[Drew Hause]

Joan Pflueger

Mrs. Shattuck

There are lots of stills of Plinky Topperwein but I couldn't find a good "live action" image

 

[Drew Hause]

Small images. Pat Laursen at low 7 appears to have the left eye open

But here closed

 

[Drew Hause]

Carole Lombard 1938
Possibly shut in the 3rd image

 

[Drew Hause]

 

[swiebe805]

As a family of three female shooters: My oldest and I are right handed, right eye dominant and shoot with both eyes open. My youngest is right handed, left eye dominant, and shoots with one eye. My husband shoots with one eye, is right handed and is right eye dominant.

I was trained as a kid to shoot with both eyes open for accuracy. My girls shoot at the range with wonderful coaches so they have also been encouraged to shoot with both eyes open. The youngest is struggling with having to learn to use her left hand to shoot. I think that is why she is closing her right eye.

 

[swiebe805]

I’ve always heard that for whatever reason most women are left eye dominant. But at a young age most were told to use or had things placed in their right hands.

That would explain why so many right handed females have to shoot one eyed.

Jeffrey Holguin

This would certainly be true for my youngest.

 

[swiebe805]

Based on 30 years teaching I estimate the % of female shooters that HAVE to use some form of 1-eye while shooting trap is probably close to 97-98%.
HAVE meaning if they are going to shoot up to their potential.

What is crazy is that several of the top female trap shoot with 2 eyes and I have not figured out if they did anything different or are just the exception to the rule.

This is so interesting. How does one know if one eye or two is best? Asking for myself and daughter. We both shoot with two eyes. But maybe we would do better with one eye?

 

[swiebe805]

Eye dominance and shooting - Shooting UK
In young men, eye dominance may not stabilize until the teens. There are also very significant sex differences as mentioned. Unlike men, few women have or develop eye dominance corresponding to their handedness.
Indeed, few women are absolutely dominant in either eye. They usually have indeterminate eye dominance as highlighted, but this is often misdiagnosed as true cross dominance with more misinformed advice typically following, for example, the suggestion to change shoulders – only a sensible option in the context of two-eyed shooting when eye dominance is absolutely or nearly absolutely on the opposite side.
Not only does eye dominance seem to change with age, and differ with the sexes, it is also interesting to note that the distribution of eye-dominance appears to vary with different sports, implying that there may be a learned element, or that certain sports are self selecting.

Wow!

Would you mind shedding some light on a question for me?
My youngest daughter (9 years old): the coaches at the range determined she is left eye dominant. She is right handed. They have hand her change over to left handed shooting. This has been hard to say the lease. Now she is closing one eye to shoot left handed. She is brand new to shooting trap and kind of struggling. Is it worth having her continue to shoot left handed? Wouldn't she better off just closing one eye or shooting with a patch?

 

[Ram Rod]

This is so interesting. How does one know if one eye or two is best? Asking for myself and daughter. We both shoot with two eyes. But maybe we would do better with one eye?

Phil has a high speed camera and he would film her to determine if she is crossfiring .
Then he would have her try different things to find what works.
Henry

 

[pheasantmaster]

Wow!

Would you mind shedding some light on a question for me?
My youngest daughter (9 years old): the coaches at the range determined she is left eye dominant. She is right handed. They have hand her change over to left handed shooting. This has been hard to say the lease. Now she is closing one eye to shoot left handed. She is brand new to shooting trap and kind of struggling. Is it worth having her continue to shoot left handed? Wouldn't she better off just closing one eye or shooting with a patch?

What kind of background do these coaches at the club have?

Are you confident in the coaches and their evaluation of your daughter being left eye dominant?

Your daughter is young and if she's truly, I mean truly left eye dominant then now would be the time to incourage her to try and learn to learn shooting from the left shoulder.

 

[Drew Hause]

Welcome Swiebe. Several thoughts
1. It is more likely that your daughter will be able to shift to the left shoulder starting at her age.
2. Her handedness however may be so strong that the attempt will only lead to discouragement.
3. As suggested, finding a coach who understands the challenges of female visual processing, and who does not dictate or demand a specific methodology, is of the greatest importance.
4. At age 9, it is also critical that shooting be fun...which frustration and failure is not. I agree at this point letting her use an occlusive until her ability, and confidence, improves might be the best choice.