Question on eye alignment

[BigDazUK]

Do you place your dominant eye over the cue to see the line of the shot or have the cue central? Most people seem to have the cue central directly under the chin.

[DeanH]

Do you place your dominant eye over the cue to see the line of the shot or have the cue central? Most people seem to have the cue central directly under the chin.

I would say that most have the cue to one side or the other, whichever works for them.
If you want to find out what works for YOU, go to the table and play with the cue in different positions and see which position you pot the ball, then stick with that :biggrin:
Then forget about dominant eye and just enjoy playing and potting

[Byrom]

Do you shut one eye walking down the road? - Don't over think it just see what you see and get down and do what comes naturally.

[Dynamics]

I agree. You can see equally as well with both eyes and the cue going directly under the chin. The dominant eye is just the eye which is stronger. It doesn't mean you take visual cues (no pun intended) more from your right eye. Its really just to do with preference and strength of vision. Its why you can have a stock on target rifles so you can sight with the dominant stronger eye.

The brain will take equal visual information from both eyes and present it to your brain and if you are in the middle of that information (ie the nose) its just as good for the cue to run under the nose and chin ie directly in the middle. The preference for sighting more on one side develops as you play and is a natural thing.

[BigDazUK]

Thanks for all the replies. I'll carry on as is then.

[Steve748]

I am left eye dominant and if I don't cue directly under my left eye I miss the shot.

[vmax4steve]

The brain will take equal visual information from both eyes and present it to your brain and if you are in the middle of that information (ie the nose) its just as good for the cue to run under the nose and chin ie directly in the middle.

This is simply not true because we need to see only one cue and be able put that cue on the line of aim and address the tip of that cue to the centre of the cue ball.

Stand with your head exactly square on to a target and point your index finger at that target and focus only on the target and you'll see two fingers and a clear defined space between them, and you can point either finger at the target or get the target in the space between them.
Turn your head until one eye is out of the equation and this can't be done, only one finger will be visible and be able to be focussed on.

Do the same with your cue, hand and arm outstretched and you'll find that you can see two cues, but they are so close together as to be running parallel to each other with no space in between them and the head turn to shut one out is not so great.

Do this with the extension on your cue and the cues are almost one but a little out of focus and the head turn needed is very slight indeed.

This is the crux of the matter for those who have difficulty finding the centre of the cue ball, they are too square on with cue centre chin because they think this is correct, it's not.
What is correct is how your eyes see the whole picture and how your brain goes about deciphering the information to allow you to focus on the target.

Some do it purely with head turn, some purely with stance, but most do it with a little of both, and you simply must not override this by trying to conform to some technical ideal of stance and sighting.

[Dave_marsy]

Your dominant eye isn't always your strongest eye ..it more to do with your brain ��

[mrjunk]

you want to have the cue under your left eye.

I'm a clay pigeon shooter and this makes a massive difference to how you shoot. With fast moving targets you need both eyes open to track and apply lead and eye dominance is a bugger. People even train to shoot left handed - which is the ultimate fix. Luckily with a snooker cue you only need to turn your head a little to fix the issue to bring your dominant eye closer to the line of the shot. The issue i have is my dominant left eye has worse eyesight than my right eye so long shots can be a little fuzzy! I need some Graham Taylor special glasses!

Interestingly I've learnt a new trick while shooting. Practice a bunch of crossing clays left and right and eventually the brain learns the difference and auto-magically applies different lead to the different directions. i'm guessing this will work just as well with snooker and your brain will automatically process different angles for left and right edges once you figure out how to consistently 'put it in the hole'. Your brain is a remarkable piece of kit!

So in essence there are a few options:

1. Play left handed with left eye dominance

2. practice moving your left eye over the cue / on the line

3. just practice a whole bunch of shots until your brain figures out what's best for you and programs itself to compensate.


each has it's own benefits with option 3 being the most natural.

Here's a link to a simple test to determine eye dominance...

http://www.wikihow.com/Determine-Your-Dominant-Eye

[blahblah01]

This is simply not true because we need to see only one cue and be able put that cue on the line of aim and address the tip of that cue to the centre of the cue ball.

Stand with your head exactly square on to a target and point your index finger at that target and focus only on the target and you'll see two fingers and a clear defined space between them, and you can point either finger at the target or get the target in the space between them.
Turn your head until one eye is out of the equation and this can't be done, only one finger will be visible and be able to be focussed on.

Do the same with your cue, hand and arm outstretched and you'll find that you can see two cues, but they are so close together as to be running parallel to each other with no space in between them and the head turn to shut one out is not so great.

Do this with the extension on your cue and the cues are almost one but a little out of focus and the head turn needed is very slight indeed.

This is the crux of the matter for those who have difficulty finding the centre of the cue ball, they are too square on with cue centre chin because they think this is correct, it's not.
What is correct is how your eyes see the whole picture and how your brain goes about deciphering the information to allow you to focus on the target.

Some do it purely with head turn, some purely with stance, but most do it with a little of both, and you simply must not override this by trying to conform to some technical ideal of stance and sighting.

Yes and no.

On the technical point totally correct, but I'm not sure about the twisting of the head as I have never seen 2 cues, but I have tried potting one eyed...

For the vast majority of the population 1 eye is dominant, and is usually the one the person writes with. Our eyes do not work like an Isosceles Triangle, but like a Right Angled one, with the Dominant Eye having the Right Angle. The other eye goes up and down the line from Dominant Eye to work out DISTANCE, not line. (This is why you see 2 Fingers when pointing at a distant object, as the Sub Eye does see the finger, but not where it is focussing..... Maybe this is the seeing double when very drunk as focussing goes AWOL?)

It is far from impossible to play Snooker without cuing under\near the Dominant Eye, but there will be a cost at some stage (I reckon that the brain can compensate, especially if playing a lot of Snooker.)

Strangely a lot of the top Snooker players, seem to be eft eye Dominant - ROS cues under left eye, when playing right and left handed, btw. That said Selby, I'm sure it is\was him, plays under left eye, but then when he looked at whether CB could get through a gap or clip an edge, closed his left eye. Maybe he is in the very small percentage of people who do see things through an Isoceles Triangle?

To work out which is which: point at a vertical line (window edge etc), then close one eye, swap over. Through one eye the vertical line will move: the eye where it doesn't move is the Dominant Eye; and as above it is nothing to do with the strength of prescription in spectacles (in fact, my Dominant Eye is not my strongest, so not wearing Specs is disorientating).

[blahblah01]

I'm a clay pigeon shooter and this makes a massive difference to how you shoot.

Good luck there if you are right handed, sounds like a nightmare....

Loads of Pros, cue under the other eye: ie left if right handed. I guess that they have slightly different stances to ones who use the same eye (ie right handed and right eyed)?

[mrjunk]

Good luck there if you are right handed, sounds like a nightmare....

Loads of Pros, cue under the other eye: ie left if right handed. I guess that they have slightly different stances to ones who use the same eye (ie right handed and right eyed)?

knowing you have the issue makes a big difference. It was by chance that someone mentioned it at a shooting ground. Then it's up to practice to let your brain compensate - and it really works. but on a snooker cue it's more easily fixed with a minor head adjustment. I've only recently got back into snooker and knowing i have funky eyes has really helped my long shots!