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  • Black Belt Magazine

    THE FENCE AND VERBAL DE-ESCALATION

    Mar 15, 2022 4 minutes
    BY LITO ANGELES

    As I noted in my previous column, when you can’t avoid or escape a volatile situation through threat recognition via situational awareness, the fence is the basis from which to proactively control, de-escalate and, if that fails, physically respond.

    So what is the fence? The term was coined by renowned British self-defense instructor Geoff Thompson in the 1990s to denote an innocuous protective posture that serves as the tactical platform from which to proactively defend yourself. It’s essentially a disguised fighting stance in which you stand with your feet slightly staggered and shoulder-width apart and your rear foot angled slightly out with its big toe aligned with the arch

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