Eye dominance

[johndagolfer]

I am extremely right handed. The coordination between my left and right hand is a huge gap.

I am also left eye dominant and i am wondering if this should be causing my backhand issues.

On my forehand side I seem to have no problems picking up the ball early, taking it on the rise no matter the pace.

On my backhand side however, I don't see the ball that well. On returns I have been known to barely touch the ball or even completely whiff. I have noticed the same thing when I play ping pong. I tend to not gauge the distance away from my paddle the ball is on the backhand side only.

Have any of you had this problem? If you have how did you overcome it?

Thanks

 

[snvplayer]

Humans have depth perception because we see with both eyes, so if there is imbalanced eye dominance, it can affect depth perception, timing, as well as tracking the ball. Amblyopia is one of the conditions. Things may look darker through your non-dominant eye if you cover the dominant eye.

In short, you can look for an optometrist who specializes in vision therapy. They can do several tests (non-invasive) to figure out how well your eyes work together (converge, diverge, look far, look close), diagnose a problem, and help you with treatment.

I have a bit more experience with this, the therapy did help with my vision. Feel free to email me at snvplayer[at]gmail[dot].com and I will be happy to share my experience.

 

[beltsman]

I am left eye dominant (right handed) and it causes trouble when shooting, but I haven't noticed any difficulties in tennis.

 

[Pet]

I am extremely right handed. The coordination between my left and right hand is a huge gap.

I am also left eye dominant and i am wondering if this should be causing my backhand issues.

On my forehand side I seem to have no problems picking up the ball early, taking it on the rise no matter the pace.

On my backhand side however, I don't see the ball that well. On returns I have been known to barely touch the ball or even completely whiff. I have noticed the same thing when I play ping pong. I tend to not gauge the distance away from my paddle the ball is on the backhand side only.

Have any of you had this problem? If you have how did you overcome it?

Thanks

You are like Federer, that have a left dominant eye too.

So don´t worry, you can get a good backhand, not like you super forehand but you know...

Paul Dorochenko ...
http://www.pauldorochenko.com/uploads/images/federerypaul1.jpg

... talks about this.

 

[Pet]

You are like Federer, that have a left dominant eye too.

So don´t worry, you can get a good backhand, not like you super forehand but you know...

Paul Dorochenko ...
http://www.pauldorochenko.com/uploads/images/federerypaul1.jpg

... talks about this.

My problem is the opposite, to equilibrate this, probably I need to hit more openstance forehands and down the line for use more my dominant eye (right)

 

[Rubens]

I am a right eye dominant righty. My 1hbh is my best and most natural shot, my bread and butter. My forehand sucks so bad that l sometimes run around it to hit a BH. My coach and I have agreed that my FH will never be as good as my BH, so we're now working on just bringing the FH to a decent level to set up for my BH. I guess I'm an extreme case.

 

[winstonlim8]

I'm a left eye dominant righty and I don't want to talk about my forehand or anything I have to hit on my right side cause it sucks.

 

[sureshs]

Eye dominance of forehand eye + one handed BH = great problems

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

This is one version of cross-dominance. Left-handed/Right-eyed (me) or Right-handed/Left-Eyed. It may have caused some problems early-on for me but I adapted after a while. I have found that eye dominance does seem to be an issue for some students, but not all.

Don't know if it is true but I have heard that many of the best batters in baseball are cross-dominant -- since their dominant eye is closer to the pitcher. Initially, a batter's head is turned toward the pitcher so that both are are facing the pitcher. However, as the ball approaches, the head turns so that one eye is closer to the incoming ball. At the ball gets close the head stops turning if the player decides to swing at the pitch. This is what many tennis players do on incoming balls -- as the forward swing commences, the head/eyes stop moving. Federer (and Nadal) use an extreme version of this gaze technique.
.

 

[Rubens]

An interesting aticle on the topic, in French:

http://www.slate.fr/story/19837/tennis-golf-droitier-gaucher

Basically, it says that "cross dominant" players (e.g., right hand & left eye, like Federer, or left hand & right eye like Nadal) tend to have bigger FHs than BHs, whereas "homogenous dominant" players (e.g., right hand & right eye, like Edberg, Agassi, Kuerten) tend to have a bigger BH. Also, the author thinks that cross dominants are better off using a 2hbh than a 1hbh, especially for down-the-line BHs. He argues that Nadal, being a cross dominant, made the 'right choice' by using a 2hbh, as opposed to Federer...
He didn't mention which BH would be better for a homogenous dominant player.

He also says that the majority of people in the general population are homogenous dominants, but it's the opposite for the ATP top 100 (of which 65% are cross dominants) maybe because of the importance of having a big FH in the modern game.

FWIW...

 

[Lukhas]

I'm right-handed and right eye dominant. I didn't need nearly as many lessons to pick up my OHBH than my FH even if I prefer to hit FHs. EDIT: "Accordingly", my left eye suffers a much more severe myopia than my right eye. And I'm quite uncomfortable using a neutral or closed stance on my FH.

 

[wannabe good]

An interesting aticle on the topic, in French:

http://www.slate.fr/story/19837/tennis-golf-droitier-gaucher

Basically, it says that "cross dominant" players (e.g., right hand & left eye, like Federer, or left hand & right eye like Nadal) tend to have bigger FHs than BHs, whereas "homogenous dominant" players (e.g., right hand & right eye, like Edberg, Agassi, Kuerten) tend to have a bigger BH. Also, the author thinks that cross dominants are better off using a 2hbh than a 1hbh, especially for down-the-line BHs. He argues that Nadal, being a cross dominant, made the 'right choice' by using a 2hbh, as opposed to Federer...
He didn't mention which BH would be better for a homogenous dominant player.

He also says that the majority of people in the general population are homogenous dominants, but it's the opposite for the ATP top 100 (of which 65% are cross dominants) maybe because of the importance of having a big FH in the modern game.

FWIW...

Djokovic, the most complete player of all time according to Nick Bollettieri, is right-hand and right-eye dominant. He has a better backhand than Federer and Nadal, but I don't think his forehand is a weaker shot. His game is, what shuresh would call - balanced.

 

[oble]

Righty, left-eye dominant here. I pretty much just continue to suck on my backhand wing.

I have adjusted my backhand grip (1-hander) from full eastern to more of a weak eastern to hit slightly closer to the body and I seem to get a little less timing issues. The slice also seems to suffer less since the contact point is later, so I guess that helps with the vision side of things too? But overall my backhand wing sucks so I'm not sure if I can blame it on my eye dominance.

 

[Pet]

Eye dominance of forehand eye + one handed BH = great problems

Not, I have right eye dominance... during 2-3 years my forehand was better than my topspin onehandbackhand because I haven´t the sufficient neuro mechanics with that stroke.... but now my backhand is sometimes more solid than my forehand.

 

[sureshs]

Not, I have right eye dominance... during 2-3 years my forehand was better than my topspin onehandbackhand because I haven´t the sufficient neuro mechanics with that stroke.... but now my backhand is sometimes more solid than my forehand.

Mine too. I was saying that there is a vision problem. If we overcome it, then fine.

 

[Bendex]

I have the same problem. My right eye is very "lazy", so can't be corrected with glasses. My serve and forehand are very strong, but I just can't find the middle with my backhands consistently, so am not confident to swing hard at it. It seems no amount of practice can solve the problem.

My volleying is also an issue.