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Did you start shooting left handed because you were left handed in other maters in life? May sound like a strange question, but, for instance, two of the greatest left handed golfers Phil Mickelson and Bob Charles are right handed. Jack Nicklaus is left eye dominant but shoots right handed (come to think of it he is a bow hunter, and I wonder what hand he is in that).

I guess it would be different for everyone, but most people who start archery are pretty weak in the archery muscles, whether it would be that big a deal for you, who already have a lot of archery strength to get back up to speed I will leave to others.

Optically it is often said that there is an advantage to shooting with both eyes open, that this improves the performance of the good eye. One cheat is to wear a set of glasses that has a frosted lense over the weak side eye (cellotape for instance). This lets you gather light in both eyes, but doesn't allow the non aiming eye to wrestle for control. Anyway, the point is often made that two eyes are better than one, and that if two eyes are open (baring the above) and the master eye isn't the aiming eye, then it may try to control the shot. On the other hand tons of people preffer to close the non-aiming eye, and if you can shoot with that eye clossed, it maters less whether the aiming eye is the dominant one or not. I really don't know how many points there are in the whole thing.

I think you want to go back to first principles. What are you after here? Have you reached a plateau, and you think this is the next step on the route to mastery, are you struggling opticaly? Would there be other advantages like stronger vision in one eye, or physical problems that might be mitigated. If, on the other hand, you are currently shooting as well as you need to, and are comfortable, why mess with the whole thing? As generaly good as the advice you are getting is, you shouldn't just follow advice that may not reaally suit your situation. Returning to golf, there is a big difference between a teacher who can spot "what you are doing wrong" (not the same as what appears in the books say) and a teacher who can actualy spot the thing that is stopping a student from reaching the next level. There are a lot of highly unorthodox but brilliant golf swings.

Rick,

Not trying to tell you what to do but I agree with the pro-shop guy.
If you shoot with your dominate eye, your depth perception will be much better and your accuracy will improve.
Actually, my holding arm wears down much faster than the one I'm drawing with. Especially, with my 9lb. 3-D bow.
You would have an advantage there with your strong arm holding the bow weight and absorbing the vibration.
Your drawing arm should build up strength pretty rapidly from shooting.
You can back off the poundage on your new bow at first and crank it up as you get stronger.
Personally, I believe, you would benefit from the switch.
Good luck with your decision.


Sag.

You say you're an "OK" shot as a lefty? Are you satisfied with just being OK? Go with your dominant eye, you'll be surprised at how quickly you'll adapt and how much more accurate you'll become.

Turc

I made the switch from right to left because of eye dominance. I started with a little over 50# because I pull 70# all the time to keep in shape. I can now shoot better and more comfortably left-handed. It's also fun to switch back and forth with customers watching while I demonstrate technique/form.

Just last night I was tuning a MZE on a new Mathews Safari bow. The muscle bound young man asked me if I could pull it at almost 100 pounds. I pulled his right-handed bow right-handed and then proceeded to pull it with less strain left-handed. I handed it back to him and said "now you do that". The look in his eyes was a "Kodak" moment. My right shoulder hurts a little right now after pulling that thing about 40 times. It was a bear to tune at that poundage.

The point here is to show how much my muscles have developed over a year and a half of shooting left-handed. The poundage to me, however, was not quite as difficult as the coordination of getting the arrow loaded and my release on the string. Now it's second nature; but, it was funny to watch when I first started shooting left-handed.

Go for it. I don't think you'll be sorry at all. I'm not.

Len, your a God!

Len, your a God!

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