Name: Jason Wilson's Viral Pep Talk Video, Guiding Kids Through Martial Arts
Uploaded: 2021-08-05T17:51:25.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Jason Wilson's Viral Pep Talk Video, Guiding Kids Through Martial Arts' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-08-05. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Jason Wilson's Viral Pep Talk Video, Guiding Kids Through Martial Arts' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-08-05. Transcript available.

You know I think one thing that young boys and and men as well need in this
world is guidance and mentorship and to get that from martial arts is one of
the
best ways and one of the most one of the most fulfilling and satisfying ways so
I found you from a video that a bunch of people sent me of you working with a
young boy who was having a hard time dealing with the pain of like punching
through a board you know the video and just the way you were communicating with
him and letting him know that it's okay to cry and that you know just express
yourself and it was refreshing you know it was authentic but it was also like
you
could tell like that kid is gonna get a lot out of that exchange and I was like
I
want to meet that guy yeah man I mean that video opened my mind up to really
what men were dealing with inside because when that video went viral our
offices at our nonprofit had to shut down okay so the Cave of Adullam the
martial arts program you're speaking of is under the umbrella of our nonprofit
the
Union and so when this video went viral my wife calls me who was our executive
director she says Jason is there a video that's going viral and I'm like what
do
you mean 2016 I didn't really understand the terminology and sure enough this
video started racking up a lot of views shortly thereafter our phones wouldn't
stop ringing and it was men from all over the world crying to our staff calling
and crying saying I want to be free I'm tired of holding all of this in I wish
my
coach would have talked to me that way when I was going through yeah that's it
well it's it's hard to find a good mentor and I think every man needs a mentor
and
you know one of the things that martial arts does that I think is really
important
is it gives you these goals to work towards as you move through a belt system
or
whatever kind of system that each martial art that's different has as you
develop
your skills and you you get more proficient and you improve you you have
like tangible progress and you can see it and I think there's a lot of people
that go through life not exactly sure where they stand where they're at and I
think martial arts provides you with real feedback in one of the most I think
one
of the most emotionally and physically difficult things that a person can do
yes and
so many people don't realize the young boy in that video Bruce he was actually
had a
fear of failure he had broke that board easily the week prior but because of
this
test and the pressure and everyone watching he just froze on his non-dominant
hand and
he couldn't break through so he broke down crying and I welcomed his tears and
said
look we cry as men you know let this go and men and I love about martial arts
more
than sports it makes you face your fears and nothing like if a punch is coming
at
you a kick or if you're grappling and you're concerned that someone's gonna
take
your back and choke you I apply all these principles in life as well and so
when you
give a man or a male a safe space to really be emotional and let go of the
anxiety that he feels every day the father wound his fear of failure his lack
of
confidence where he can have a moment we call it a moment on the mat where you
can
stop the training and you can express what's overwhelming you in that moment
they
transform instantly man and it's a it's a great thing to see and I've never
seen
anything work like the arts even with my son he's 13 years old you saw him you
know
six one and a half everyone says you're gonna play basketball and it's like no
it's other things that I want to do and so even with sports I say son it'll
give you
some confidence but when we spar we're training the anxiety he feels the voices
oh man uh Chris
hit you again what are you gonna do about that how you're gonna maneuver how
you're gonna
respond and I allow him to break down in that moment I say okay cool now it's
time to recover
reflect on it what's the lie what's the truth do you think this man is not
supposed to hit
you he's a skilled fighter the goal is not for you to be the best the goal is
for you to learn
all right so when I give them that freedom to feel to feel the fear now they're
not they don't
succumb to it when it really happens in real life and so that's why I love the
arts especially the
grappling arts which I hate I didn't discover till later in my training because
nothing like someone
invading your space you know we can keep distance striking and we're
comfortable here but when someone
invade your space or when a problem happens in your life where it's so close
and personal that you can't
just shake it you have to learn how to buy your time and maneuver and don't let
it come around you
or you can get tapped out by the stress of that situation the arts is just
amazing if it's taught in a way
that man could apply it to life how long how many years have you been mentoring
young boys I would say
almost 16 17 years and how did it get started um in 2000 and well I founded our
non-profit in 2003 and
and from there my father wasn't actively in my life you know he was around but
wasn't there and I had was
called a father wound and basically just an absence of a male figure in my life
specifically my father
he was verbally abusive you know I could make if I knocked this cup over I
would get cursed out you
know things like that so I had to overcome a lot of that so in Detroit I saw a
great need for black boys to be mentored
and so at first I started the cave of adela with just martial arts but then I
quickly discovered
after these boot camps boot camp programs kept failing over and over again and
scare straight programs
was that our boys didn't need more discipline they needed more love so then I
made the cave of adela more
comprehensive so I still use the arts focus on what works but also give boys a
safe space to release
the trauma they're dealing with in their lives the emotional pain the lack of
confidence all these other
things that they're dealing with and give them this space where they can
release it and become strong
so that started I had my first pilot in 2008 and then after that 2013 I was
awarded a grant for
just developing the cave and that's when we just started going full-time in our
own location
and we haven't looked back then we have almost 500 boys on our waiting list
wow yeah and um you know what's interesting Joe I I thought it was just a black
thing you know because
again if that's all you're around you think that's the only youth that are
dealing with these issues
I had a group one time it was multicultural which was great was my first time
and I saw white kids you know that I I cared about was struggling so much and
weren't used to releasing what
they felt and one of them uh direct messaged me a 16 year old he says Mr.
Wilson please don't ever forget
about us because he was concerned because um there was a lot of school
shootings at the time
he says a lot of times we're abused and we don't know how to process this
emotion then we'll grab a gun
and it's the only way we know how to express ourselves it's no different from a
man who was volatile and abusive
to his wife you know I used to hit things in my home Joe I'm not you know proud
of saying it you know my
wife would say things that would trigger me and I would knock holes in the wall
just in anger because
I didn't know how to express hurt or sadness or just feeling dismissed and passively
dismissed for how
I felt and as a result I became a very unstable uh man mentally emotionally and
um I was just what I
called just a masculine male I wasn't comprehensive at the time and so I've saw
a direct correlation when
I allow a male that freedom to feel to be angry when you're upset but then
teach you how to reset from
that anger how to use that anger for good because anger isn't bad it's only bad
when it caught you allow
it to make you do bad things the greatest statistic I love in our academy is
that over 78 percent of our
recruits improve their grade point average by one letter grade without tutoring
that's because we allow
them to be who they are inside allow them to live from the good in their heart
allow them to talk about
the things they're experiencing at home the the things they're experiencing at
school we don't just go
into training in martial arts because then they could be great that day in
training physically but leave
they're still mentally uh traumatized or emotionally damaged and so the cave is
just that it's a it's a
it's an institute or an academy where we allow boys to feel you know our
mission is to teach train and
transform boys into comprehensive men men who are physically conscious mentally
astute but spiritually
strong enough to navigate through the pressures of this world without succumbing
to their negative emotions
so when you're doing this you're you're learning yourself and you're also
teaching these kids
so how much of a process was it to develop the curriculum to develop this
program and to figure out
what is the best way to address these these boys and their insecurities and
their issues and how to how to
give them give them give them strength and give them love but also give them
discipline also teach them how to
how to get through work through pain work through emotions it must have been oh
man
a lot of trial and error it was a lot of trial and error um
more so joe i had to become transparent um
in that moment when that video went viral none of my recruits really ever seen
me cry
you know i was still just tough man and at the time my mother was going through
dementia
so i'm still trying to develop this curriculum i'm saying okay it's coming
along but it's still
missing something and what it was missing was giving men the freedom to be
vulnerable
at any given moment and for them to feel that liberating power when my mother
developed dementia joe um
she was like my sensei man uh meaning the emotions that i could hide in martial
arts training because
where i came up you couldn't express that you know they would you know once
school i was at they would
just rush you the instructor would say everyone on jason and you know we would
shake going into this
school our hands would shake because it wasn't just grappling we dealt with
real knives you're getting
kicked no pads none of that man but you dealt with real knives yeah so you're
doing like knife
because this whole thing is like everything he's a masterful teacher a lot of
this stuff is choreography
okay you see some of the gun defenses and things like this like come on man
that wouldn't work right
the way he taught us is like if someone has a knife if you can get away go uh i
think jocko said the
same thing if someone has a knife go the other direction but if you have to
defend yourself first
thing you need to realize is that they should cut you if it's just your uncle
drunk at a barbecue
they should cut you can you deal with that pain and that emotion seeing your
own blood run down your
arm and still eliminate the threat so these things we would practice with
knives because he says if it's
plastic in your head what happens when the real one comes but i couldn't
express really who what was
going on inside of me that would make me feel the fear you know the cave needed
that element it needed to
say why are you pulling back why aren't you applying that armbar why are you
scared to get thrown when
your partner needs you to practice his own and we tie the throws especially judo
throws
to a fear of failure because as you know in judo if you're not relaxed when you
take that fall
it hurts significantly more in life if you don't just go with it and allow
yourself the freedom to make a
mistake or freedom to fall or freedom to fail when you hit that ground when you
fail to hit that wall
it hurts that much more and so what i had to do was first allow my students to
see what hurts me my
mother had a stroke one day and my wife comes in and says hey you need to leave
immediately
your mom has had to get rushed to the hospital i start breaking down and all of
my kids imagine all
of them in the fathers there surround you hug you and pray over you just just
hugging me and at that
moment i said this is what they need they need to see a comprehensive man
someone who's strong but
sensitive someone who's courageous but compassionate someone who freely lives
from the good in their
heart and doesn't allow their fears to stop them from living when that happened
joe these boys became
not only greater at martial arts but greater sons greater community servants
greater students able to
deal with bullies one of my students a beautiful kid josiah short curly hair
beautiful personality
he was getting bullied at school but he thought it wasn't christ-like you know
or the christian thing
to do is to defend yourself you know you're supposed to take it i'm like i don't
know where you got that
from i said if someone is trying to harm you you defend yourself so the bully
grabs him one day
ogoshi he grabs from behind he throws him kick the legs out and slam the bully
down to the ground
you would think he would celebrate just defending himself but what made josiah
the proudest was that
before the bully hit the ground he pulled up on his hoodie to stop his head
from hitting the cement
hmm wow that's when i knew i said this is it where the good kids the gentlemen
the kids were bullied
and overlooked can defend themselves turn on the lion but reset back to the
lamb no one wants to be
prowling all around defending and looking rough all the time having to hit and
being just in that fight
or flight mode 24 7. someone tries to harm you you defend yourself demonstrably
but you reset you don't
ever allow your kind spirit to conform to something that's callous and so that's
the main principle that we
teach is do not live from your fears live from the good that's inside of you
watch the entire episode for free only on spotify

Jason Wilson's Viral Pep Talk Video, Guiding Kids Through Martial Arts

You know I think one thing that young boys and and men as well need in this
world is guidance and mentorship and to get that from martial arts is one of
the
best ways and one of the most one of the most fulfilling and satisfying ways so
I found you from a video that a bunch of people sent me of you working with a
young boy who was having a hard time dealing with the pain of like punching
through a board you know the video and just the way you were communicating with
him and letting him know that it's okay to cry and that you know just express
yourself and it was refreshing you know it was authentic but it was also like
you
could tell like that kid is gonna get a lot out of that exchange and I was like
I
want to meet that guy yeah man I mean that video opened my mind up to really
what men were dealing with inside because when that video went viral our
offices at our nonprofit had to shut down okay so the Cave of Adullam the
martial arts program you're speaking of is under the umbrella of our nonprofit
the
Union and so when this video went viral my wife calls me who was our executive
director she says Jason is there a video that's going viral and I'm like what
do
you mean 2016 I didn't really understand the terminology and sure enough this
video started racking up a lot of views shortly thereafter our phones wouldn't
stop ringing and it was men from all over the world crying to our staff calling
and crying saying I want to be free I'm tired of holding all of this in I wish
my
coach would have talked to me that way when I was going through yeah that's it
well it's it's hard to find a good mentor and I think every man needs a mentor
and
you know one of the things that martial arts does that I think is really
important
is it gives you these goals to work towards as you move through a belt system
or
whatever kind of system that each martial art that's different has as you
develop
your skills and you you get more proficient and you improve you you have
like tangible progress and you can see it and I think there's a lot of people
that go through life not exactly sure where they stand where they're at and I
think martial arts provides you with real feedback in one of the most I think
one
of the most emotionally and physically difficult things that a person can do
yes and
so many people don't realize the young boy in that video Bruce he was actually
had a
fear of failure he had broke that board easily the week prior but because of
this
test and the pressure and everyone watching he just froze on his non-dominant
hand and
he couldn't break through so he broke down crying and I welcomed his tears and
said
look we cry as men you know let this go and men and I love about martial arts
more
than sports it makes you face your fears and nothing like if a punch is coming
at
you a kick or if you're grappling and you're concerned that someone's gonna
take
your back and choke you I apply all these principles in life as well and so
when you
give a man or a male a safe space to really be emotional and let go of the
anxiety that he feels every day the father wound his fear of failure his lack
of
confidence where he can have a moment we call it a moment on the mat where you
can
stop the training and you can express what's overwhelming you in that moment
they
transform instantly man and it's a it's a great thing to see and I've never
seen
anything work like the arts even with my son he's 13 years old you saw him you
know
six one and a half everyone says you're gonna play basketball and it's like no
it's other things that I want to do and so even with sports I say son it'll
give you
some confidence but when we spar we're training the anxiety he feels the voices
oh man uh Chris
hit you again what are you gonna do about that how you're gonna maneuver how
you're gonna
respond and I allow him to break down in that moment I say okay cool now it's
time to recover
reflect on it what's the lie what's the truth do you think this man is not
supposed to hit
you he's a skilled fighter the goal is not for you to be the best the goal is
for you to learn
all right so when I give them that freedom to feel to feel the fear now they're
not they don't
succumb to it when it really happens in real life and so that's why I love the
arts especially the
grappling arts which I hate I didn't discover till later in my training because
nothing like someone
invading your space you know we can keep distance striking and we're
comfortable here but when someone
invade your space or when a problem happens in your life where it's so close
and personal that you can't
just shake it you have to learn how to buy your time and maneuver and don't let
it come around you
or you can get tapped out by the stress of that situation the arts is just
amazing if it's taught in a way
that man could apply it to life how long how many years have you been mentoring
young boys I would say
almost 16 17 years and how did it get started um in 2000 and well I founded our
non-profit in 2003 and
and from there my father wasn't actively in my life you know he was around but
wasn't there and I had was
called a father wound and basically just an absence of a male figure in my life
specifically my father
he was verbally abusive you know I could make if I knocked this cup over I
would get cursed out you
know things like that so I had to overcome a lot of that so in Detroit I saw a
great need for black boys to be mentored
and so at first I started the cave of adela with just martial arts but then I
quickly discovered
after these boot camps boot camp programs kept failing over and over again and
scare straight programs
was that our boys didn't need more discipline they needed more love so then I
made the cave of adela more
comprehensive so I still use the arts focus on what works but also give boys a
safe space to release
the trauma they're dealing with in their lives the emotional pain the lack of
confidence all these other
things that they're dealing with and give them this space where they can
release it and become strong
so that started I had my first pilot in 2008 and then after that 2013 I was
awarded a grant for
just developing the cave and that's when we just started going full-time in our
own location
and we haven't looked back then we have almost 500 boys on our waiting list
wow yeah and um you know what's interesting Joe I I thought it was just a black
thing you know because
again if that's all you're around you think that's the only youth that are
dealing with these issues
I had a group one time it was multicultural which was great was my first time
and I saw white kids you know that I I cared about was struggling so much and
weren't used to releasing what
they felt and one of them uh direct messaged me a 16 year old he says Mr.
Wilson please don't ever forget
about us because he was concerned because um there was a lot of school
shootings at the time
he says a lot of times we're abused and we don't know how to process this
emotion then we'll grab a gun
and it's the only way we know how to express ourselves it's no different from a
man who was volatile and abusive
to his wife you know I used to hit things in my home Joe I'm not you know proud
of saying it you know my
wife would say things that would trigger me and I would knock holes in the wall
just in anger because
I didn't know how to express hurt or sadness or just feeling dismissed and passively
dismissed for how
I felt and as a result I became a very unstable uh man mentally emotionally and
um I was just what I
called just a masculine male I wasn't comprehensive at the time and so I've saw
a direct correlation when
I allow a male that freedom to feel to be angry when you're upset but then
teach you how to reset from
that anger how to use that anger for good because anger isn't bad it's only bad
when it caught you allow
it to make you do bad things the greatest statistic I love in our academy is
that over 78 percent of our
recruits improve their grade point average by one letter grade without tutoring
that's because we allow
them to be who they are inside allow them to live from the good in their heart
allow them to talk about
the things they're experiencing at home the the things they're experiencing at
school we don't just go
into training in martial arts because then they could be great that day in
training physically but leave
they're still mentally uh traumatized or emotionally damaged and so the cave is
just that it's a it's a
it's an institute or an academy where we allow boys to feel you know our
mission is to teach train and
transform boys into comprehensive men men who are physically conscious mentally
astute but spiritually
strong enough to navigate through the pressures of this world without succumbing
to their negative emotions
so when you're doing this you're you're learning yourself and you're also
teaching these kids
so how much of a process was it to develop the curriculum to develop this
program and to figure out
what is the best way to address these these boys and their insecurities and
their issues and how to how to
give them give them give them strength and give them love but also give them
discipline also teach them how to
how to get through work through pain work through emotions it must have been oh
man
a lot of trial and error it was a lot of trial and error um
more so joe i had to become transparent um
in that moment when that video went viral none of my recruits really ever seen
me cry
you know i was still just tough man and at the time my mother was going through
dementia
so i'm still trying to develop this curriculum i'm saying okay it's coming
along but it's still
missing something and what it was missing was giving men the freedom to be
vulnerable
at any given moment and for them to feel that liberating power when my mother
developed dementia joe um
she was like my sensei man uh meaning the emotions that i could hide in martial
arts training because
where i came up you couldn't express that you know they would you know once
school i was at they would
just rush you the instructor would say everyone on jason and you know we would
shake going into this
school our hands would shake because it wasn't just grappling we dealt with
real knives you're getting
kicked no pads none of that man but you dealt with real knives yeah so you're
doing like knife
because this whole thing is like everything he's a masterful teacher a lot of
this stuff is choreography
okay you see some of the gun defenses and things like this like come on man
that wouldn't work right
the way he taught us is like if someone has a knife if you can get away go uh i
think jocko said the
same thing if someone has a knife go the other direction but if you have to
defend yourself first
thing you need to realize is that they should cut you if it's just your uncle
drunk at a barbecue
they should cut you can you deal with that pain and that emotion seeing your
own blood run down your
arm and still eliminate the threat so these things we would practice with
knives because he says if it's
plastic in your head what happens when the real one comes but i couldn't
express really who what was
going on inside of me that would make me feel the fear you know the cave needed
that element it needed to
say why are you pulling back why aren't you applying that armbar why are you
scared to get thrown when
your partner needs you to practice his own and we tie the throws especially judo
throws
to a fear of failure because as you know in judo if you're not relaxed when you
take that fall
it hurts significantly more in life if you don't just go with it and allow
yourself the freedom to make a
mistake or freedom to fall or freedom to fail when you hit that ground when you
fail to hit that wall
it hurts that much more and so what i had to do was first allow my students to
see what hurts me my
mother had a stroke one day and my wife comes in and says hey you need to leave
immediately
your mom has had to get rushed to the hospital i sta