Outdoors & Education
TIPS & TACTICS
Eye Dominance
By Joella Bates
“are you right handed or left handed?”
the man behind the pawn shop counter
asked the young lady as he pulled the
bow off the hook.
Fig. 1
“Sweetie, let me help you before you
make a big mistake,” the older man
chimed in. “i’ve been shooting for a long
time and you are about to fall into the
same trap that many a person topples
into in the beginning. i did too, but now
that i know better. i help others when i
can. let’s have a cup of coffee and i’ll
give you my ten cents worth. i’ll even
buy you the coffee.”
Fortunately, an experienced archer overheard the conversation and was brave
enough to stop the young lady from
spending her hard earned money on a
bow that would not really serve her well.
let’s see what advice the young lady got
over coffee that day.
People make the grave error of believing that because they use one hand to
write with and do many other skills, they
need to shoot that way too. Handedness
is not what determines which bow you
need. You will shoot consistently better
when you use a bow that matches your
dominant eye. that means that you draw
the bow string and anchor under the
dominant eye.
webbing between the thumbs and first
fingers. now, while keeping both eyes
open, look through the hole at an object
on the wall or in the case of my class, i
have them look at my nose (see Fig. 2).
as the instructor, i can see one of their
eyes behind the hole. that eye is their
dominant eye. For the student, have
them close one eye while continuing to
look at the object. if the object remains
there are many advantages for you when
in the hole, they are looking with the
you shoot a bow, or a gun for that matter,
dominant eye, if the object moves, then
using the dominant eye. But first, how do
the other eye is the dominant eye.
you determine your dominant eye?
as an instructor, i have my students form
a small triangle with their two hands