House of Shotokan teaches security guards to defend without guns

You’ve had a concert and a new gospel video, but there’s also karate. A group of security officers have concluded training and have acquired self defense techniques. The security personnel are employed by the Santiago Castillo Group and were trained by the House of Shotokan. News Five’s Jose Sanchez reports.

Jose Sanchez, Reporting

Karate is not just a sport; the House of Shotokan has ventured into training security personnel. Today, security guards and officers graduated from a specialized training course.

Shihan Ray Kelly, Grandmaster, House of SHotokan Karate Academy

Shihan Ray Kelly

“I started venturing into several securities here and the analysis that was made was that this type of training, many of the security guard in the country of Belize lack this kind of training. So through house of Shotokan we are able to provide this training to those security companies. Mister Castillo Security Guard Company; they were the first ones to participate in this extensive training and I commend them because they went through a little bit of strength and challenging in the self defense techniques that they did learn.”

Francisco Camara

Francisco Camara, Head of Security, Santiago Castillo Group of Companies

“The motive behind the training is to prepare the guys that are working with the Santiago Castillo Group of Companies to have them prepared to complete their tasks or missions as security officers. This was a training, a six-phase training. We trained four hours a day for six weeks exclusively for the Santiago Castillo Group.”

Jose Sanchez

“How many men?”

Francisco Camara

“We started with twelve but only ten finished the training.”

Jose Sanchez

“Does it mean then that you’re looking forward to methods that are less dangerous as in using a gun? Is that what it is?”

Francisco Camara

“Well yes basically that is the aim to train our officers to deal with situations whereby a weapon would be the last resort to go to.”

Shihan Ray Kelly

“They were taught skills of defensive tactics to use against unarmed bad guys or individuals that might want to rob or assault them at their work station, areas, throughout the country where they are employed.”

Jose Sanchez

“So this is just a less violent way by using arm to arm combat I guess?”

Shihan Ray Kelly

“That’s correct. Instead of resorting to a firearm, these men were trained to disarm individuals with a weapon. Also these men were trained as far as if somebody pushes them to the ground; how to survive fighting on the ground and also how to take a defendant to the ground, handcuff him and then pass that information or pass that defendant off to the Belize Police Department upon the Belize Police Department arrival.”

Francisco Camara

“The people that we have in training come from all branches—from Angelus, Bottom Dollar, SaveU, warehouse and from all branches of Santiago Castillo Group.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.