There is an on-going discussion on Rob's, Dan'l's, CeePee's and my favorite newsgroup about "the Weaver Stance," and as usual on that particular newgroup, a whole bunch of people got it wrong. (But then, in fairness, some got it reasonably accurate, too….)
One fellow wrote that the Weaver was
now going on forty years old, but I knew that to have been an undershot by a considerable amount, and did some research through the Cooper Commentaries (current at
http://www.molonlabe.net/Commentaries/) and what I found was pretty interesting.
I had thought that it was 1957, but was actually 1959. So it's been 45 years since LASO Deputy Jack returned to Big Bear Lake with his six-inch S&W K-38 and a two-handed hold and competitively forced the "Leather-Slappers" into the first stages of what we now know as The Modern Technique after Jeff Cooper and the late John Plahn incorporated "dynamic tension" (as they used to call it in the old Charles Atlas advertisements) into the mix.
BTW, by Cooper's own admission a dozen years ago, it took him three (3!) years to discard his "one-handed long-point" style and emulate Weaver… when I asked him why, he simply shrugged and stated "I was stubborn." (Okay, why do you think they're called "jarheads?!?")
Another poster mentioned that "
the speedrock was taught me ancillery {sic} to the modified Weaver as it started from that stance."
Well, that's amusing, because almost by definition,
any two-handed, bladed stance not performed by Jack Weaver is in fact a "modified Weaver," so that term is tossed around far too loosely. Upon information and recollection, it was first used to describe the Chapman "refinement," as Ray was one of those early participants.
(There's another variant of that promulgated by another retired Marine which he once called the "Kent Turnipseed Enhanced Low Ready" or some such. Most of what one needs to know can been seen on his
video page and some of the subjects he covers:
- Hit from the hip!
[/*:m
f69ecto]
- Hit without sights![/*:mf69ecto]
The other thing which is instructive about the man, he was a participant, albeit pretty much as an after-thought, in Dean Caputo's celebrated "Firefight on the Edge of the 'Hood," coming soon to
TGZ.)
The "Weaver stance" and the "Speed Rock" were part and parcel of the Modern Technique, and while it's been a tad over ten years since I was last at Gunsite, there was a curious construction adjacent the South Range which I learned from then D.Ops Bill Jeans, had been used in instruction of the Speed Rock but was rarely ever used. The preferred technique was, I believe, what is now commonly referred to as the "police protected position."
But the best thing about my explorations was the discovery of a modest site launched by Jack Weaver's son Alan which confirms the date of the Weaver introduction, and a photo from "the day." Appropriately it's
http://weaverstance.com/index.htm and there's a terrific photo of his Dad showing off the only true "Weaver Stance."
Our next question for discussion is "
Who is Thomas Glenn Terry and why should we know him?"
