Glasses on from now on...

[moreammo]

I decided to wear my glasses during practice last night. My right eye has been degrading and I think it has been throwing my focus off.

It was like night and day. I tossed a tennis ball out from about 15 yards toward my targets and backstop. I did this repeatedly, 30 to 40 shots. I normally get close to the ball and my arrow deflects up into a target I only stick the ball maybe 20% to 30% of the time.

Last night I hit the ball 60% to 70% of the time and my misses were much tighter than normal. from now on glasses on for me.

Here are some picks of a dead tennis ball

i'd like to say the bounce into the bulls eye was intentional but i'll take it either way

[caughtandhobble]

Good shooting Jon...

I like your new avatar. That avatar will change in about 6 more weeks when that new baby gets here. Take care brother.

[moreammo]

Thanks! you bet it will

[awatsonjr]

A sure sign of all of us getting old. I umpired a liitle league game Friday night and can barely walk today.

[Loreva13]

nice shooting

[huntinpool]

I had to add a small (3/8") strip of serving where my glasses touch the string. The bridge piece was cutting my string a little.

[ProV1]

I tried shooting with my bifocals, I hated it. Still see good outside my pins but up to my pins they look like colored blobs. Got a verifier peep put on my bow and tried a few different lens. Shooting better than I have in a year now.

[Bisch]

Good for you Jon!

Bisch

[EnW]

Good shooting Jon. I wouldn't even try to shoot without my glasses on...I couldn't see a spot to focus on past 2 foot without 'em.

~Eric

[moreammo]

i went to the doc today... since i have some scratches on my glasses i was going to get some new lenses, i needed a new prescription... left eye is perfect just glass for my lens but my astigmatism in my right eye has shifted a bit... she recommended i wear them all the time instead of just for work and reading. i told her about my better focus with them on. she said that its because my eye has to strain harder with out them causing a fatigue and shakiness in the eye. Good news is they had my lenses in stock so i will have a new scratch free pair in about 30 minutes

[M-2]

Glad you got it figured out. Yes, it is very helpful to be able to see

[Fleeta]

I wear glasses all the time except when shooting the bow. The way I hold my head I look right into the frame or over it. Tried contacts once, but couldn't get used to sticking them in my eyes. Think I'm going to give them another try. My eye doctor shoots a bow with contacts. He thinks I'm nuts.

[equin]

Yeah, doc says I'm "legally" blind without glasses or contacts. So naturally, blind archery has always interested me. Here's a story of a legally blind Olympic archer with 20/200 vision (mine's much worse than that by the way) who's won gold:

http://blogs.reuters.com/china/2008/08/14/story-of-the-day-blind-archer-targets-fuzzy-yellow-gold/

Anyway, you mention you have astigmatism. I have a bit of that, too, but my main problem is myopia (nearsightedness). If you have it bad enough, contacts may be better for you than glasses. With real bad myopia like mine, the small distance between the eye and the lens is enough to make everything look a bit smaller than it actually is. So if the target is a bit far, it makes it harder to pick a spot and see it when it looks a bit smaller than it actually is. You still have a bit of size distortion with contacts, but it's not as bad as with glasses. Of course, this is more pronounced with bad myopia.

Another distortion problem with glasses is that if they're not perfectly centered to your eye, there can be a bit of refraction, kind of like how it is when you look at objects under water. Glasses can also fog up in the cold.

With contacts, though, they can move around a bit on your eye when you blink or cause the eye to get dry. And when that happens, your vision suffers a bit, too.

Either way, I still find it as kind of a fun challenge to shoot legally blind without glasses or contacts. Plus, it makes "blind" bale work easy!

[jpbruni]

I wear glasses all the time except when shooting the bow. The way I hold my head I look right into the frame or over it. Tried contacts once, but couldn't get used to sticking them in my eyes. Think I'm going to give them another try. My eye doctor shoots a bow with contacts. He thinks I'm nuts.

Same here. Just could not get used to the contacts. I hate glasses, especially for shooting, but it is better than the alternative...everything being a blur!

J.P.

[Texas5o]

I've always had trouble trying to shoot with glasses on for the same reason Fleeta and jpbruni mentioned above and I, too, can't stand to put the contacts in my eyes. I have recently (in the past couple weeks) adjusted the way I hold my head (I face the target more squarely with it) and now I can wear my glasses when I shoot. It helps a lot because I can actually see more than a colored shape down range and I think it will help me keep my head in the same position every shot.