The forward pommel

When I fight with a red sword or other equivalent weapon I fight with the pommel forward.  Wherever I go, I see everyone else fighting with their pommel back and their blade forward.  For the life of me, I just don't understand why that is.  It may be that there's a good explanation I simply haven't heard in the years I've been fighting but so far it seems like that's just how everyone learned to do it.  So allow me to explain what I think is wrong with that.

All melee weapons are an extension of basic body mechanics

The reason why fighting skills transfer from one skill set to the next is because even though the objectives of what each hand attempts to accomplish (IE, blocking only, striking only, doing both) you still have a limited set of body mechanics.  Regardless of the weapon set you pick up, your arms still work the same way.  Regardless of the gear that you're carrying your feet will still move the same way.  It's up to the individual to make adjustments to their form to bring out the best that the gear that they're using has to offer.  If you've got a giant board to hide behind, it probably makes more sense to take a defensive stance unless your plan is to run headfirst into a line while getting beat to death (clearly that was sarcasm, in spite of the fact that I see it all the time).

The red "florentine" stance

For me, as primarily a florentine fighter, red fighting, at least when it's with a red sword or equivalent rather then a glaive, is very much an extension of how I fight with two sticks.  My dominant (right) hand is back and my other hand is forward.  My right foot matches my right hand and my left foot matches my left hand.  This positioning means that both sides of my body are in sync from the top of my shoulders all the way down to my toes.  My right hand is primarily responsible for throwing swings while my left hand is primarily responsible for making sure that nothing gets close to my torso.  (It's important to note that this is a DEFAULT stance, not a set in stone thing to do, as stance changes with the ebb and flow of battle).  For a red weapon this means my top hand is my right hand and my bottom hand is my left hand.  This means that I'm primarily using the weapons hilt to block, keeping the blocking surface as far away from my torso as possible, while keeping the blade back and ready to strike.

The "come at me bro" stance

For whatever reason the thing that I see most people favor is almost the polar opposite of this.  While the top hand is still often the person's dominant hand the blade is extended to the maximum distance it can reach, and the pommel is either at a person's hip or right above their hip.  Typically when people explain this stance to me and why they chose to fight that way it boils down to a few things.  The most common reason I hear is that a person who fights this way was simply taught that this was how you fight with a red.  They haven't really taken the time to consider their design decisions, they are simply doing something they once saw some other person do.  Generally speaking, if you're just copying another person it's likely you're doing it wrong.  What works for someone else may or may not work for you, but without consciously choosing their form and knowing how it works it's likely that you're missing something.  Assuming you've got everything from their form right it may not be the best stance for you given how your body is built.

Another thing that I've heard is that it makes the stab easier.  While it may be true that you can throw a stab easier when it's pointed right at the other person's chest, it's also true that 1) it makes many other shots much more difficult to throw and 2) while it's possible that your shot is easier to throw it's also much easier for your opponent to block because it's much more obvious.  You're basically in a stance that asks your enemy to impale themselves FOR you.  At best that's lazy.  A good fighter is rarely going to run directly into that stab, even if you add a bit extra by lunging at them.

The last excuse I've heard is that it's more comfortable for a person to be set up that way because it feels like a better defense.  This is only partially true.  Putting the pointy end of the weapon towards your opponent may serve to ward off newer fighters as well as ward off shots to your arms.  However, what you sacrifice is an effective guard against wrap shots, or really any shot that comes in either above below your center line.  A person who attempts to exploit an outside lane is going to have an easy time doing so.  If you want to try to get a block and your blade is in front of you the only way to get that block is to use the blade of your weapon to intercept the swing.

What is best

Aside from crushing your enemies, seeing them driven before you and hearing the lamentations of their women.

Pommel forward, bottom hand forward; keeping your bottom hand as your forward hand (whether that's your dominant one or not) will give you the block you want around your hips as a red fighter.  If you keep your top hand forward you push your bottom hand in towards your body which stops you from cutting off those angles.  Additionally when you pull your hand back, it tends to ride up as the weight of the red tipping forward is generally counterbalanced by pulling the pommel close to one's center of mass.

Top hand back; keep the hand on top of the weapon back.  With a red range control is super important as your ability to kill your opponent is going to largely depend on how well you can keep them away from you.  If you find yourself blocking repeatedly you are probably close to dead.  Putting your weapon in front of you let's your opponent know EXACTLY how far you can swing.  If you keep the blade part back it's much harder for them to guess and much easier for you to get shots to land that they won't be expecting.  Also, by keeping you top hand as your back hand you have access to many more swings then if your weapon is as far out in front of you as it will go.  Block with the handle not the blade; When you block with the handle it means you can ALSO swing.  In fact if you catch the block at just the right angle you can actually steal the momentum of their swing and convert it into one of your own by effectively using your handle as a lever to throw the shot.  This is particularly spectacular against sword and board where, once they throw for your torso and you snipe their arm in response, they simply can't hit you anymore.

Back hand forward WITH same leg forward; this is more personal preference then I think it is directly core to the fighting style but let me say a word about it anyways.  If you fight with you pommel forward and you match your feet to that hand it means that the easiest shots to land on you are going to be your arm holding the weapon and the leg that's forward.  It means that the hardest shots to land will be the arm responsible for swinging the weapon and your torso.  If you flip your feet you basically push the side of your body closer to your opponents swing arc and make torso shots more likely.

What works for me...

May not work for you but what that doesn't mean that this is somehow bad advice.  You need to figure out what works for you, and what mechanics you can make cooperate with whatever your build is.  There isn't really a wrong answer, as long as you've spent time thinking about and engineering your stance.  The reason why I write about this particular bit of stance is that people doing things that I think are obviously wrong who have never even taken the time to question why they do things that way annoys me.  If your form was handed to you by someone else, examine it.  Try to figure out why they told you to do the things they suggested you do.  It may be that there's a really good idea in there, or it may be that they, just like you, simply learned it from someone else and have been mindlessly repeating that same form ever since.  In the end, there's something to be said for having to figure it out yourself.