Bad eye / good Muay Thai - choosing to be Orthodox or Southpaw

[MikeCote]

Hey everyone! I’m having my first amateur fight in January.! Been doing MT for about 7 years. I’m right hand dominant but left eye dominant because my right eye has very poor vision. I learned orthadox first for four years but then spent the two year trying southpaw. I have huge strengths in both.  I was wondering if in your opinion if It’s essential my left eye is forward because it has better vision? Is southpaw a viable option as well or a big no no because of it? Thank you  

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

7 hours ago, MikeCote said:

Been doing MT for about 7 years. I’m right hand dominant but left eye dominant because my right eye has very poor vision. I learned orthadox first for four years but then spent the two year trying southpaw. I have huge strengths in both.  I was wondering if in your opinion if It’s essential my left eye is forward because it has better vision? Is southpaw a viable option as well or a big no no because of it?

It's very hard to tell about these kinds of questions because a big part of this goes to what your training opportunities are (sparring, etc), and how coaches feel about your stances (ie, the kind of support you might have). But, all things being equal, I don't think your forward eye would matter that much, assuming you are not blind and can detected motion and shapes easy. Your eyes probably work together, you aren't reading letters off an eye chart. You seem to feel physically confident in both stances.

I've always thought that if a fighter had the opportunity they should work towards switching, learning to use their strengths from either side, and hide their weaknesses. It increases a need to read the situation and the opponent, and allows you to attack both edges. But, this is really advising from extremely far away from whatever you are going through.

One thing you might find interesting, if you are a patron, is this 2 hr video which traces how the legend Karuhat changed Sylvie from orthodox to southpaw, so she could correct some bad habits, and also put her strong hand in the lead. It may give you ideas for yourself: https://www.patreon.com/posts/karuhat-sor-3-to-13300833 . Karuhat was a switching fighter.

[MikeCote]

Thank you so much! This is just the information I needed.