Kate+Mauschbaugh

Title: Crossed hand dominance / eye dominance vs. shooting percentage

Abstract: My experiment is testing if cross hand and eye dominance affects the percentage of a basketball players shooting. All of my shooters had some experience shooting a basketball. I had my volunteers shoot 30 free throws and record how many shots they made. I also had them take a test that determined which eye was their dominant eye and which hand was dominant. With research, I found that most cross dominant (right eye-left hand or left hand- right eye) shooters had a higher shooting percentage.

Purpose: The purpose of this experiment is to test if crossed hand and eye dominance has a positive or negative effect on a basketball players shooting percentage. It also is a good way to test how to improve one's shooting percentage. "The idea of having a dominant hand (being left-handed or right-handed) is familiar to everyone. What may not be so familiar is the concept of a dominant eye. Most people are accustomed to using both eyes together, and don't think much about situations where it might matter if one eye is dominant over the other"(Olsen). I want to try this experiment to test if different shooters are more likely to make a higher percentage than others. "Eye Dominance" refers to the eye that the brain "prefers" or one that has stronger "processing" in the brain than the other. People usually have one eye that likes to "take over" (McWilliams). I will use this test to test ([]) for my volunteers eye dominance"You hold your arms straight out at eye level, fingers up, palms out, hands overlapping, leaving a small hole between the hands through which you sight a faraway object. Then you pull your hands back, keeping the object in sight, until they wind up over one eye or the other. That’s your master eye" (Bourjaily). I plan to have my volunteers take 20 shots from the free throw line and take down their percentage they make, then compare them to see if my hypothesis is correct."When one hand is consistently used more than the other hand, and is more skilled at tasks than the other hand, then that hand is considered to be the dominant hand" (Gibbs). I believe that shooters with crossed hand and eye dominance will have a better shooting percentage because if you do not have crossed hand/eye dominance, the ball covers your eye partially, making it harder to see the basket clearly. " The accuracy needed to shoot a basketball successfully does not leave much margin for error. The slightest deviation on line or distance and the ball will carom off the rim. Consequently, any elements of vision or dexterity which don't work together can produce consistently errant shots and complicate the efforts of the shooter" (Bliss, Kevin).

(How will you figure out what eye if is dominate-Lucas Navas) Explain more why you want to do this experiment. (Kylie Ashton) Maybe explain how genetics and genes control some of the things. (Angela Jaszarowski) Consider having both boys and girls in this experiment. (Alexa Thompson)

Hypothesis:  If shooters have crossed hand/eye dominance, then they will have a higher shooting percentage.

Materials: basketball, basketball hoop, 20-30 volunteers, data sheets

Procedure:
 * I will need to recruit 20-30 volunteers for this project. Ideally all of my volunteers need to be approximately the same age, and have roughly the same amount of experience and skill shooting free throws.
 * For each volunteer I will have them fill out a data sheet with the information below on it.
 * 1) Name
 * 2) Age
 * 3) Gender
 * 4) Hand dominance
 * 5) Eye dominance
 * 6) Number of years playing basketball
 * 7) Free throw percentage


 * These are the questions that I will be asked to determine the volunteers hand dominance.
 * 1) Which hand does your subject use for writing? (Just ask your subject to write his or her name.)
 * 2) Which hand does your subject use to shoot baskets? (Generally when shooting, one hand cradles the ball, and the other hand launches the ball toward the basket. The hand providing force to the ball is the shooting hand.)


 * Each volunteer will shoot 30 free throws. I then will find all of there shooting percentages using this equation. ( shooting percentage= shots made/ 30 * 100 )
 * I will have them take this test to determine their eye dominance.

Data:
 * 1) Extend both hands to arm's length in front of you, and put your hands together to make a small triangle between your thumbs and the first knuckle on each hand. The triangle should be about 2 to 3 centimeters on each side.
 * 2) With both eyes open, look through the triangle and center something (e.g., a doorknob) in the triangle.
 * 3) Close your left eye. If the object remains in view, you are right eye dominant. If your hands appear to move off the object and move to the left, then you are left eye dominant.
 * 4) To validate the first test, look through the triangle and center the object again with both eyes open.
 * 5) Close your right eye. If the object remains in view, you are left eye dominant. If your hands appear to move off the object and move to the right, then you are right eye dominant.
 * 6) An alternative method is to assume the same position with your hands, and center the triangle around the object with both eyes open. Now, slowly bring your hands toward your face while continuing to look at the object with both eyes open. When your hands touch your face, the triangle opening should be in front of your dominant eye.
 * Repeat the above tests a number of times to satisfy yourself that you are sure which eye is your dominant eye.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> For each subject, I will determine whether they have crossed or uncrossed hand and eye dominance's.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5;">Then I will calculate the percentage of volunteers that are crossed hand/eye dominant and the percent that are uncrossed.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5;">Lastly I will make a graph to show the averages and to compare my answers



Analysis: As you can see in my graph, crossed hand/eye dominant shooters tend to have a higher shooting percentage than shooters with same hand/eye dominance. I believe that this happens because when you shoot a basketball, one eye is blocked by the ball. If the ball blocks your dominant eye, than it would be harder to make a basket because it is more difficult to see the basket with your non dominant eye.

Conclusion: I accept my hypothesis because my hypothesis explains an accurate piece of information.My hypothesis is i<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5;">f shooters have crossed hand/eye dominance, then they will have a higher shooting percentage. My hypothesis is accurate because my data shows that crossed hand/eye dominant shooters did have higher shooting percentages overall.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5;">Limitations: The first thing that went wrong was that it was hard to find volunteers who had time to participate in my experiment. Shooting 30 free throws takes about twenty to thirty minutes. Another problem that occurred was that it was hard to find a gym. I tried to do my experiment in school with the time given but the gyms are all being used for Physical Fitness classes during school hours. Lastly, I had a problem with keeping my experiment in my control. Some of my volunteers lacked focus and I needed shooters who were going to be very serious. To improve this experiment, I would have scheduled a gym for my experiment, gathered more volunteers, and overall just spent more time on my experiment as a whole to get better data.

Works Cited

Bliss, Kevin. "Does Crossed Hand-Eye Dominance Affect Basketball Shooting Percentages?" LIVESTRONG.COM. N.p., 8 Mar. 2011. Web. 20 Dec. 2012.

Olsen, Andrew. "Crossed Up: Does Crossed Hand/Eye Dominance Affect Basketball Shooting Percentage?" Crossed Up: Does Crossed Hand/Eye Dominance Affect Basketball Shooting Percentage? Science Buddies, 10 Jan. 2013. Web. 16 Jan. 2013.

"Eye Dominance." YouTube. YouTube, 26 Feb. 2010. Web. 14 Dec. 2012.

Gibbs, Marrine. "Hand Dominance." Hand Dominance. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. <http://www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com/hand-dominance.html>.

Philip Bourjaily. "Bourjaily: Simple Test to Find Your Dominant Eye | Field & Stream."Bourjaily: Simple Test to Find Your Dominant Eye | Field & Stream. N.p., 26 Aug. 2009. Web. 14 Dec. 2012.

McWilliams. "Re: What Is 'eye Dominance'?" Re: What Is 'eye Dominance'? N.p., 28 Nov. 1998. Web. 16 Jan. 2013.