Eyes open

[Hoytemgood]

I have been told by many people that you are suppose to shoot with both eyes open. But the local coach says that you have to shoot with one eye closed because if you don't, as your eyes get tired, the opposite eye (non-dominate eye) will try to take over your sight picture. Talking recurve here and not compound with magnified scopes. I was pretty sure that Coach Lee had said to use both eyes open. Let me hear your thoughts on the subject.

[bsu_beginner]

I have been told by many people that you are suppose to shoot with both eyes open. But the local coach says that you have to shoot with one eye closed because if you don't, as your eyes get tired, the opposite eye (non-dominate eye) will try to take over your sight picture. Talking recurve here and not compound with magnified scopes. I was pretty sure that Coach Lee had said to use both eyes open. Let me hear your thoughts on the subject.

I like both eyes. i think they shooting that putting a spot on a target is one thing. i appreciate depth perception and being able to see the arrow in mid air. I like a "cross reference" because believe it or not, the aperture lies. I mean, I've been in situation where I had the thing smack on the target, only to realize that the way i had set up, my bow or myself wasn't aligned with the target.

Uhmmm... as your eyes get tired the opposite eye takes over? I have never heard that one.

[Duss]

Yes definitely, one should shoot with both eyes open. The reasons are many.

One simple resaon is not to change your face's muscular structure which would change your aiming. Else one could use a "pirate's patch" over the other eye, but it is not desirable.

Another more powerful reason is to say that one should try and keep a maximum input of depth and width and volume of light coming from the target and its environment, for perception and information purposes, and all that strenghtens the link between the archer and the target.

But it also happens that one could have an eye-crossover due to fatigue. I noticed that in a friend who was shooting with me this summer. He started to use his glasses and it looks as if it helped him.

A good optometrist would try the following "trick" with glasses : modifying the alignment of one or both lenses in a pair of glasses to modify the eyes' line(s) of sight.

One good thing might be to test for your eye dominance with a fail-safe test to make sure you really are shooting with the correct dominant eye.

[archeryal]

I understand that the current thinking is that you should have both eyes open to reduce eye and neck fatigue over the long run using muscles to hold the eye closed).
It may be too late for me, as I have ingrained the one-eye method and I have a bunch of other things to work on before I tackle that.
One trick I've heard (which I might have to use, since I am a lefty at some things, rightie at others and could get confused with my sight picture) is to put a piece of translucent scotch tape on the lens of the opposite eye so you get the light but cannot aim with that eye. I believe this is borrowed from pistol or rifle shooters, but sounds reasonable to me.

[Jim C]

there is a reason why many xbow, rifle and bullseye pistol shooters wear a hat with a blinder over the non aiming eye or the rifle sight has a patch that extends out over the non aiming eye. Its so you can keep that eye open and reduce strain. if you have a dominance issue put a piece of tape on your glasses (one woman who used to shoot with us bought cheap sunglasses and took the lens out of the eye she aimed with