

Whatever you decide in this regard is best for you ALWAYS do it consistently. This is the only way your brain will get trained. If you keep switching anything in your technique you will never give yourself the chance to settle.

[arsalanjami]

Small point - I noticed yesterday I was doing the same - cueing across and giving unwanted side.

Out of no where i tilted my head a bit so that it was more straight down the cue and not on an angle (didn't realize it was).
I realized my mistake was that I was take the cue down nicely, but when i was settling down I was not putting my head in a relaxed position right above the cue. It was maybe 5-10mm off tilted sideways to the left (I am a left hander). Because my head was tilted by a small degree, the line of aim was being looked at from a sideview even though it appears to be st8 down the barrel if that makes sense.

I played maybe 10 12 shots of the cue over the blue spot with bottom top spin centre ball and the cue ball came back straight every single time.

It is important to remember these small adjustments and being mindful about your own quirks so that when they arise you immediately know what is going on in a match setting.

[vmax]

One other thing to mention is stance. I'm finding that if I stand too central on the approach i can't see the angle very well, but if I'm slightly to the right of the cue ball, it's much better!

I find that if I stand in my boxer stance position when stood up behind the shot I drop onto the right line much better. I'm very left eye dominant, cue directly under it, and standing in my boxer position gives me the same left sided view and means I step into the shot without any twist of the body or turn of the head as I get down.

[Montie]

Thanks for all the replies! I doubt this debate will ever be solved but I find all the different theories fascinating.
Since I made this post I have played under my left eye(Non dominant) and my consistency has gone way up. I'm playing much more confidently which in turn leads to a better standard.

I do have my own theory as to why this works for me and may or may not work for others.
I believe it has to do with aiming while standing behind the shot. If I get down with my cue centre chin or under my dominant eye I feel I use the eyes too much when cueing which can cause me to push the cue off line, whereas If i play under the left eye I do all my sighting behind the ball and then when I get down to the shot I do all my cueing with my right arm. I'm finding it difficult to explain exactly what I mean but it has brought my game back to a place i'm pretty happy with at this stage so I'm planning on sticking with it and see where we go.