Ticky Donovan

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.

Since 1976, Donovan has hosted an annual Open Summer Course at Clacton in Essex. This course takes place in the last week of June.

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.

Donovan still plays a very active role is running the style he formed in 1973. The original Dagenham Ishinryu Dojo still exists as the Woodlane Club and has been joined by many others in the UK and abroad. Today, Ishinryu Karate is taught as far afield as Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.

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.

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 10th Dan black belt. He is based in Loughton, Essex.