Dim robber pulls knife on karate teachers

And while that minor did not have the skills to defend herself, in the following case, it seems that an assailant found that his potential victims were too much for him to handle.  The House of Shotokan is known for its competitions with other karate federations in Mexico. In addition to kata and kumite, it prepares the students for battle, which normally takes place in a sanitized and friendly environment. But what happens when the teachers themselves are confronted with a knife-wielding assailant? Do they use their arsenal of skills on a would-be attacker? Two years ago, Carmelita Kuylen was forced to knock down an attacker from his bicycle. And on Sunday morning about seven a.m. while jogging along the Marine Parade, Tanya Kelly and Carmelita Kuylen, instructors of House of Shotokan were held at knifepoint. But according to Kelly, she and her sister exercised restraint, which was more effective than brute force.

Tanya Kelly, Sensei, House of Shotokan

“The guy came right across pass me and gone straight to where my sister was, come in front, dash the bicycle and total come right in front of her and said Miss, Miss give me what you got. At that time I was like, my mind was going in that we as martial artists we train to kill. But we teach our students that we got to be humble—we have to walk away from the situation or give them a chance to walk away before we use our techniques. We as martial artists we shouldn’t go ahead and use the first punch. My sister didn’t pay him no mind; she thought he was joking. She just continue on listening to her music and the guy said Miss, Miss give me everything you have. And then I turned around and said bwai listen to get his attention to me now. And he said the same thing again. I said to him you know something, go home and make something out of yourself. He probably thought that I was playing around because nobody would turn around when you have somebody confront you to say go home and make something outta yourself. Then he went ahead and grabbed a knife out of his pocket and said Miss, Miss give me everything you have. He thought that would intimidate me. But instead I turned around and said you know what put away that knife before I turn around and kill you with it. And then he turned around and was like she’s not playing around. I told him, listen this morning you have the wrong people. You just try to rob the two karate teachers. You need to put away the knife and go home and make something out of yourself. And then he looked at me like are you serious? And he put his knife away and said Miss, Miss nothing never happen.”

Jose Sanchez

Tanya Kelly

“With all the training that you have, weren’t you in your mind saying yes finally I get to use some of these skills?”

Tanya Kelly

“You know as females; that was the first thing going through my mind—I am very sure going through my sister’s mind because last two years when she had a similar incident coming from school, she actually flipped the guy over from the bicycle. But for me it was more like get him down beat him up, get him naked and send him home naked so that they will learn something. But then I remember our Belizean mentality, if we take him down, beat him up and send him home naked and then turn around and see on the news; the Amandala or Reporter, all these newspaper, the karate people di try fi beat up the Belizeans. And you see that’s not what we want; we are not here for this—we are here to make a better community that we want to live in.”