Jeff Cooper: Teacher, Partner & Friend
by J Bartell
Jeff Cooper is known as the Godfather of Modern Combat shooting techniques that are used worldwide. If not for men like Jeff Cooper, Michael Harries, and Jack Weaver, FBI and police officers might still be using what I call the “squat and take a dump stance” when holding their weapons.
Jeff Cooper and others would hold combat shooting competitions in Big Bear, California. The competition called The Leather Slap would just be a fun shooting competition for prizes which later turned into shooting matches to test new techniques of self-defense. Jeff and others later founded the South West Pistol League that held matches just outside Los Angeles, California.
Jeff Cooper was later the founding president of still another group called the International Practical Shooting Confederation or as most people call it, IPSC.
IPSC is nothing like it was in Jeff’s and Michael’s day. The whole idea for them was to continually find new ways for people to learn how to defend themselves. Now it’s all about how much prize money you could win. Unfortunately, some competitors will do anything to win.
I met with Jeff Cooper at his ranch a couple of times. I remember once his wife made chocolate cake or brownies which were absolutely delicious. A very nice lady. Sometimes Michael and I would arrange to meet with Jeff when he traveled to areas in the US.
I think it was around 1981 that Michael and I met up with Jeff at the Shot Show in New Orleans. I remember Jeff did not look very well at all. If memory serves me correctly, he was in a wheelchair. But even then you made sure you listened to whatever he was talking to you about.
Jeff and I talked a lot about tactics, philosophy and helping our country stay a little safer against the bad guys.
I could say a lot about Jeff Cooper, but there’s a lot out there on the web about him already. He was a great man and is missed by many. We really could use another Jeff Cooper, but it looks like there will only be one.