Biggest Ever Gathering Of Karate Enthusiasts In Britain

Interview about the development of karate as a sport for all

Large crowd of people wearing karate uniforms are doing different karate moves that the instructor commands. Close ups of the karate people lunging, walking and shouting. Close up of a young boy doing a karate kick followed by a man punching towards the camera and then a woman doing Karate moves. Karate people are sitting down watching other pairs sparring. David Henshaw interviews David ‘Ticky’ Donovan, British karate competitor and coach. He asks him why people are turning to karate when the national self-defence sport in this country is boxing. Donovan thinks it’s because people can get better at it by themselves. You also don’t have to knock somebody down to be good and don’t have to take punishment all the time if you’re not very good. Henshaw comments on how it’s a very physical sport, to which Donovan replies that it is all still controlled. The purpose of the week long summer course is to get them fit and do the equivalent of 3 months training by doing 6-7 hours of training a day. A shot of a young boy sparring with an adult who is crouched down to his level. Two children spar with each other. Spectators not in uniform watch the karate goers sparring. Henshaw interviews karate goers on why they are at the camp, also commenting on how violent it looks. Man says that it’s not violent, but it’s made to look like that. Another man says that karate has more styling than boxing. A young boy says he took on karate as people kept picking on him at school. A woman says the art of karate is in just stopping short of hitting someone. Mass group performs karate moves.

Keywords

Karate; Martial Arts

Background Information

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.