I have an issue i need some guidence on. I have been shooting my whole life and have shot competitivly for nearly 25 years. My daughters archery-gym instructor for 4th grade has started archery in school which i applaud. She is doing the eye dominance test incorrectly as she stands in front of the pupil as they make a tringle like they should and look through it, however the teacher is having the student close one eye and if she (the teacher) can still see the eye that is open, she is saying that is the dominant eye.What on earth can this tell her about the students eyes? Therefore out of a class of 12 there ended up being 7 students determined to be lefties. Now you know how rare that would be. How this is effecting them is not only in archery. Some of the students determined to be a leftie are trying to write left handed now in my daughters class because this teacher says you should be a leftie. I discovered this because my daughter has had a bear compound for 2 years and has shot fine, so i ask her do you wanna go practice? She says no, i need a left handed bow. What i say? who says? my teacher she replies. Now i know she is right eye dominant and right handed and as well she just went to the eye doctor for nearsightedness so i asked the doctor to confirm (for her) her eye dominance so she could tell her teacher and i wouldn't have to be the idiot dad that causes trouble. I wrote the teacher a note asking first if i could volunteer to help out in the archery class and she said yes, i also added in the letter the correct eye dominance test procedure. So i ask, how would you approach her (the teacher) about this issue?

It's a valid way to check eye dominance maybe not what you're used to but there's a lot of ways to skin a cat. The teacher might not be doing it correctly though if it doesn't agree with what the optometrist says.

When you volunteer to help another instructor it's of paramount importance to not take them to take task on anything they say until you're alone with them. Unless it's something to do with safety that will put a pupil in immediate danger.

You catch a lot more bees with honey.......

It's a lot easier for most people to learn to shoot using their dominant hand to draw the bowstring. If there is a dominant eye issue than shoot with one eye closed. Closing one eye forces dominance on the open one. (Duh!)

These are kids learning to shoot. Sounds like some of them are gonna decide they can't shoot a bow because of eye dominance issues. That's a shame. Keep it fun for the kids.

Well, I was able to have a 1 on 1 with the instructor today after volunteering to help out and it went better than i thought(the honey thing).I asked her to show me her method of the eye dominance test and then i showed her mine and she agreed mine was probably a little easier. I also added that even though one eye is dominant, some kids do everything either right handed or left handed and i noticed a couple kids were really struggling to make archery work shooting as lefties and maybe we should give them the oppertunity to choose which is easiest for them and they can close one eye and force the aiming eye to get stronger and she also agreed. On to next week. oh, and my daughter is now shooting right handed again and is happy. Thanks guys.

More about this dominant eye thingy. Thebigguy has an extremely important point. I'm left eye dominant but other than handwriting I do almost everything with my right hand. I'd feel so awkward shooting lefty and my right arm is seriously stronger than my left. All I do is close one eye when I shoot, and although there are better shots than me with a longbow there aren't many

Additionally if the kids are shooting compounds with sights then the sight itself lines up the eye that's necessary. I think this whole dominance thing is a bit blown out of proportion.

I think you'll have a lot of fun volunteering with the kids.

quote:

Originally posted by calgarychef1:
More about this dominant eye thingy. Thebigguy has an extremely important point. I'm left eye dominant but other than handwriting I do almost everything with my right hand. I'd feel so awkward shooting lefty and my right arm is seriously stronger than my left. All I do is close one eye when I shoot, and although there are better shots than me with a longbow there aren't many

Additionally if the kids are shooting compounds with sights then the sight itself lines up the eye that's necessary. I think this whole dominance thing is a bit blown out of proportion.

I think you'll have a lot of fun volunteering with the kids.

I agree with you on all counts. I wouldn't have worried about it except for the eye thing is what she was basing right or left handed shooting on and nothing else. I'm sure you know how quick kids get frustrated when they can't seem to get better at somthing and they quit. I just don't wanna see that happen and wanted to give the students the oppertunity to choose which is more comfortable for them so they at least have a chance to enjoy a sport or pastime as fun as archery. When my daughter came home telling me she was being made to shoot left handed even though she told the teacher she was right handed as well as a couple students in her class i felt compelled to get involved. Just for the record, the students are all shooting the Genesis bows instinctively.