For quite literally decades, those of us in the Shivworks Collective have been publicly – both online in numerous areas, as well as vocally in video or podcast interviews – trying to get across the idea that contextual application trumps all doctrine. The idea that best practices are universal is only true in a global principle sense. In actual specifics, much changes.

For example, the best practices of a four man fire team in a room clearing scenario, where everyone has trained extensively together for long periods, have top flight equipment like body armor, night vision, etc, are all using long guns, and most likely have immediate medical back up just outside the building in case something goes wrong, is only superficially similar to the lone private citizen concealed carrier who is woken up at 3am by the sound of glass breaking from the direction of his daughter’s room. Those two fairly disparate contexts require a good deal of different methods and skills and techniques to handle the different applications. For too many people, that is a hard concept to absorb.

Since 9/11 and the start of the Global War on Terror, there has been an explosion in the training community and a  great deal of new students, many new instructors, new venues to train and a breathtaking amount of new gear has come along since. The art and science of fighting has rapidly progressed to an incredible level and at a freakishly fast pace. We are far beyond where we were at the start of the 21^st century. However, one of the negatives is that a great deal of newcomers to training often have little to no idea of what has come before , and frequently show derision to the “old stuff”.

One area this manifests itself so obviously is in the approved way(s) to carry a pistol. It is accepted wisdom that you carry (especially concealed) on the belt and no other place. Whether that is behind the hip, at 3:00, or appendix, anything else but on the belt (and almost always IWB) is not given any credence in the general community. Very, very grudgingly, some will vaguely accept pocket carry in very limited and extenuating circumstances. And that is it.

If you try to talk about some other method, you are immediately and loudly proclaimed either stupid, a “Fudd”, a “poor”, or some other derogatory and dismissive insult. Few can even contemplate an informed and reasoned choice that selects another means. Probably the greatest insult a person can do to someone in the tacti-cool gun world is to suggest that ankle carry is a viable method of carry. It is as if you accused them of being a communist.

The problem with this caveman level of inquiry and its rejection of anything that the group does not sanction is that is completely ignores context. Not everyone can regularly carry on the belt. In fact, I would submit that far more people, on a daily basis can’t carry on a belt than otherwise can. That is a point utterly overlooked by those who make their living carrying, or teaching how to, or writing about, or being a salesperson for the firearms world. And disappointingly, there are a lot of people who don’t fit into those categories who take everything that that the former folks say as gospel, and parrot the same lines as well. It seems to go over the heads of people who should be applying critical thinking skills the simple fact that the context that the majority of concealed carriers face is not necessarily the context that the “experts” face.

Personally, I am a huge proponent of ankle carry IN MY PARTICUAR CONTEXT. What is that context you may reasonably ask? It is that Monday through Friday, 8am – 5:30pm my life tends to place me about 95% of the time in one of three places. The first is sitting at my desk either on the phone or on my PC. The second spot is sitting in my car driving to or from a client or vendor or on some other business related travel. And the third is sitting either across the desk from a client in their office, or at a conference table there. Do you see the common dominator?  I am in a seated position in some way, for a good chunk of the day. On top of that, because of professional reasons and requirements that are non-negotiable, I have set of dress standards that I absolutely must adhere to, at the risk of inviting more scrutiny by dressing inappropriately, and suffering catastrophic financial disaster if caught.

I put it to you that in that context, the absolute fastest and most efficient draw that anyone could do is from the ankle. Watch this video to see it in detail. Keep in mind that the beauty of almost any seated position is that I can stage my gun side foot at the best angle and at the best distance and no one is the wiser. And even better, in the car or at my desk, I can even pull the pant leg up so that there is zero interference in accessing and deploying the pistol. Take a quick look here:

This is just a short sample of the efficacy of ankle carry seated. It is demonstrably faster and more efficient than any belt carry because all I have to do is move my hand. That’s it. There is no need to shift anything before the access is enabled. This is one of the reasons I have made it a major part of my EDC.

I plan to follow this article up with a couple of others going deeper into far more detail about the hows and whys and gear and set up, etc, but this will serve as the amuse bouche before the main course.