Ticky Donovan
| Ticky Donovan | ||||||||||||||
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| Born | David Donovan November 13, 1943 Loughton, England |
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| Style | Karate | |||||||||||||
| Teacher(s) | Tatsuo Suzuki,Hirokazu Kanazawa, Keinosuke Enoeda, Mas Oyama | |||||||||||||
| Website | Official site | |||||||||||||
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Medal record
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David 'Ticky' Donovan OBE (born 1947) is a British karate competitor and coach. He was the coach and manager of both the British and English national karate teams, from 1977 until he retired from that role in 2008. During his tenure as coach, Britain won numerous European and World championship team gold medals. It was for his achievements as a coach that he was awarded the O.B.E. in 1991. Ticky Donovan currently holds a 9th Dan black belt. He is based in Loughton, Essex.
In 1973, Donovan formed his own style of karate known as Ishinryu, which means ‘All of one Heart’. This style has had significant competition success over the years and continues to be practised at a number of UK clubs, as well as in Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
On 28 March 2009, Karate England held a testimonial evening for Donovan, with many senior karateka present, including Steve Arneil, Dave Hazard, Tyrone Whyte, and Aiden Trimble.
Ticky Donovan attended his first Karate lesson aged eighteen in 1965, at Tatsuo Suzuki's Clapham Common club. Having previously trained in boxing, Donovan found karate 'slow' and was ready to quit after his first lesson. I However, he changed his mind after seeing a dynamic demonstration from the legendary Tatsuo Suzuki himself, and from that point on, he was hooked. Donovan stayed with Wado Ryu for over three years, training with Tatsuo Suzuki and Len Palmer.
When Mister Suzuki and Len Palmer unfortunately parted company, both men wanted him to stay with them and Donovan's loyalties were split, as Mr Suzuki was a great instructor and Len Palmer had helped Donovan in various ways. Donovan stayed with Len but did not forget Mr Suzuki and the fundamentals he had been taught. When Mr Kanazawa came over, the group switched to Shotokan, and at this point, Donovan trained with Kanazawa and Enoeda but fate was to play a hand again as Mr Kanazawa went to Germany and Mr Enoeda to Liverpool. To make matters worse, Donovan broke a bone in his hand at the selections for the European Championships and decided to give up karate completely.
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Wikipedia