Left vs right, a theory on approaches

[AggieDave 6]

My thought is that people prefer a certain direction due to eye dominance.

For instance with myself I'm right handed. I write right handed, I shoot right handed, but I aim with my left eye (except with rifles) and I prefer left hand approaches for swooping.

What does that tell me? It tells me I prefer the clarity of having my left eye being the primary eye used during the approach.

In converstations with other swoopers and wanna-be swoopers like myself I think this holds true, but of course its just a theory.

What do yall think?

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[Treejumps 0]

On any given day I prefer left or right. I used to be very left oriented, but wind and other factors demand that you develop the skill to go either direction. I think that I now prefer right more, but again, it just varies. Mostly its just a comfort thing. You get more comfortable just going the same directionn, so the other direction feels less comfortable. Its the same game either way.

Cya.

[jjiimmyyt 0]

i'm not a swooper (look at my jump numbers), but i prefer a left approach, most DZs i've jumped had a left pattern for landing. Maybe you guys feel the same?

Or am I talking about something I don't understand?

"This isn't an iron lung, people. You can actually disconnect and not die." -Dave

[ccowden 0]

Yes, this is about a high performance landing pattern. If you come in flying a conventional left hand pattern to set up for your high performance landing, (ie. 270 degree front riser turn) you will actually be setting up to do a right handed landing.

We set up for our 270 on the "crosswind" leg and the initiate the turn by turning away from the target and completing the 270 degree turn back to the target. So- if you are flying a left handed pattern in, you would do a right handed final 270. Vice Versa for a right handed pattern in.

On the subject of the original post- I used to do only left turns and felt uncomfortable doing rights. But as I got more practice with the rights, it became comfortable too. But I still prefer lefts. I think it is just because of which I do more. I would say that it has much more to do with having learned early canopy approaches doing left handed turns in, and less to do with eye dominance.

[Brains 2]

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i'm not a swooper (look at my jump numbers), but i prefer a left approach, most DZs i've jumped had a left pattern for landing. Maybe you guys feel the same?

Or am I talking about something I don't understand?

I think what you said has a lot of merit. Because so many dz's have a left hand pattern, we get used to doing left hand approaches. We stick with what we are comfortable doing. I have just very recently started doing rt. hand 270's I used to always do left hand because that is what i was used to. Just my $.02

Never look down on someone, unless they are going down on you.

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

I actually only (well, 99 percent of the time anyway) dive right because my neck does not turn the other way very well.

[jdhill 0]

Well, I'm right eye dominant, and I prefer left hand turns... I think it comes from having left hand paterns driven into my head at my first DZ...

J

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. - Edmund Burke

[parachutist 2]

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What do yall think?

Before I started skydiving I was riding motorbikes quite a bit, and at that time I noticed that I was much more confident in hard turns when turning to the left... lean way over no problem... but a similar turn to the right and I was more nervous.... less willing to dive into it.

Then I started skydiving and noticed that I favored left turns when swooping as well.

(I'm right handed too)

Chris

[AggieDave 6]

Think that might be a built in subconcious about highside/lowside and it translated to skydiving?

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[Tonto 1]

I'm left eye dominant.

I shoot rifles left handed, pistols ambi - both aimed with the left eye.

I kick left footed, surf goofy foot, but I write right handed.

I've never noticed a difference between left or right aproaches. I suspect that this may be vision affected more than an eye-dominance issue. Speeds and distances are too high for eye dominance to make a difference, I think.

t

It's the year of the Pig.

[skygod7777 0]

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What do yall think?

i think it from when you where a student, which ever patern you wher taught is what you prefer.


i'm right handed and all that stuff, at my dad's old dz we had a right hand pattern, so i did right hand hooks...........and everyone at the dz did right hand hooks.............when i moved to richmond everyone did left hand hooks...........there student progression is left hand pattern.


later

[odendan 0]

I do right 270s although I used to do left 270s. The only reason I changed was that the carving course where I jumped carved right. Now I am stuck on right turns. It is also helpful that they are condusive to a left hand pattern.

The right eye dominance theory may hold true in the begining, however I believe habit will dominate in the end.

whips n' chains n' hand-grenades with a little ugly on the side.

[chrisgr 0]

Ditto on the left handed approach.

I realized something similar many years ago when I started skateboarding and always started with my left foot on the board.

Same thing when I started to waterski and always had my left foot forward on a slalom ski.

If I try to kick something, it's with my right foot. Not because it's preferred, but because I feel more stability standing on my left foot / leg.

Now -- together with the common left pattern -- I am more comfortable with left approaches. Weird.

[speedy 0]

I always do left handed turns with a 270 turn when swooping because the gates are set up for that.

If I land in the pattern, then I do the left handed turns because that is the DZ policy.

Dave

Fallschirmsport Marl

[ianmdrennan 2]

you do left hand turns in a left hand pattern and a left 270? I'm lost here.

Performance Designs Factory Team

[ccowden 0]

Yeah, I am a bit confused too Ian.

If he lands in the pattern, which is left handed due to DZ policy, making the intended landing direction a 90 degree left hand turn to final, but does a left 270 degree turn after the 90 degree left turn to crosswind, wouldn't that put the landing direction 180 degrees from the original intended landing direction?

Did that clear anything up for you? I know things are getting MUCH clearer in MY mind!

[airdweller 0]

I prefer left hand approaches. To date I only do a 90 degree approache.

------------------------------------------------------
"From the mightiest pharaoh to the lowliest peasant,
who doesn't enjoy a good sit?" C. Montgomery Burns

[speedy 0]

Sorry to confuse you but...
When I swoop I am not following the normal DZ pattern. That's O.K. because the swoopers have the landing area to themselves. We get more or less our own drop run.
If I am not swooping I follow the normal landing pattern.
I do not swoop on every jump. There is no separate landing area for swoopers and to swoop with all the other traffic around is not something I will do.

Now back to my point, I use a left hand turn for the 270 turn because the gates are set up for that. It's all to do with wind and where we are allowed to fly the canopy.
Our DZ is right next to a busy road. Hooking over the road is great fun but it scares the motorists and may cause an accident. We rarely have no wind days and generally set up for a cross wind landing. The gates are set up so the best approach is against the wind with a left hand 270.
We do sometimes land with the wind and then of course you can switch to a right hand turn.

I ramble, but the direction of the turn has more to do with the prevailing winds, DZ surrounding, what sort of jump run run etc. rather than a preference from me. I can do both left and right

Dave

Fallschirmsport Marl

[DrewEckhardt 0]

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My thought is that people prefer a certain direction due to eye dominance.

I don't have a preference, am right eye dominant, right handed, snowboard left foot forward, prefer toeside turns, and instinctively drag my left toe when swooping.

I think it's probably what you're used to. With a left-hand pattern rule people probably prefer left. With no rule and variable winds / obstacles in different places that don't favor a consistant approach (Right swooping the course at our DZ from west to east, left in the other direction to have more space on the side away from the runway. Left when going soouth along the beer line, right north so you don't have to finish your turn or hit an obstacle. Right into the peas to the east, left in the other direction because there's more room to setup on that side) you might not have a preference.

[kaerock 1]

How does one determine eye dominance? Someone suggested to me once that you hold up a finger and close one eye, then open it, then close the other eye or some such thing. I could make out no difference in the way my finger looked :>

-R

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My thought is that people prefer a certain direction due to eye dominance.

For instance with myself I'm right handed. I write right handed, I shoot right handed, but I aim with my left eye (except with rifles) and I prefer left hand approaches for swooping.

What does that tell me? It tells me I prefer the clarity of having my left eye being the primary eye used during the approach.

In converstations with other swoopers and wanna-be swoopers like myself I think this holds true, but of course its just a theory.

What do yall think?

You be the king and I'll overthrow your government. --KRS-ONE

[kelpdiver 2]

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How does one determine eye dominance? Someone suggested to me once that you hold up a finger and close one eye, then open it, then close the other eye or some such thing. I could make out no difference in the way my finger looked :>

Cup your hands together to make a open square in the middle and pick out something visible through the hole. Then close one eye at a time. With the dominant eye, the image should stay the same. With the other, it should shift left or right.

After Lasik, not only was I still left eye dominant, but that eye sees a line or 1.5 lines better on the eye chart. Prior I would shoot with the right eye anyway, but now that doesn't make sense when the left is 20/15.

[SkydiveNFlorida 0]

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Cup your hands together to make a open square in the middle and pick out something visible through the hole. Then close one eye at a time. With the dominant eye, the image should stay the same. With the other, it should shift left or right.

Hey, that's neat, I just did it and it shifted with my right eye. I already knew I had much better vision in my left eye, though.

Even though I am right eye dominant, I don't believe this has played a part in my approach so much as the set pattern at the dzs I jump at has (left hand patterns).

-A

[kaerock 1]

hey nifty, I think that did something. The image didn't really change much with my right-eye closed, but did with my left eye closed. So like, now what can I do with fantastic discovery? ;>

-R

You be the king and I'll overthrow your government. --KRS-ONE

[murps2000 86]

I do more left hand turns, because of the left-hand pattern preference at most DZs I visit, and I find it's easier to keep track of traffic that way. Plus you tend to freak out newbies a little less when going with the flow. But just like when I weld, right-hand or left-hand, with a few practice runs, it makes little difference in the finished product. Shooting billiards, on the other hand, is a different matter.

[3ringheathen 0]

I like the theory, but I don't think it's a major factor.

Any preference is far more likely to be due to what was originally taught, or the landing pattern(s) required at one's home dropzone and what not.

I favor a right hand pattern because it gives me more outs in the prevailing winds at my dz, and it allows me to land closer to the hangar. Others prefer the opposite, just because there's a bit less traffic.

Depth perception is important to swooping, and one of the major depth perception cues is binocular disparity. That's the difference between what the left and right eye see, and it gets more pronounced as you get closer to an object. AFAIK, eye dominance comes into play primarily when you close or squint one eye.
This probably isn't a great idea on a swoop, because you're losing some important depth perception cues.

Anyway, that's my .02
and it reminds me to make a point of practicing some left hand approaches for a change!
-Josh

If you have time to panic, you have time to do something more productive. -Me*
*Ron has accused me of plagiarizing this quote. He attributes it to Douglas Adams.