G'day Lee,
I am new to the forum but relatively familiar of the basic concepts via the posts here and over at senshido and also having read some of Geoff Thompson's articles.
I saw a clip of your Knife defense on youtube ( which I thought was probably the most realistic and effective such demonstation I have ever scene ) whereby you are utilizing a " reflexive " fend type of default position to both protect yourself and close the distance simultaneously.
I have seen the traditional fence demonstrated as arms/fingers forward and then in your knife clip reversed to forearms forward. I wondered if, in your experience it might be possible to talk " italian " ( forearms forward ) in the fence (as a default type response) which would negate the need to distinguish between sucker punch with knife and sucker punch with fist (and hence having to rotate your arms) as your arms are in good position for both. Is there any merit in this or is it good in theory only. Also do you favour any one default position over the others ?.
By the way could you recommend what dvd set I should get for starters that covers pre fight cues, the fence etc. best.
Apologies for the size of the post Lee but it's just something I had running through my mind. Thanks mate and I look forward to speaking to you again.

Lee,
Please disregard my question regards the fence. I think the way I saw it in my mind did not translate well to my question and I have role played out a couple of scenarios and realised it basically makes no difference. If you have hard wired the fend on the back of your flinch response then the original orientation of your arms makes no difference. Thanks


As an aside I would like to congratulate everybody associated with this site. I learn something new ( albeit slowly ) everytime I log on and Lee's articles have more common sense and general combative info in them than I have received from all my other sources combined. Thanks and cheers for now.