INSTRUCTION
By Morgan Evans
Put Your Best Eye Forward
Do you know which is your dominant eye ? Well , I ’ m going to share a quick tip with you to show you how to find out , and why it ’ s important . I know times have been tough but luckily all you ’ ll need for this is a quarter .
First , take the coin and put it on the ground . Focus your vision on the coin and then make a circle with your hands so that the coin is directly in the center of it . Now , close your left eye — does the coin stay in the middle of the circle ? If so , then your dominant eye is your right one . If it “ moved ,” check to confirm your left eye is dominant by going through the same process but closing your right eye instead . Whichever eye is open and maintains the central coin position is your dominant eye .
Which of your eyes is running the show plays an important role when it ’ s not possible to have the ball in the central field of vision for both eyes , like wide balls that force your body to quickly turn , potentially taking your best eye off the ball .
For right-handed players , if your right eye is dominant , you ’ ll need to be careful not to have long crossover steps when you retrieve wide dinks to your forehand . Practice your sidestep speed to avoid having to do this , and make sure you ’ re keeping your body height low to maximize your chances of taking these balls out of the air . If you are left-eye dominant then you ’ ll need to be comfortable with open-stance backhands more often , something that isn ’ t natural for most players converted from tennis .
It ’ s not uncommon for neither eye to be particularly dominant , i . e ., the coin moves when either eye is closed . In this case you can likely go about your normal game , but do make sure you at least check the range of motion of your neck on both sides to see if there is any significant weakness that affects your vision when swift rotation is required .
Hope this little trick is going to help you on those wide balls . Please check out
coachmepickleball . com for the video relating to this and a variety of other lessons . •
PHOTO BY STEVE TAYLOR