Eye Dominance

You visualize the shot. You step in and line it up. It looks right, but when you pull the trigger it misses. What happened?

Ever have that problem? I did until I learned about eye dominance. Everyone has a dominant eye. If you don’t get that eye over the shot, an illusion happens and shots are missed. Here is a quick way to find your dominant eye: look at an object at least 10 feet away with both eyes (such as a pool ball.) Bring your arms up straight in front of you and make a tight circle around the object with your hands. Now close one eye, then the other. Which ever eye can actually see the object is your dominant eye. Try this several times to be sure. Now that we have our dominant eye, this is the eye you should be putting over the shot line on every shot. In other words, this eye should be directly over the cue.

I am strong left eye dominant. I used to accidentally put my right eye over some shots (mostly right cuts) that would create an optical illusion and miss the shot. The brain tries to compensate for this because it remembers missing. You lose a lot of confidence when this is going on. Well, now you know how to fix it. On every shot, before you pull the trigger check the eyes. Close the non-dominant eye, make sure that dominant eye is over the shot each and every time. It won’t take long to fix this! One you get it fixed, you won’t have to check any more.

That said, I know there are exceptions to the rule. Some people with weaker eye dominance shoot shots with either eye. Some even straddle the cue stick with their nose. If you have a strong eye dominance, try what I have outlined above.