Should I get special glasses made for playing pool?
Some people can benefit from bifocals or progressive to help them focus clearly on both the CB and OB, but most people just need distance correction to play pool. You can have your optometrist fine tune your prescription to focus on the typical distance range of pool shots (3-9 feet). Some people might prefer a monovision prescription, where one eye is focused for close-up viewing (e.g., the CB) and the other is focused for longer distance (e.g., the OB target), but this is definitely not for everybody, and it can cause vision center alignment issues since the monovision “vision center” head position can change with shot distance.
Some people prefer “pool glasses” with no top rim that are very tall above the eyebrows so it is impossible to look over the glasses. Some companies offer billiard-specific glasses like this (e.g., Billiard Eyeglasses and Curran Billiard Glasses). They might look a little goofy, but they are effective.
You can also just use regular glasses and adjust the nose supports so the glasses sit close to your face and high so the upper rim in buried in your eyebrows. That way, it is difficult look over the glasses. An alternative is a device to prop up the glasses on your nose (e.g., PropEyes).
It also helps to have a low stance, where your gaze angle doesn’t change very much from the CB to the OB. For more information and demonstrations, see advantages of a low stance.
Wearing a baseball cap can help hold glasses firmly to your head. A cap will also block direct light and reduce glare from the lights above the pool table.
See also: A Guide to Pool Glasses and “Pool Friendly Eyeglasses” (BD, December, 2021).
from Jude Rosenstock (in Facebook post):
As a lifelong glasses wearer until two years ago, I have a few things to say.
You use LASIK as a generic term for all corrective eye surgery procedures. LASIK is one product of several. I got Advanced Surface Ablation, which uses a laser just like LASIK but is not actually LASIK.
Contact Lenses actually come with MORE risks than laser surgery. If you don’t switch your contacts out regularly and/or clean them regularly, you run the risk of infection which can lead to blindness. Of course, surgery also has risks, the chances of blindness are less common. Bear in mind, issues now are very rare for both but it is imperative that no matter what you choose, you follow your doctor’s instructions thoroughly.
For me, the biggest problem I had with glasses was distortion. My prescription was so severe, objects would actually appear noticeably smaller when I put my glasses on. In order for me to play well, I would have to commit to wearing glasses permanently (give up contacts) and even then, I found I could never play my best pool unless I wore contacts or got surgery.
In the end (and you elude to this), you should have a candid discussion with your optometrist/eye surgeon about what your vision goals are. I openly tell every eye doctor that I am a competitive pool player and all of our discussions revolve around that. Like I said, I got surgery two years ago. I was at -6.5 in both eyes and now have 20/20 vision. I experience absolutely no dryness, no halos, nothing. It feels like I was just born with perfect vision.
from xfrenz93x (in YouTube comment):
Contact lenses for people with high myopia can be a good option. With high myopia, eyeglasses makes everything look smaller due to the nature of the convex lenses used. By switching to contact lenses, the minimized effect will not be there, resulting in everything appearing bigger than with eyeglasses. Bigger balls = easier to aim.
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