# Make It Stick: Block, Check Counter



## Brian Johns (Oct 20, 2015)

The progression in which I teach 6 to 10 year olds the basic block, check, counter drill. Enjoy!


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## Tony Dismukes (Oct 20, 2015)

I've noticed your videos all show you working with kids. Do you teach mostly children?

My experience with FMA is relatively limited, but from what I've seen it seems to be more adult-oriented than many other arts.


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## geezer (Oct 20, 2015)

Tony Dismukes said:


> I've noticed your videos all show you working with kids. Do you teach mostly children?
> 
> My experience with FMA is relatively limited, but from what I've seen it seems to be more adult-oriented than many other arts.



Yeah Tony, same here. Personally, I only teach adults. Teaching _serious_ weapon applications for self defense is not usually suitable for kids. 

On the other hand I do know a great instructor that has run some successful kids Eskrima classes safely, with kid appropriate material that is fun, yet also providing a foundation for more "tactical" or "combat-oriented" material sometime later-on if the kids care to continue training as adults.

Brian's videos seem to fit in a similar niche, and he seems to be really good with kids. Heck when I grew up most of the kids in the neighborhood went through a phase when they were playing "King Arthur" or "Lord of the Rings" and "sword-fighting" with pointy sticks and trash-can lids for shields. IMO it's far better and safer for kids to be in a constructive, supervised program like this.


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## Blindside (Oct 21, 2015)

I actually just restarted my youth class (10-15) and the kids have fun with it.  I just teach it as swordsmanship, don't ever even look at the knife sections of the full curriculum and call it good.  If the kids stick with it, they will have about 3/4 of the full system by the time they turn 16.  



geezer said:


> Brian's videos seem to fit in a similar niche, and he seems to be really good with kids. Heck when I grew up most of the kids in the neighborhood went through a phase when they were playing "King Arthur" or "Lord of the Rings" and "sword-fighting" with pointy sticks and trash-can lids for shields.



Some of us never grew out of that phase.


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