Swish: Does Crossed Eye-Hand Dominance Make a Better Free Throw Shooter?

Overview

Objectives/Goals I have been playing and watching basketball my whole life. In the 6th grade I entered a free throw competition, and as I looked around at other competitors, I thought to myself, "What makes someone good at free throws?" Is it practice or could it be some special trait they possess? I thought it would be interesting to devise a test to determine the eye-hand dominance of basketball players and then see if those who tested as crossed eye-hand dominance were better at free throw shooting than those who are not. Methods/Materials 1) I selected 36 volunteers from my current middle school's basketball teams who have roughly the same amount of basketball experience. 2) I determined dominance by asking the subjects to take a paper tube in both hands and look through it to see an object in the near distance. 3) I noted if subjects have crossed eye-hand dominance naturally. 4) The subjects shot 10 free throws using their dominant hand from the free throw line at the school gymnasium and I recorded the the number made and calculated the percentage of shots made. 5) I had the subjects repeat the previous procedure, but this time covering their dominant eye with an eye patch, then a third trial covering their non-dominant eye with an eye patch. Results When I compared the average scores between crossed eye-hand dominant and uncrossed eye-hand dominant subjects, crossed eye-hand dominant subjects scored significantly higher on two of the three trials. However, uncrossed eye-hand dominant subjects scored higher when their non-dominant eye was covered. The average scores for this latter trial were even higher - 50% to 43% - than when they were wearing no eye patch at all. Conclusions/Discussion Subjects who were identified in being crossed eye-hand dominant scored higher on average than those who had uncrossed eye-hand dominance. When I used the eye patch to force subjects to shoot with their non-dominant eye only, the crossed dominant subjects still performed better. I was hoping that the uncrossed dominant subjects would have performed better when I forced them to use their non-dominant eye to shoot. In fact, they performed best of all when I made them use only their dominant eye to shoot, which is interesting and a possible further research topic! In conclusion, crossed eye-hand dominance may make you a better free throw shooter but if you're not crossed eye-hand dominant DON'T TRY TO BE!

Competition history

• CSEF 2011 Cognitive Science (Junior Division Only) · Entry J0703

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