by Dr. Lawrence Lampert |
December 11, 2008
One of the first things a young athlete learns when they start playing sports is if they are right- or left-handed. Discovering your dominant hand helps you to position yourself correctly in a variety of different sports. However, many athletes don’t know they have another kind of dominance that can further enhance their athletic performance: eye dominance.
Your dominant eye processes information 14 to 21 milliseconds faster than the non-dominant eye and helps to locate points and objects in your visual field. Finding out whether you are right- or left-eye dominant can give you a distinct advantage in your sport.
Once you have learned which of your eyes is dominant, you can better position yourself for success.
To test your eye dominancy, hold your arms and hands extended forward with your palms away from you, then bring your hands together to form a small hole with your thumbs. Find an object or spot on the wall, look at the spot and raise your hands (with the small hole between your thumbs) and find the spot on the wall. Once you have found the spot, close one eye and then the other. The eye that finds the spot is your dominant eye. If you can still see the spot, make the hole between your thumbs small and continue until just one eye finds the spot.
Next week, I will share how to use your eye dominance to your advantage when lining up a putt in golf.
As always, please feel free to write in with your questions.
