Over the next several days I’m going to post some material on Phil Porter here based on information I have obtained over the years.
http://www.bullshido.net/forums/showthread.php?t=51213&page=2
On this thread you will find the following useful posts.
Post #14 by Thomas Drgon
He is selling rank.
I know people that went from judo ikkyu to judo rokudan with him within very few years. Something that would take decades or olympic wins using propper channels.
This is the state he left his judo org in before he started USMAA:
=====
Jim Bregman
A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
November 2001
To: All USJA Supporters:
…We are aware that you may have little confidence in us or our Organization at this moment, but the United States Judo Association is standing at the very edge of complete financial collapse.
We have perhaps two months of operating funds left. We have implemented staff reductions and are in the process of selling the USJA buildings. Until sold however, the mortgage payments are killing us, as is the debt load and the associated interest payments that we have incurred from legal entanglements.
Our revenues are flat or declining. This tells us that you, our members have voted with your pocketbooks and do not believe that we can provide the service that you want…
No investigation is necessary. Go to judoforum.com and read the threads.
Tomas
Post #21 from John Bishop (I know Bishop I might get him to go back to the original person who was promoted and see if he will go on the record.)
I have a personal friend who had trained in judo up to brown belt, before switching to aikido. After getting to 3rd degree in aikido, he was “elected” to the “World Martial Arts Hall of Fame”. Of course the hall of fame owner told him he was “underanked”, and could promote him for a fee. Well the fee bought him a 8th degree in a aikido system the “board of soke’s” made for just him.
Well, that started a career of trading certificates, much like kids trade baseball cards. He found a judo 4th degree who wanted to “start his own system”, so my friend now being a 8th degree decided that he could “recognize” other systems. Plus this judoka could sponser him to USMA so he could get his judo black belt.
Well, the sponsorship went so well that Porter gave my friend a 5th degree in judo, and since judo was a offshoot of jujitsu, a 5th degree in jujitsu also. All based on my friends MA resume. And in turn, my friend awarded his judo sponsor a 7th degree in his own newly created system.
Eventually my friend found someone who would “recognize” that he was the head of the new aikido system that the WMAHOF soke council had promoted him to 8th degree in; so he was promoted to 10th degree. That promotion was honored by the USMA, and he received a matching 10th degree certificate from them.
Now everything was going great in soke land, and my friend was very happy with the USMA, until O’sensei came to visit for a very expensive seminar. Well they all sucked it up and paid the fees, but when O’ sensei got back home he sent my friends black belt students letters, without informing him. These letters said that he (O’sensei) considered them under-ranked, and that he would be glad to promote them.
Well, my friend is no longer affliated with USMA, but of course has not renounced the promotions they gave him.
Post #29 by StanLeeUMA
Mr Porter’s Judo skills are excellent. I have hosted seminars with him. His viewpoint on the whole rank certificate thing is that “Everyone knows if you can dance”. In otherwords pieces of paper really don’t mean anything, if your a fraud people will eventually figure it out. He was pissed that a lot of Japanese got on the plane as 1st degree’s and got off the plane as 6th degree’s.He thought the only way to balance it was to promote Americans to an equal rank. He promoted my Judo instructor at the seminar we did as well but I can understand why.
My Instructor was 64 years old and have been doing Judo for over thirty years and was still only a nidan. These kind of discrepancies were what he was trying to overcome in the usja and usmaa.
His Rank award system is basically self reported which means much of the stuff reported here is true, in that anyone who tells the Usma that they have been training over 2 years can probably recieve a black belt certificate in nearly anything.
Forums like this are a much better place to get your information on who has legitimate skill or not, I wouldnt trust anyone’s piece of paper on the wall. I have met many “8th degree black belts” who couldnt fight their way out of a wet paper bag with a chainsaw.
Certificates are just pieces of paper, regardless of their source.
Ashe, post #30
I know a judo 3rd dan who hasn’t been promoted in decades. He left the USJA when Porter was in charge because of the way promotions were being sold. The gentleman I know earned his promotions the hard way, by winning tournaments against higher-ranked opposition. When Porter’s activities became known to him, he refused to accept any further ranking because it went against everything he had worked for up to that point. In a legit system, he’d probably be 6th or 7th dan by now, but he says he prefers integrity over taking promotions from questionable people.
Besides, he can “dance” very well indeed, and a piece of paper won’t add anything to his game.
Post #32 by el dangeroso
Porter got his Bujinkan rank at the 1998 tai kai in Tennessee. I was there. As I remember it, it was an honorary rank for “contribution to the martial arts”. He also gave some other guy that was there as a guest an honorary black belt, too. The guy was a runner or something and I don’t remember his name. Only remembered the Porter rank because he was familiar to me at the time. Seems a bit shady to me that Porter doesn’t mention the rank as honorary on his credentials.
This can easily be verified, there were lots of high rank Bujinkan guys there. Ed Martin, Stephen Hayes, Richard Van Donk, Jack Hoban, Brin Morgan, and others.
Post #34 by Gabro
I actually got an e-mail from O sensei this morning (he used to be on S. Cunningham’s Judo-L, and got all the e-mail addresses from there).
Bearing in mind that I am a complete nobody in judo terms, I thought this quite amusing:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Porter
Third, it is my great pleasure and honor to personally nominate you for induction into our Hall of Fame. I hope you will also nominate all of your worthy students and associates. It looks like this will be the largest and best USMA Hall of Fame ever, and I want you to be there to receive your honors, to meet my wife Joy and to train with us at the International Training Camp. This will be a fabulous camp, more and better great instructors than ever!
Followed by this
Quote:
Originally Posted by Porter
USMA International Hall of Fame fees are:
$200 induction fee for Adults, (if received before July 1, 2007…$250 if payment is received after July 1, 2007)
$100 induction fee for Youth, (if received before July 1, 2007…$150 if payment is received after July 1, 2007)
$50 for all banquet guests. (if received before July 1, 2007…$75 if payment is received after July 1, 2007)
(induction fee includes banquet fee and/or shipping if not present, and all awards)
The pound is pretty strong these days, so maybe I will get my much deserved induction into a HOF
Post #39 by Coach Josh
The US has 3 Judo organizations. US Judo Inc. US Judo Federation and US Judo Association. The JF was the first recognized by the International Judo Federation. The USJA was formed when the Americans in the USJF thought they were being discriminated against by the Japanese/Americans and not awarded rank properly. Porter was president of US Judo Association.
While president he did a lot of promoting and certification of people. After so bad accounting he was removed and started his own organization. US Martial Arts Association or something like that. Here he is the grand pooba and does what he sees fit. Not only do they give Judo rank but karate, aikido and a few others. The problem is that all you do is send them a list of stuff and some cash tell them the rank you think you should be and you receive a certificate. You can also attend a seminar pay a certain amount of cash and become a higher rank.
His heart may be in the right place. He believes he is giving people a rank that they deserve. The problem comes in that Judo has a set system that is pretty straight forward. If you can’t meet the requirements of one of the 3 national bodies then well you really don’t deserve that rank. But if you really want that BB Porter will give you a certificate.
Personally I have seen a guy that was a Porter BB and wasn’t impressed. He couldn’t hang with a college Judo team made up mostly of green and brown belts.
Post #66 by David Humm
Just for clarification “osensei” doesn’t mean “grandfather of sensei”
osensei 翁先生 means “great teacher”
Given that “sensei” is an honorific title one shouldn’t use it to describe yourself - to do so appears arrogant. To call yourself or describe yourself as osensei is fucking diabolically ignorant.
Sully73 post #75
HI this is my first post, Here is what I know of Mr. Porter. He charges a great deal of money for rank. I about 5 years ago looked into this group and even joined them they for a few hundred dollars awarded me the rank of San Dan in Goju Ryu Karate. All I did was send a copy of my actual San Dan cert. to them and pay the fee. Now while at the time I was a legit San Dan in Goju Ryu Karate (now Yon Dan) I still found it odd to award rank to some guy you never met or trained with even if only to evaluate thiere skill. I did all this on advice of a friend (bad choice on my part). A local guy here in Baltimore Lee Eperson founded his own style Gaijin Ryu Ju JItsu. He was awarded rank from Mr. Porter. Now as I no it this guy was teaching Tae Kwon Do at a local chain of schools (Kim’s Karate) around 1994 0r so and then fell of the local scene for awhile and popped up a few years ago with his own art, title of Soke and head of the World Combat Arts Fed or something like that.
My point is I think Mr. Porter is a real JudoKa with some bad ideas and ethics.
Jeff Cook, post #77
I cannot BELIEVE there is anyone still around defending the old man’s DOCUMENTED improprieties. Contact the USJA for your written proof. You will get an earful and an eyeful.
I hosted Porter for a seminar years ago in Sarasota, FL. His judo is good. His “self-defense” ju-jitsu is awful and will get people hurt. Good thing is he has an open mind and took my criticism well. My assessment of his personality is this: he is a cranky, demanding old bastard. He is used to being catered to. He will give grudging respect to you if you do not take his shit. He ass is so tight over money that if you fed that man a lump of coal, he would shit out a diamond. I made that man almost three thousand dollars in two seminars. He refused to give me a t-shirt for free.
He gives very good judo seminars though.
I was young and dumb way back then. He sold me dan rank, sight unseen. I did not provide him with certificates, and I did not test for it. I still have the certificates in a file cabinet, for people who want proof. Yes, I am still embarrassed by being young, dumb, and taken advantage of, but we all grow up eventually. (I have trained, tested, and hold rank under legitimate folks - USJA and USJJF.)
I demanded he take me off his website years ago too. The final straw was when I was told by one of his former officers what my membership and insurance money was REALLY being used for. No, I do not have documentation of that; the word of an officer, and finally waking my dumb ass up to his rank mill, was good enough for me.
Jeff Cook
Jeff Cook, post #80
His history states that he was competing at Senior level by 1963. In 1964, he was supposedly on the “Consultative Committee of Referees for the first Judo Olympics in Tokyo in 1964.” http://www.yoshinjujitsu.com/philip_s_porter.htm
I think the man is despicable. But I also think at one time he was not. He has a long, well-documented and distinguished history in US and international judo. I think of him as a judo icon who went to the “dark side.”
Jeff Cook
budokake post #84
Registered Member
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Mesa, Arizona
Posts: 6
Style: judo
I happened to be at one of the last “official” seminars that “O SENSEI” conducted in about 1995. Phil started the seminar by saying, " I have done so well in judo, I am promoting myself to red-belt." Then started rambling on about how we should be American Samurai, have honor and a good work ethic. He was giving the clinic on juijitsu and said,“first we will eliminate all Japanese terminology.” At the end of the clinic, he offered shodan to anyone who would give him $125 cash or check. For 125 bucks he offered to promote me to Nidan in Judo ( I was Shodan at the time U.S.J. F.) and shodan in juijitsu. I told my sons that Japanese Samurai dont carry checkbook.
ITS ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS WITH O SENSEI.
PM from Jeff Cook to Samuel Browning on 9-27-2009
Junior Member
Style: Ju-Jitsu/BJJ/Judo
Re: Hi Jeff
Here’s Porter’s sales pitch: http://www.mararts.org/articles/storyranks.htm That article pretty much says it all. He comes up with an argument about the traditional methods of rank promotion, and then very ingeniously takes advantage of the situation by promoting anybody who can pay the fee.
I hosted him for two back-to-back seminars. He saw me and my students on the mat, had conversations with me about my ideas and philosophies, then threw his pitch at me. He said a lot of nice complimentary things, and convinced me I was equal to the rank he was offering. The fact that he was (I thought) a well-respected martial arts legend played to his advantage. I did not know of his sordid history prior to this. So I bought his pitch.
Pretty much simple as that. The fact that he offered liability insurance to my club and accident insurance to my students was a huge plus. Unfortunately I heard later that the insurance may have not actually been valid.
He did ask for my history in the arts, but unfortunately he did not care one bit about verifying any of it. He had some members who I personally knew, and highly respected, which further reinforced the image he was projecting. I began to see over a period of time, though, that he was ranking flakes, freaks and charlatans as well. The fact that he had well-respected folks in the organization too helped provide camouflage to his despicable business practices.
There are many rumors of impropriety regarding his management and expenditure of funds of his non-profit organization. I am not comfortable talking about those rumors as I cannot provide proof and will not give up the names of the people who can. But I totally believe what I heard, as I consider them to be very reliable sources.
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE
Sam,
To be honest with you, I have been having second thoughts about this. I am
embarrassed that I allowed myself to get sucked into Porter’s money-making
scheme. I have since grown-up and disassociated myself from the organization
and Porter. I am now ranked through the USJJF and the USJA. However, not
saying anything about it when asked is a form of enabling the practice to
continue.
There are hundreds, if not a couple of thousand, of people who have knowingly
purchased their rank through Porter without a proper eyes-on examination by
qualified people. The ones who pulled their head out of their own ass, like
me, generally want to forget about it and drive-on, and are not interested in
becoming involved in any investigation of Porter. The ones who remain in the
organization will vehemently defend Porter because they do not want to put
their own fragile reputations they have purchased at stake. Everyone who
purchases recognition from Porter knows EXACTLY what they are doing, and in
that sense what Porter is doing is not illegal.
I would appreciate your support in mitigating the inevitable criticism that
will come my way for doing something stupid in the past. I have done the
right thing for myself, my students, and the martial arts community by taking
the correct path and working my ass off. Providing this certificate to you
is done in the spirit of hoping that quality control within the MA community
will continue to improve.
Please keep me posted on the details of your investigation, and let me know
if you require assistance. Please direct all further email traffic to
jeff@wabujitsu.com. Thanks!
Jeff
-----Original Message-----
From: TappingReeve@aol.com [mailto:TappingReeve@aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2008 12:16 AM
To: Cook, Jeffrey A SFC NGFL
Subject: Hi Jeff its Samuel Browning
Hi Jeff:
I am working on an Article about Phil Porter and you are the second person
I’ve talked to who indicated he either signed a rank certificate after
payment, sight unseen, or asked for money to provide rank. I would like to
use the certificate and affidavit for an article on Porter and the USMA since
he has a lot of certificates currently out there and people will be claiming
high rank from him for the next 30 or so years.
I hope this helps
Samuel Browning
Psssst…Have you heard the news? There’s a new fashion blog, plus the latest
fall trends and hair styles at StyleList.com
<http://www.stylelist.com/trends?ncid=aolsty00050000000014> .
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE
The above was an e-mail I got from jeff cook on 9-18-2008
Attached is his certificate.