The modern technique (abbreviation of modern technique of the pistol) is a method for using a handgun for self-defense, originated by firearms expert Jeff Cooper. The modern technique uses a two-handed grip on the pistol and brings the weapon to eye level so that the sights may be used to aim at the target. This method was developed by Cooper into a teachable system beginning in the 1950s, based on the techniques of shooters like Jack Weaver, Mike Rousseau and others, after experiments with older techniques such as point shooting. The method was codified in book form in 1991 in The Modern Technique of the Pistol by Gregory B. Morrison and Cooper.
History
In 1956, following a career in the United States Marine Corps where he served in World War II and the Korean War, and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel, Jeff Cooper started holding Leatherslap shooting events and established the Bear Valley Gunslingers at Big Bear Lake, California. The initial events consisted of straight quick-draw matches, determining who could draw and hit a target at seven yards the fastest. They were the first matches of their kind, unrestricted as to technique, weapon, caliber, holster, or profession.
Initially, competitors primarily used some form of point shooting, a single-handed technique with the pistol fired from the hip, that was popular and believed to be the best-suited to the purpose. However, shooters would often discharge several rounds from the hip in rapid succession, but miss the 18-inch balloons seven yards away. One of the early champions, Jack Weaver, switched to an eye-level, two-handed, aimed technique. In his words, "a pretty quick hit was better than a lightning-fast miss."
Weaver's string of victories, resulting from his new method, influenced adoption of the technique and abandonment of point shooting. Soon, firearms trainers, most notably Cooper, began refining and codifying the concept; the result became the modern technique.
Over several years, the Bear Valley Gunslingers evolved into the South Western Combat Pistol League (SWCPL; known officially as the Southwest Pistol League (SWPL) – Cooper asserted that the word "combat" offended the then California Secretary of State, Frank M. Jordan). Their objective was to inject realism into pistol-shooting competition, thus developing the best methods of using a pistol for self-defense. The later competitions held at Big Bear were designed to represent actual and projected real-life situations, including shootings that some of the police officers attending the SWCPL had experienced. Six competitors consistently dominated the competitions, and these men became known as the Combat Masters: Jack Weaver, Ray Chapman, Elden Carl, Thell Reed, John Plähn, and Jeff Cooper.
The Combat Masters were given this title because, if they all competed, they would take the first six places, and if only one of them competed, ordinarily, he would be the winner. These competitions included highly accomplished world-class point shooters, such as Reed and Bob Munden (later known as the "world's fastest gun"), who competed using what would become the modern technique. Weaver is credited with originating the new two-handed Weaver Stance, Carl and Chapman refined it in competition, Plähn codified it, and Cooper publicized the new technique. Plähn, who possessed a PhD in physical education, filmed the Combat Masters in action to analyze what their winning techniques had in common. The most efficient movements were selected and integrated into the modern technique.
Others significant in the SWCPL included Leonard Knight (finished second in the first IPSC U.S. National Championship in 1977), Al Nichols, Jim Hoag, Bruce Nelson (designer of the "Summer Special" holster and an LEO in Southern California working in narcotics; present at the formation of IPSC and formed the Holster Committee), Michael Harries (former US Marine, who invented the Harries Technique of flashlight manipulation for use with a pistol, as well as becoming an instructor at Gunsite and consultant to police departments and the movie industry), and Jim Zubiena (appeared in the episode "Calderone's Return Part 1" of the TV series Miami Vice, a good example of the employment of the modern technique and the Mozambique drill in entertainment).
Cooper recognized several advances in pistolcraft prior to the modern technique: The work of William Fairbairn and Eric Sykes in Shanghai Municipal Police during the Twenties and Thirties. The FBI Practical Pistol Course in the 1930s, which consisted of timed shooting at seven, 25, 50 and 60 yards, holding the pistol in the strong hand, and then the weak hand, considered a significant improvement over the basic bullseye shooting taught previously. Cooper's own work in conjunction with fellow Marine Howland G. Taft on the Advanced Military Combat Pistol Course in 1948, which was incorporated into the US Army Field Manuals.
Method
The modern technique comprises four central elements: an appropriately powerful weapon, and an effective way to hold it, aim it, and fire it. Cooper summarized the requirement and intended outcome in three Latin words:
Diligentia - Accuracy: You must hit your assailant in order to injure him. Vis – Force: You must strike your opponent with sufficient force to incapacitate him. Celeritas – Speed: You must strike him quickly, so your opponent does not injure you before you injure him.
Cooper's personal motto, expressed as "DVC," and the phrase "front sight/press," are the main takeaways for students of the modern technique.
Semi-automatic pistol in a large caliber
The modern technique may be used with any handgun, but the .45 ACP caliber Colt M1911 semi-automatic pistol is universally associated with Jeff Cooper and the technique.
Jeff Cooper specified the use of a large caliber semi-automatic pistol as a component of the modern technique. He chose a large caliber because experience demonstrated that the largest quantity of force, and therefore damage, should be inflicted to maximize the chances of stopping even the most motivated and physically tough assailant.
The choice of magazine-fed semi-automatic handgun was because this firearm enabled continuous fire by allowing fresh magazines to be inserted quickly by the shooter. Most revolvers must be reloaded one cartridge at a time, which is a slower process than the replacement of a magazine in a semi-automatic pistol. Furthermore, reloading a revolver in the dark is very difficult, while reloading a semi-automatic pistol is relatively easy. During World War II (prior to developing the modern technique), after taking advice from a distinguished authority on gun fighting, Charles Askins, Jeff Cooper took a Colt Single Action Army revolver into combat in the Pacific theater and subsequently remarked that this advice nearly got him killed.
Bullet wounds vary in how much they incapacitate an assailant. The greater the injury inflicted, the greater the chance of killing one's assailant or wounding him so badly he is no longer able to fight. According to Cooper, larger caliber bullets, being bullets of greater diameter, are more likely to inflict wounds that bleed severely and incapacitate the assailant in a shorter period of time. Jeff Cooper's studies of reports from gun fights pointed to the greater effectiveness of larger diameter bullets in killing or incapacitating an assailant.
Pistols are not practical platforms for the launching of large projectiles because their small size, relative to rifles, decreases their capacity to absorb the force of recoil, increasing the proportion transmitted into the user's body. At calibers larger than .45 or .50, the negative impact on a shooter's control generally outweighs the benefits of a larger projectile. Hence Jeff Cooper's preference for a pistol launching a bullet of .45 diameter, or in the case of a shooter of such slight stature that they are unable to use a .45 caliber pistol, the use of a pistol firing a bullet of as large a diameter as is practical for the shooter to control.
The ability of different types and sizes of bullet to damage and incapacitate human beings and other creatures is called stopping power. Stopping power is a controversial subject because of the absence of data from controlled experiments and therefore a lack of scientific data that would demonstrate the superiority of one particular type of cartridge over another.
Weaver stance
The Weaver stance consists of two components. The first is gripping the pistol with two hands so that the slight forward pressure on the grip of the hand that drew the pistol is opposed by a rearward pressure on the grip of the second hand. This action aids in controlling the recoil of the pistol to stabilize the pistol for subsequent shots. The second component, and most commonly known, is the positioning of the feet in a walking stance, with the off-side foot ahead of the strong-side foot. A right-handed person will have the right foot angled out to the side and further to the rear. Most of the weight will be on the left foot, with the knee slightly bent. The shoulders will be leaned forward over the left toe. The right foot behind will help catch the force of recoil, as well as allow for rapid changes in position. For a left-handed person, this would all be reversed.
Flash sight picture
The Flash Sight Picture is a method of allowing the cognitive faculties of the shooter to align the target and the sights without the delay involved in the conscious alignment of sights, as used when slow-firing a rifle at a distant target. In point shooting, by contrast, the pistol is drawn from the holster and fired from the hip, without the sights being aligned at all.
In slow-fire rifle shooting, the front sight and rear sight of the rifle are aligned with the distant target with great care, taking at least several seconds.
The Flash Sight Picture technique falls between these two methods. During a gunfight, waiting to align the sights is too slow. However, more accuracy than point shooting is required to hit one's assailant reliably. It is physically impossible for the human eye to focus simultaneously on the rear sight (nearest to one's eye), the front sight (farther away from one's eye), and the relatively distant target at the same time. The muscles of the eye adjust to focus sight on one specific distance optimally at any one instant, so 3 different distances mean the shooter's focus must hunt (muscular physical adjustments) between all three points of mental concentration. The greatest adjustment of focus (relatively more ocular muscle contraction) is required to view shorter distances, such as the gun's rear sight. In the modern technique, the shooter is taught to focus on the front sight of the pistol and align it against the target, ignoring the rear sight for quicker aiming and minimal physical requirements. This prevents the focus of the eye from hunting between rear sight, front sight and target, wasting vital time in refocusing.
The technique is called "flash" sight picture because the cognition is best able to perform this function when the target and front sight are presented quickly as a single image, in a 'flash', as if the shooter had just turned around to face a threat appearing from close by. The shooter's vision can "see" the rear sight, even if the focus is on the front sight. This is enough for the cognition to make an alignment. With the flash sight picture, the front sight and a rapidly presented image of the target are used to align the pistol. This is faster than slow-fire rifle, and offers more chance of hitting the target than point shooting from the hip.
The cognitive functions of the brain align objects in the hand with distant objects at great speed. This ability of human cognition can be used to align the pistol with the target. Cooper discovered this specific ability and named it the "Flash Sight Picture".