USA Carry by Ben Findley 8/26/2019
Shooting a handgun in self-defense situations obviously involves coordination between the eyes and hands of the shooter. This article considers eye dominance and its relationship to pistol accuracy in personal protection. What is not so obvious to shooters is that most of our brains have a strong preference for one eye over the other and that this can change. I have learned over my many years of teaching handgun students that some do not know which eye is their dominant eye or preferred eye. We easily and quickly determine this in class.
Interesting Eye-Dominance Observations & Conclusions for ShootersMost shooters’ brains are innately hard-wired for an eye preference or a dominant eye, according to scientific studies. About 65% to 70% of shooters have a right-eye preference. About 80% are also right-handed. A small percentage of about 1% have equal-eye dominance or no dominance or preference with either eye. This is called Co-Dominance. See my August 20, 2013 article about Dominant Hand and Eye Decisions in Aiming.
Mixed or alternating Ocular Dominance exists where a shooter uses one eye for certain tasks or functions and the other eye is dominant for other tasks at different times. But recognize that eye dominance is not absolute and your Ocular Dominance can change. A shooter can train their eyes to change dominance, perhaps to accommodate an eye injury, accident, or aging, but this takes considerable time and effort. Most shooting experts, but certainly not all, recommend changing hand dominance before changing eye dominance IF changing dominance is a decision. For some shooters, the preferred or dominant eye may be weaker than the other eye, e.g., due to injury or congenitally at birth. Other shooters are Center Dominant, which is like being ambidextrous with hands, but instead of two equally-strong hands, they have two equally-strong eyes.
Note: Shooters and Instructors need to establish the individual’s eye dominance before learning or teaching handgun fundamentals.I was halfway thru a Pistol Marksmanship Course at the U of H before the instructor brought up Eye Dominance. I am right handed and left eye dominant. Once he talked about it in class my groups went to hell for several classes until I just put it out of my mind and went back to shooting the way I'd always done.
The Goal of Handgun TrainingKeep in mind that the goal of self-defense handgun training is not to change eye dominance, but rather to enhance accuracy and apply shooting basics to stop the threat for self-defense. The Flash Sight Picture Technique is a very effective approach for close-up self-defense shooting. See my October 29, 2012, related article here.
Cross DominanceThe side of the dominant eye and dominant hand do not always match. This is called Cross Dominance. Confirmations for this and things I have noticed in class (and clues for a shooter with Cross Dominance) are if target misses are slightly high and/or way off to the side… and, of course, are not attributable to other factors. Remember, Mixed Ocular Dominance (alternating Dominance) may exist, if one eye is dominant for certain things and the other eye is dominant at different times for other things. In this case, there is not strong dominance of one eye over the other eye. Some professional shooters, like Rob Leatham, say that Cross Dominance is not an issue and does not matter since shooters will naturally adapt to their situation and learn to be effective with their eye dominance.
4 Basic Options for Cross Dominance AimingHere are four Aiming solutions for an example situation, where the shooter is right handed and left-eye dominant:
More:
https://www.usacarry.com/shooting-cross-dominance-solutions/