Sighting on shots

[Chris Patterson]

Just out of curiousity, i wanted to know whether most players when down on the shot use a dominant eye as their vision when on the shot, or do you use both eyes? I heard that some people have a dominant eye, and use it instead of both when down on the cue.

I use both eyes, but thats because i thought it was the norm, just resting my chin on the cue and using the sight from both eyes, but thats because i knew no better...

P.S how would you find out if you have a dominant eye in snooker? and would it be more useful to use a dominant eye than both?

[lawrywild]

I use my dominant left eye, my cue goes to my left of my chin (I'm right handed).

To test, hold yours arms out infront of you and form a small gap between your hands. Sight an object through the gap and then alternate closing of each eye. It'll be pretty obvious which is dominant or if they are co-dominant.

[themayorofflair]

I think that we all have a dominant eye full stop.

The easiest way to see which eye is dominant is to hold your first finger up at arms length in front of your face making sure that you have a varied background. Look at this finger through both eyes & than close first the left & then the right.

You should notice that when you shut one of your eyes the finger moves significantly in relation to the background whilst if you shut the other it will remain pretty much where it was when you had both eyes open.

This is your dominant eye.

I would assume that you could perform this exercise looking down your cue at the cueball / object ball but I can pretty much guarentee that it will remain the same through all walks of life.

I hope the above makes sense & helps you understand how to find your dominant eye.

[Terry Davidson]

Most player will have a 'preferred' eye which they use for aiming, whether they know it or not. The method where you form a small gap with your 2 hands and then look through the gap at an object 15ft away or so is the best method for discovering which is your preferred eye.

After that, there is some disagreement amongst all coaches on whether the player should now alter his stance to get his cue running uner the preferred eye. A lot of coaches (like myself and Nic Barrow) say run the cue centre-chin and let the brain sort out the aiming by staying down on all shots and getting proper feedback.

However, after eye surgery I had to switch my preferred eye from right to left. It had been my right eye all my life until the damned surgeon screwed it up fir me.

The most difficult problem to work out for a coach is if you have a player whose preferred eye is opposite to his grip arm. I myself am right-handed but now use my left eye for sighting. This took quite awhile to retrian myself.

When I used the 'Site-Right' device I got a shock as I was seeing 2 lines not evenly spaced, meaning my aiming was slightly out. Only because I am in mid-season right now I haven't gotten to work to alter my stance to bring my cue a little more to the left. The solution is relatively siimple, the easiest being just turn my head slight to the right to bring my left eye slightly more over the cue.

I've been experimenting with this for a few days now but I think it's too early to say if there have been any positive results as yet.

Terry

[Chris Patterson]

Yea Terry i have the same problem, as i am right handed, but i think my left eye is domiant as when i do the check to see which eye is more dominant, i see the target through my hands with my left eye, and nothing with my right.

However, i always played with the centre of my chin, and used both eyes, but today i practiced on some shots by moving my chin slightly right, and it left my left eye parallel over the cue, and although it was hard and werid, i think my shots were more acurate.

Should i play like this from now often with my dominant eye?