Reply To: Teaching a cross eye dominant person to shoot.

[David]

TJ – just to be clear, it sounds like you were working with a pistol. Is that correct? If so, start by reassuring your son (also helpful to know how old he is) that this is something that can be remedied, and that he should in no way feel pressured to immediately find a solution. It’s perfectly o.k. to have this kind of issue, and he needs to think about having fun while working through some different dry practice steps. Next, I’d suggest having your son attempt to remain square on target with both eyes open as a his starting point. As his coach, make sure his head and body is not in a strained or exaggerated position, and that he’s maintaining a solid firing grip on the pistol. From there, have him move the pistol slightly in front of the left eye, and attempt to obtain clear focus on the front sight while looking through (not over) the rear sight notch (it may be helpful to show him a drawing of a solid rear/front sight alignment). Remind him not to worry that the target will be fuzzy. Explain to him that the objective is to align one eye, rear sight notch, and front sight (even with top of rear notch) in as straight a line as possible so that the bore “centers” on the fuzzy target. It might be helpful to position a video camera in front of him while he dry practices his alignment routine. I’m not a world-class shooting coach, but I want to emphasize that your son needs to be reassured that a solution can be found. Report back and let us know results and we’ll see about suggestions for next steps. Again, I’d suggest staying away from any live fire until we have a little more info. While many instructors may suggest different solutions, I’d hope the general consensus is not to induce any performance stress at this point. Of course, Ox is a premiere source of knowledge and practical advice on such topics – I’ve found his training materials to be world class quality.