The video named “Working Through Emotional Barriers,” shows instructor Shärath Jason Wilson comforting a tearful young boy named Bruce Collins III.
Shot in the Cave of Adullam Transformational Training Academy in the Midtown neighborhood of Detroit, the clip has garnered more than 1,000,000 views and counting, and touches on some of the issues facing people today.
After attempting to break the board a few times, Collins finally does it but while crying.
His instructor who has more than 20 years of martial arts experience says, “I don’t mind you crying, I cry a lot too… we all face that from time to time. As soon as we hit resistance, we want to stop, right?”
“Why you crying? That’s what it’s about, son. That’s okay you’re crying, we cry as men. Why are you crying though, son?”
And here drops the lesson, that you’re going to have to push through barriers to succeed.
Wilson then gets very real, talking about the challenges facing black people today.
“Being a black man in this country, you’re going to need mental fortitude. You’re going to have to be strong here (pointing at his head) more so than here (while he’s making a fist).”
The next exercise in the video is to highlight togetherness. Wilson asks the boy’s dad to do 20 pushups while his son climbs on his back.
Wilson then tells him him, “This is what it is to be a father.”
The video that’s been flying around the internet has inspired a lot of people, and it’s also helped get word out for a GoFundMe campaign that aims to expand the facility – otherwise known as the CATTA – to take more recruits to the program, house and feed those recruits who need it, and much more. It has already raised more than $18,000 in three days.