Cross Dominance in Archery 1/4

[@marthaanderson2656]

I am a CD archer. I choose to shoot left handed to match the eye. I may have had a small advantage in learning as I use my left hand for fine work as part of my job and coming out of equestrian sport, I had to be able to communicate equally through both sides of my body . I often confuse fellow archers when I shoot left and then pull my arrows and score with my right hand. I am looking forward to the details of the next videos

[@ArcheryWinchester]

You will be interested in one of the future videos where I discuss certain advantages that come to a Cross Dominant archer when he/she chooses to use the dominant Eye and uses the non dominant hand. Be patient.

[@bobsteele4452]

Are the other 3 videos in this series about Cross Dominance available yet? Links? Thanks for the great archery information

[@sactownj6559]

I am also a CD archer. Without any experience using a LH bow I decided to get one anyway because of my left dominant eye is much stronger than my rt. I had to order online since the archery shops in the area didn't have any LH in stock for me buy or try which is further proof of your point in the video. I got to admit I adapted very quickly using my left hand to draw and handle arrows.

[@zahirulhafiz8065]

was it hard for you when you switched to left hand? How long does it took you to fully adapt with the left hand bow? Are you good with it now? ps: sorry to bombard you with a lot of questions. Me myself just realized that I'm a CD archer so i want to hear opinion on those who have made the transition.

[@sactownj6559]

@@zahirulhafiz8065 I made the switch early on so it wasn't difficult enough. I was lucky enough to have a club nearby that had both left and right bows I could try and even though it was awkward at first I ended up buy my first bow left because visually it felt most natural and comfortable for me. Yes now it's soo natural for me to pull and grab arrows with my left. The only down side is ( for me) you have to start lower Draw weight and slowly work up because of course as a rightie my left arm is weaker.

[@zahirulhafiz8065]

@@sactownj6559 so after a few test from your side, which do you think is easier to retrain/adapt? change the bow hand or change the eye dominance? My story (you can skip reading this if you wanted, no hard feelings taken hahaha) :- I personally just discovered about this cross dominance literally today. I've always known that my dominant eye is left that is clear, while hand i'm not sure how to put it. Naturally i'm left handed, i write with my LH, throw a ball/rock with LH, shoot a gun with LH, except sport such as tennis & badminton: I hold the racket with my right hand. Hence, naturally when i pickup archery, i hold the riser with my left hand. LH holding riser meaning it is for right handed user & we are supposed to aim with right eye. This threw me off so bad. No wonder my grouping was all over the place even though i practiced almost everyday for 2 months with no improvements. I thought it was technique.

[@sactownj6559]

@@zahirulhafiz8065 find a club that will let you try out a Left bow. It may or may not be the reason you're grouping is off but to rule it out you'll have to give it a shot

[@zahirulhafiz8065]

@@sactownj6559 sure got it. Thank you for the advice sir!

[@ofranzen]

@ArcheryWinchester your videos are amazing. I've just taken up archery and am cross dominant. It would be very useful to see the rest of this series. Did they ever get produced and where can I find them?

[@gpbbrandon]

Please post the rest of the videos in the series! Thanks for this one!

[@ArcheryWinchester]

I apologize for the delay. I had to do some travel and this has slowed me down a little, but the other videos in the series are coming.

[@actionchris540]

3 years

[@superaurae]

Just started archery and I'm noticing my left eye is dominant, while my strength and hand dominance lies in my right hand. Looking forward to the coming videos! This is super educational and interesting!

[@coelian1701]

Realy like the video and I'm looking forward to the next part.

[@ChrisChen11]

Excellent video! When is part 2?

[@toransilverman]

Oddly enough, my first shots were with my left hand. I'm right hand and left eye dominant. The guy who was coaching me had me start with a left handed bow. After a couple shots, I got comfortable. Then I switched to RH bow and it felt very unnatural and could never really get comfortable after the same amount of shots.

[@polycrase]

Very simple...I shoot left handed, but am right eye dominant. Trained my left eye, actually my brain, lickety split.

[@wolfvolke7058]

injured my right eye last year and went from being right eye dominant to left eye dominant -own 3 right handed bows and this caused me a heap of sighting issues,did a heap of research and only solution seemed to be go left handed BUT THERE IS ANOTHER SOLUTION!! did away with the peep and went to a hindsight setup.once you no longer have to look through the string you can set up your front sight and the hindsight to line up with your left eye.did this and it works well.ps now shoot with both eyes open while before i always shut the left eye while sighting.

[@chassimpson3356]

Thats so good 7:58 7:58 hear ! I started archery in 2013 aged 62 and bought my first and only bow till recently a hoyt spyder 34, so since losing my right eye in nov 73 to a car crash, i was a bit stilted with this cross dominance thing , so a seach high and low for a bowsight that accomodated a ' one eyed' archer with no 'non dominant alternative eye , at 62 after years of carpentry and hauling fishing pots i was VERY right handed , no ifs or buts, this all lead me to an american sight manufacturing company Extreme Outdoor Products who produces just what i was after , a standard front sight and a rear 'rifle' sight ! I still have it on my bow today, brilliant ! After a fair bit of time walk back tuning i was good to 50mtrs . Glad you got sorted out 👏👏👏👏 cheers ,Chas.

[@nathanhouck2403]

I'm a CD archer and shoot using my dominant eye. Using my left hand to shoot was an easy transition. My groupings and accuracy improved almost immediately

[@swordinhand8356]

I seem to have had an opposite experience from what i've been reading in the comments so I thought I'd share. I'm left handed, right eye dominant. When I was young, I was exposed to right handed recurve archery and seemed to mesh well. I got out of the sport in my 20's and decided to pick it up again at 45 with a compound. For some reason, even though all tests show i was right eye dominate, it never felt comfortable using it in scopes. If I shoot a gun, I always used my left eye. So I decided to pick up my first left handed bow. Wow, what a difference! I wish I did this earlier, I would have never dropped the sport. It feels odd now to try to shoot right handed. There is no right answer, this topic is full of shades of grey.

[@slim617]

Damn. They really didnt post the next videos after many years 🥲

[@peterlucas9068]

Thanks for the excellent video, up to your usual high standard. I am puzzled by what you say at 6:34 though. I usually assume my cross- dominance is an advantage because I hold the bow in my strongest (left) hand, and aim with my strongest (right) eye. Being cross-dominant, the last thing I'd be tempted to do would be to aim with the "wrong" eye for my respective bow-hand! Wouldn't that error be much more likely in people who are strongly single-side-dominant? e.g. a left-handed archer who picks up a right-handed bow because it "feels" best in their left hand, and then attempts to aim with their left eye?

[@peterlucas9068]

In fact, given the ongoing debate about whether to be guided by dominant hand or dominant eye when determining "handedness" in archery, wouldn't it be better to substitute "left-hand-right-eye" (LHRE) for what is usually termed a "right-handed" shooter, and "right-hand-left-eye" (RHLE) for "left-handed"? That might underline the fact that the choice of which way to shoot is actually much more straightforward for cross-dominant shooters. If it's true that archery "handedness" involves less of a compromise for the cross-dominant that might also explain why many single-side-dominant archers are able to switch "handedness" quite successfully following injury while in my admittedly limited sample of one, I found it practically impossible to shoot "left-handed" (despite actually being left HANDED). The upshot would be that your points about flexibility and trainability are actually more relevant to single-side-dominant archers for whom archery handedness always involves a compromise (and especially for the strongly single-sided who might struggle to aim with the "correct" eye for their "handedness" (or, if they switch hands to compensate, struggle with a weak or insensitive bow arm)). Of course all of that also involves the assumption that a suitably dexterous bow hand is more important that a suitably dexterous release hand (just as "handedness" in guitar playing involves an assumption that the picking hand is more important that the fingering hand). Anyway, so far as I can see things are relatively straightforward for the cross-dominant archer. But that might not be apparent unless or until someone finds out how many of the "right-handers" who predominate at elite levels are actually cross-dominant lefties! (A footnote: if it is true that left-handers are much more likely to be cross-dominan than right-handers handers, that could suggest an alternative explanation for why "right-handers" dominate at elite levels. The usual presuppositions of coaches cater to the needs of both right-handers and cross-dominant lefties, and tend to exclude BOTH single-sided left-handers AND cross-dominant righties, who struggle to shoot "right-handed" and never think of trying "left-handed" - at which they might excel).

[@jjaska]

Very good presentation on the subject matter! Thank you for doing this!

[@trevormassoth2802]

Please release the other videos! Im really needing this

[@kevinplus3adventures644]

Great Discussion. I have found some instructors try and force eye dominance even if they are CD. I am CD but did not find out until latter on. When I start to instruct some one that is CD I let them shoot and decide on what feels right/natural to them.

[@bollockchops1616]

Great video. Thanks for posting. Will you be posting more videos on this subject soon?

[@dazeen9591]

Cross dominant myself as well. Left handed, but I have never trained my left eye and in the sun even when the sun is shining right in my right eye, I have the tendency to always close my left. To me it's going to take a lot longer to train my non-dominant eye so I rather shoot (draw the string with) right handed as to me it's not that much of a hassle.

[@inanacer5770]

That's the video I was looking for. But where are the other three videos??

[@AnimaTriste]

Is this excellent channel still active? Any information would be appreciated.

[@SolarBurn]

I'm right-handed, left eye dominant too. This video is informative, but I wished for more in depth info

[@steveruis1055]

Thanks for this. I came to the same conclusion but not so well thought out. I am still having a problem finding an accurate estimate of left-handedness in Americans. I have found a wide range of answers to that question. (Oh, i shoot cross dominantly ... because I wasn't told about eye dominance until I had been shooting for six years!

[@aranha9365]

If you blink your dominant eye quickly you switch the eye dominance to the other one without losing peripheral vision. I'm new in archery, but that is what you do in CQB when you need switch the side of your weapon for not exposing yourself to a uncleared area.

[@markburban9573]

left handed & cross dominant here. i shoot left handed & have just learnt to adjust to aiming with my non-dominant eye.. last weekend i shot a 290/300; so whatever i'm doing seems to be working.

[@Sangey_archery]

Please make more videos. We need your help.

[@sanderpsychologie]

Question: I am too left eye dominant and right handed, pretty much unable to adapt to a LH bow. Feels too alien. I can, if I close my left eye, adapt and shoot with my right eye. When I open my left eye slightly though, it takes over. The problem I'm currently having is my freaking string of course going through the center of my sight pin, making me unable to see the target center with my left eye closed. Is there any way to bypass this, or would training my other eye to take over with both eyes open be the only solution? What else is possible? I hope you can help me a step further. It is pretty frustrating for a beginning archer.

[@zazadong7088]

with due respect, sir, if you are still alive can you upload more videos?

[@VariantAEC]

I'm not an archer by any means but if bows are left or right hand why can't the bow be turned upside down to be held by the opposite handed dominant individuals. I mean don't most bows have bilateral symmetry vertically when held upright as demonstrated with the bow string drawn late in the video anyway or am I mistaken? Of course I also understand that not all bows would share that kind of vertical symmetry. Am asking more specifically if no bows have that kind of symmetry.

[@M4NTHONY]

So since I'm cross dominant and prefer to use my right hand, how would I help strengthen my non dominant eye?

[@marcusmckenzie9528]

[@dezzax]

I am CD and right handed, i tryed shooting left handed but couldent realy do it. so at the time i am shooting right handen with my dominant left eye closed. i have alos seen some people that is CD use goggles with black covers on there dominant eye just to use there dominant hand. is this an okey way to do it? or is there a better way? Realy love the video and looking forward to the next part.

[@amrazing33]

Yea pretty much. I'm a RH/LE cross-dominant. The only LH risers available are basically the top-of-the-line ones, and it's virtually impossible for beginners to get one

[@Southerniowaweather]

What happens if I’m actually legally blind in my right eye

[@muggzzzzz]

I am ambidexter and I don't have an explicit eye dominance. I successfully shoot aiming with any eye.

[@giulias.412]

Is it possible that my eye dominance swiched? I was always right eye dominant, but since 1 month I hit always the left and not the right aimed target.. We looked through videos if I'm correctly alined and yes I am... So we have no clue what happend

[@FactoryofRedstone]

The trick I know to find out eye dominance is, to stretch out both arms in front of you. Then use your fingers to make a hole to look throw. Then focus on a point in the far distance throw the hole made by your hands. Then keep the focus and move your hands slowly towards your face. When your hands touch your face, look to what side your hands have wondered. If you can't see it, open and close your eyes one at a time and look which one is still on target and which is just looking at your hand.

[@shubhamagrawal6636]

For cross dominance which side a should go.... to eyes or to hand

[@ArcheryWinchester]

It varies from archer to archer, and whether that archer is more biased to the dominant eye or the dominant hand. The follow up videos will discuss this, and how to address it, however, I can give you a quick rule. Most cross dominant people have learned to adapt to their alternate eye and will prefer to use their dominant hand. The majority of CD people aren't even aware of the conflict. I generally start archers with the dominant hand, and don't mention anything to them about the conflict. Most will be fine with this approach. These are the lmajority of CD people who are so mildly biased to the Dominant eye that it is easy for them. BUT, if an archer has any difficulty, or shows strong bias to the Dominant Eye, I switch them over. THis is a strong oversimplification. THe follow up videos will talk about this more. The real decision is not a cookie cutter plan. You will see as I discuss further details, a coach needs to understand a lot of things about the archer before making the decision,

[@mikhailfong6234]

@@ArcheryWinchester great video. Great reply. I learned a lot. I sometimes coach kids..10 - 12 year olds...yes I do let them use the dominant hand first and see the progress as we move along. Thanks again

[@RabbiTrogdor]

Are the other videos still in the works?

[@ArcheryWinchester]

I'm sorry, they are still not posted. I put them together and am finding it difficult to get my point across. I will have to quit reediting soon and just post them.

[@danielruprecht8932]

I didn't know I was cross dominant until I got a compound bow.

[@AG-cy3em]

Is it about the archer..? Or something else..?

[@dnakoldarkside6358]

lh/re. i went with lh dominance.

[@petrokemikal]

I don't understand the real dilema here.. Shoot with both eyes open and adjust your sight to suit.. Shoot left or right, which ever feels more natural.. That's where you will develop the quickest and best.. Eye dominance should really be only an issue with something like a rifle where you can only choose 1 eye through the scope..

[@coelian1701]

Hello? Anyone there??

[@coelian1701]

Dear Sir, You may be interested in the fact that Polish archer Milena Olszewska is a CD archer and it does not bother her to succeed in archery. worldarchery.org/athlete/9295/milena-olszewska

[@ArcheryWinchester]

Thank you for the information about Milena. There are many successful cross dominant archers. I myself am cross dominant. In my follow up videos I will tell more about how people deal with it successfully, and it can even be an advantage. ... I am sorry for the delay in the follow up videos. I have just returned from a trip to China, so I have not had a chance to work on these videos. Now that I am home again, I will have them ready and posted soon.

[@martinconwheeler]

Great presentation and thanks for putting it together, very well thought out, BUT your basic premises in the beginning have significant flaws. Looks like you might be drawing info from Wikipedia or some other questionable source. You need to do research (from reputable sources) the incidents of cross dominance in lefties is no where near the figures you are using (2/3) Eye dominance does indeed for the majority of people match their handedness. And although cross dominance does occur more frequently in lefthanders than righthanders (and there are several therories on why that is) the incidence of cross dominant lefties is well under 50% in all studies I've seen. The US military has been compiling stats for decades, for the purpose of marksmanship training. Here's a decent article if you must use online sources since he lists all his sources. rightleftrightwrong.com/statistics.html

[@ArcheryWinchester]

I have researched studies by the APA and found that they are not all in agreement with each other, however, most do agree with the point that eye dominance and hand dominance are 'basically' unconnected and random. Going beyond the In 2012, a study by the FAA indicated that they are completely random and that cross dominance is significantly higher among Left handers than right handers. In the same year, US Navy did a study that said they were in about the same percentage. It is difficult to find a conclusive and convincing study, so I picked a stand that is supported by the majority of the studies that I have looked at. In addition, I have tested many archers over the years, and my own, unofficial study, falls hear to the numbers I presented. However, If I wanted to argue in favor of your point, I could easily find data to support it too, so I will grant that this is an area with valid controversy. Please don't let this point sidetrack us from the primary question, how do we deal with those who are cross dominance. That is the real point of this video and the follow up videos which I will post soon. I'm sorry for the delay, but it is difficult to put together videos that make my point, in a manner that I am satisfied. I may just have to turn the perfectionist switch off an post the videos anyway. :(