Let's start with some facts about vision and sport:
• 30% of sportsmen and women require a correction for good visual acuity. (The same as for drivers. DVLA research).
• Studies show that 10% of us remove our glasses to participate in sport.
• 10% of sportsmen and women have impaired binocular vision.
• 5% of sportsmen and women are colour blind.
Clay shooting is NOT an aiming sport such as rifle shooting. This means that like with most ball sports, good visual function is absolutely critical to good performance.
Key visual function skills can be considered to be the following:
• Visual acuity and dynamic visual acuity.
• Anticipation.
• Stereopsis (depth perception).
• Peripheral awareness.
• Glare recovery.
All of these key skills will be affected and in most cases, impossible without binocular vision i.e. with one eye closed.
The phenomenon of eye dominance is well established but its exact mechanism is poorly understood.
What do we know?
• Eye dominance parallels the asymmetry of the brain that is divided into two hemispheres with complimentary functions.
• The depth of eye dominance is variable and can be overridden by the brain under certain circumstances.
• Cross dominance is a common occurrence and does adversely affect performance in sport as does shallow dominance under certain circumstances.
What are our options in correcting dominance problems in clay shooting?
1. Closing one eye or occluding one eye: This is probably the method most commonly used amongst shooters but this will reduce or eliminate the shooters ability to carry out all of the key visual skills listed above, which are required to perform well.
2. Frosting: It is thought that the amount of frosting required on the dominant eye to resolve the cross dominance problem will have the same effective disruption on the binocular vision as total occlusion.
Where does EasyHit!! Fibre Optic Shotgun Foresight fit in?
• EasyHit!! allows the shooter to gain some voluntary control over the brain's ability to override the existing dominance.
• For shooters with mixed or shallow dominance (middle vision), we can voluntarily deepen the dominance to ensure more consistent performance.
• For shooters with cross-eye dominance, we can override the habitual dominance without losing all of the important benefits of binocular vision.
So in summary all of the critical visual skills required to perform well in our sport:
• Visual acuity
• Visual field
• Stereopsis
• Target location
• Anticipation
Are all reliant on maintaining binocular vision.