"Professor" Alan Thornton "10th Dan" awarded an MBE

Moved to General Discussion and renamed to generate a bit more interest

 

I'm going to do a little bit of responding to comments in the article in the Telegraph just because it actually has comments by the man himself.

First, I'm very pleased to see his correct academic title being used in this article.

Secondly, this is absolutely valid. This award is supposed to be awarded for those who have significantly contributed to their chosen sport (whether martial arts are all sports is irrelevant to this article, so let's save that debate for another day). I live in London and have since 2006. I've studied martial arts for over 20 years. I've participated in a global web forum for 11 years. I've never heard of Alan Thornton until this weekend. This isn't absolute proof that the award is undeserved, but you'd think that if he had genuinely done something special for the martial arts community I might have heard of it.

I may not be representative of everyone, so perhaps more consideration is needed. As such, this point can remain open to anyone wishing to step in and say that they have actually heard of this guy before his award was made, however I suspect that takers will be few and far between given his actual history.

Very sad. However, a genuine grandmaster of the martial arts would understand and accept the need for the martial arts community to police its own and would welcome the opportunity to demonstrate his worthiness. Crying about it doesn't answer the various questions.

This more than casts doubt on the validity of his academic studies. I have never met a single person with an academic qualification who can't remember where they studied. This is especially noteworthy given this man claims and BSc and two doctorates attained over a period of two decades(1), awards which usually require very significant original research to be carried out in the chosen field over a period of several years. As I understand it from those colleagues and friends of mine with legitimate PhDs, it is one of the most gruelling and difficult achievements one can attempt. This is certainly not something one could easily forget, so being unable to immediately recall where he obtained his academic qualifications is utterly damning.

Although this has no direct impact on his contribution to the world of martial arts, it certainly calls into question his character, which in turn requires further investigation of his martial arts claims.

Regardless of what paper trail has been provided (I'm sure his "soke shodai" award has a certificate as well), not being able to remember his place of study for two decades is simply unbelievable. As such, I'm personally inclined to work on the assumption that the academic awards are all fabricated (or unaccredited, which is a fancy word for fabricated).

Hmm, an interesting claim...

I'd argue that if someone's academic qualification required so little effort that the graduate doesn't even remember the university that awarded the degrees, it's a little dishonest to use said titles to bolster one's reputation. Likewise, claiming a 10th dan when one knows that one cannot live up to the standards of previous 10th dan holders would appear to be unprincipled.

Is it me or does this actually fit?

This truly gets to the nub of it, doesn't it. What services? How many individuals have been positively affected by Mr Thornton's services to martial arts? He doesn't have a single current student by the sounds of it, nor are any of his previous students now teaching his system. Mr Thornton is apparently not himself practising at the moment, so his legacy to the martial arts comprises (i) a system no-one is practising and (ii) whatever he's done outside the dojo.

The former is hardly an achievement, so it's only the latter which can possibly be the reason for this award. This should be dealt with later.

Good to hear! We as martial artists are ultimately responsible for the overall quality and reputation of martial arts, after all. If we can't police ourselves, we deserve what we get!

So by his own admission he's had little to do with "the karate scene" in the UK. As a supposed karate practitioner, this should surely be enough to disqualify him from the award. How much can he really have done for the UK scene if he hasn't been a part of it?

As for avoiding the EKF because of politics, I can't comment on that. However, there are a number of other organisations already in place for stranded individuals looking for a new home, so it's difficult to comprehend why a serious practitioner wouldn't have joined one of those. Especially since such organisations would jump at the chance to have a legitimate 10th dan in their midst. Oh wait...

In case this is difficult to work out, it means that someone training solidly (i.e. not taking a decade here and there off due to injury) might receive a 10th dan after about 57 years of training if (and only if) they are an exceptional martial artist. This would put Mr Thornton at age 70, given he started at age 13. Claiming a 10th dan in his 40s is therefore absurd.

And just to add to Mr Donovan's comments, most practitioners never achieve such high grades.

Starting at 13 isn't good enough given the above time scales. Also, if the system is only "slightly different" then why create a new system and promote himself to 10th dan? Surely slight differences shouldn't have stopped him from being graded by actual higher-ups in his own art, but would instead have been accepted as his own interpretation of the art? In any case, if his art is only slightly different to more mainstream karate styles, how has his grading path been so accelerated? Does Mr Thornton actually believe that he is better than anyone else living at karate, which is what such a grade should mean.



(1) http://www.thetempleoftruth.co.uk/page4.htm


More to follow...

 

Further history of the man in question

Information about "Professor" Alan Thornton is relatively difficult to find, as he appears to be essentially a non-entity online as well as in the martial arts world in general. I have however been able to find a cached outline of his history and accomplishments at the now defunct Hawaii Martial Arts International Society (cached at http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Grandmaster-Thornton/503209450).

Looking at this history in some detail:

Can anyone involved in Isshin Ryu (I assume the above was a typo) ask around to see if Mr Thornton ever held a senior dan grade in the art?

• Bushi-Kai Kokusai Renmei International - James Moclair's organisation, so probably a belt factory (I'll try to do a section on him later)
• Juko-Kai Kokusai Renmei International - well-known organisation with a history of over-promoting, including in arts with nothing to do with their own. Also responsible for performing parlour tricks as "ki energy" demonstrations. Not a great supporting membership for Mr Thornton. There are numerous articles all over the web addressing Juko-Kai, so I will leave them alone for now.
• World Martial Arts Council - open-membership organisation "established to unite all martial artists without exception through a policy of total non-interference" - i.e. utterly pointless at best and downright irresponsible at worst (their policy would allow a yellow belt to promote themselves to 10th dan and start teaching, if they stand by what they say)
• World Martial Arts League - "The W.M.A.L. is authorized to license, issue rank and Ph.D. degrees, register qualified members, schools and organizations so they may receive deserving recognition for their dedication. The W.M.A.L. also has special recognition and certification for those who have founded their own system or Martial Arts style." In other words, a self admitted belt/title factory. Not a great result.
• World Martial Arts Association - This seems to be the organisation responsible for the 5th dan black belt test that was so bad it was ridiculed everywhere and eventually taken down. The headmaster of that school claims a 9th dan, but judging by the standards of his 5th dan students, he shouldn't even be teaching. Another poor group to associate with
• International Association of Karate and Kobudo - I can't find any reference to this outside Mr Thornton's bio.

The trouble with all of the above is that they are trying to do something that doesn't need doing, i.e. legitimising those without sufficient legitimacy to stand on their own two feet. As far as I can see, the main purpose of these organisations is vanity, nothing more. There's no reason to belong to an international organisation other than the one that actually regulates your own style (if applicable) or provides you with insurance. Anything further is purely for show.

There are NO highly professional grandmaster/sokeship councils. Every single instance of such a group that I have investigated has been set up purely so that members can award ever more elaborate titles to each other. The fact that "soke" is a hereditary Japanese title should indicate precisely how much legitimacy the vast majority of Western "soke" have - none! Again, this is purely an attempt to legitimise the founder of a style by giving them multiple grades. For example, the two sets of titles below are for the same person and likely carry exactly the same level of legitimacy, but which is more impressive:

• Alan Thornton
• Soke Shodai Professor Alan Thornton 10th Dan BSc PhD

Everything around the name in this instance appears to be meaningless vanity.

So where's the book? If this is what was going to establish him as a competent and respected author, why can I not go on to Amazon and buy it?

Couple of issues with this, as you might imagine:

• First, this is not how arts are founded. In the mainstream, you just start teaching your own thing, promote students and expand. There's no official sign off process
• Historically founders usually weren't graded in their own system, as this would be meaningless. Instead they just issue rank to their own students and start from there
• Soke does not mean founder. Nor does soke shodai. Soke means "inheritor of a family tradition". Claiming it as the founder of a brand new system is ridiculous misuse of Japanese terminology, and totally unnecessary except for image.
• The Klaus Schumacher I can find is a hapkido exponent. Why is his opinion on karate deemed to be sufficient to judge what a 7th dan in that art should look like? He's also a holder of numerous dan grades from a whole host of arts that should each take a lifetime to accomplish, so I'm not going to take him too seriously either

Incorrect title holders issuing more incorrect titles. This isn't something he should ever have been proud of.

These are again meaningless vanity groups. I'm pretty sure some of them were mentioned above as well, so this seems to have been double-counting memberships.

2 years to go from 7th dan to 8th dan is far too short. In fact, this itself makes these grades meaningless. I've also got no idea who Milan Pesic is or what his grades are in, but it's an absolute certainty that he doesn't have any grounds to be grading in Mr Thornton's style of karate.

Largely already dealt with.

You can't simply acquire a title of nobility. It sounds like he was conned by a site selling fake aristocratic titles.

Such a claim should be relatively easy for the honours committee to check, however I suspect that the fact that the current count de clermont is severely mentally disabled to the point where his father appointed his younger brother as heir (according to wikipedia, anyway) might make such an appointment illegitimate even if the story is 100% true.

The only reference I can see to this prestigious order of knighthood is on a peerage purchase website. In other words, it's as legitimate as Wooden Hare's "free hugs" sign.

All in all, not a great review of credentials. We have someone who has bought false titles, claimed academic qualifications to which he appears not to be entitled and has effectively promoted himself to 10th dan by joining mutual rank-inflation societies. He's associated with a number of groups whose sole purpose is to increase the perceived legitimacy of their members, and we have still seen absolutely no evidence of his services to martial arts.

 

I'll agree that he was within his rights to found a system. He was not within his rights to pass himself off as a genuine 10th dan in karate of any kind, nor soke, nor the academic qualifications, nor the title professor, nor the aristocratic titles he has claimed in the past. Bear in mind that he's also outright stated that he deserves this award despite having done nothing noteworthy to earn it beyond promote himself.

It's not just about laws, it's about character. The honours system is supposed to reward people of utmost moral standing, and passing yourself off as more than you are cannot fit that definition.