Belt ranks and grades

Taekwondo ranks fall into two groups. Gup grades (also spelled kup) are the colour-belt levels. Dan grades are the black-belt levels. Both major styles use ten gup grades and nine dan grades.^[1][2]

How the grades are counted #

Gup grades count down. A new student begins at 10th gup, a white belt, and advances toward 1st gup.^[1] Dan grades count up, from 1st dan, the first black belt, to 9th dan.^[1][2] One ITF-style source says the descending gup order is traditional and that its original reason has been lost.^[2]

Black belt levels #

• British Taekwondo gives about three years of training from beginner level to a first-dan black belt, and states that students aged 14 or under receive poom (a junior black-belt rank) instead of dan until they are older.^[1]
• The same body sets minimum waiting periods between dan grades, from one year between 1st and 2nd dan to nine years between 8th and 9th, and labels 5th and 6th dan "Master" and 8th and 9th dan "Grand Master".^[1]
• An ITF-style source groups 1st to 3rd dan as novice black-belt stages, 4th dan as the start of the expert class and 7th to 9th dan as masters.^[2]

These figures belong to individual organizations; others set their own waiting periods and titles.

Colours #

The sequence of colours between white and black differs by organization and by school. The ITF publishes a meaning for each colour in its own sequence; see The Taekwondo belt for the colours, their meanings and how the belt is worn.^[3] Clubs usually hold gradings on a regular cycle, about every three months in the case of British Taekwondo clubs.^[1]

See also #

• The Taekwondo belt
• The Taekwondo uniform
• Major Taekwondo organizations compared