Archery with glasses and contact lenses

Many of us are not blessed with the ideal of healthy and sharp vision without glasses.

The optimum, of course, is good eyesight, at all distances if possible.

Not everyone can get by without visual aids such as glasses and contact lenses.

Nevertheless, most people with poor vision can still shoot archery without any problems.

Single-vision glasses

As glasses wearers, we're used to wearing "the same frame" all the time and everywhere. Many of us are affected by poor vision and/or impaired vision in all situations. Unlike progressive lenses, single-vision glasses have the advantage of eliminating any "distortion" when looking through them.

Contact lenses

If you have the option, wear contact lenses instead of glasses. If that's not possible, then you should wear tight-fitting glasses (perhaps sports glasses), as bulky frames prevent you from anchoring properly. In this case, you should wear tight-fitting glasses.

progressive lenses

Varifocal lenses aren't necessarily the ideal solution for intuitive archery. When distances change, you have to "focus" by raising or lowering your head. Many archers therefore use the aforementioned solution (single-vision lenses) when shooting. Nevertheless, it's doable. In many cases, it certainly also depends on whether you started with varifocal lenses or have to switch at some point in your archery career. Archers who wear varifocal lenses often also have difficulty with spatial vision at different distances.

Dominant eye

The question naturally arises: What does THAT do – a dominant eye? Perhaps the dominant eye helps us see details better. It allows us to better identify which is the odd one out in a group of objects. In studies, for example, participants were shown several lines. However, one line was angled slightly differently than the others. With the dominant eye, these people were able to see this line better. Anyone who was incorrectly "trained" on the bow can tell you a thing or two about this.

Conclusion

Find your way. Whether you shoot with or without glasses is entirely up to you and your experience. As so often in life, "Anything is possible"!

The tip from the master optician

Whether archery is possible for you if you have severe nearsightedness, with significant differences in both eyes, is something you'll have to try out. This is especially true if your dominant eye is the "weaker" one. There's no general statement on this. Of course, you can also wear shooting glasses – your optician can tell you more about this.

Tips from our archers

The thing with tight-fitting glasses is a bit of a problem. My experience has been that glasses that fit too tightly tend to fog up. Then you can't see anything. - Martin -

Now I have to share my experience with you. I have progressive lenses, and when I go archery, I wear contact lenses (hard). We adjusted them so that I can see very well at a distance and up close, too. They work really well. I only need reading glasses for writing. The only downside is that they start to itch and sting when I'm indoors. I have a solution for that, or I take them out. Since I had my contact lenses fitted by an optician, I talked to my ophthalmologist about it, and he gave me these eye drops, and as I said, I only use them for archery. - Regina -

I have hard lenses and!!! I'm cross-dominant. I said yes to ALL the nonsense. . But it works well. - Angelika -

I've had my eyes lasered - if I don't shoot noticeably better next year, it must be my technique and not my eyes. - Karl-

I've been shooting with varifocal lenses for years. Once you get the hang of it, it works great. -Anja-

I admire anyone who manages to put in contact lenses. I tried it once for Halloween, but I couldn't get them on my eyes. -Martin