What are the belt ranks in Taekwondo?

When it comes to Taekwondo, there are several organizations that all grade differently from each other. In short, it isn’t like Judo where the grading system is universal. Instead, Taekwondo belts are more similar to Karate in terms of different federations offering different belts and colors.

Having said this, in most cases the belt system has a lot in common with other martial arts. This means in most cases, TKD belts begin with white and end at black belt. Here, we shall go through the respective belt systems and how they choose to grade. Specifically, we will look at the ITF and ATA belt systems. One thing that most systems have in common though is that they all roughly take the same time to reach black belt. To begin with, we shall address this question.

How long does it take to get a black belt in Taekwondo?

In Taekwondo, it roughly takes around 3-4 years to achieve the rank of black belt. Of course, this is dependent on various factors such as skill, hours spent training and in some cases, competition results. In other words, everyone is different and it may take a 40 year old hobbyist a bit longer than a 20 year old without a job. Everyone has their own journey, and there will always be outliers and extremes. However, as a generalization it takes 3-4 years to get to black belt. This is quite typical for most martial arts, with the likes of Karate and Judo taking a similar time to achieve these ranks.

International Taekwondo Federation belts and their rankings

The ITF is a Korean organization which is where Taekwondo was birthed from. Depending on where you live in the world, this is seen as the purest form of Taekwondo as it is still incredibly popular in the Asian country. The ITF uses 6 different colors, but has a total of 11 belts. Also, once black belt has been achieved, your ranking then works in dans, i.e. 4th dan as opposed to getting a new belt. Each dan is usually given as a new tab on your belt which shows experience. Below is the ITF TKD belt system in more detail from start to finish.

• White belt (this is the first belt for a complete beginner. As a result, this is the lowest rank in the ITF)
• White belt with gold tab (this shows a slight improvement from the original white belt but is still very new in terms of learning)
• Gold belt (this is the second color and should only take a few months to achieve)
• Gold belt with green tab (generally, there is very little in terms of experience between this rank and the previous belt)
• Green belt (whilst still a new belt, there should be a clear level of skill compared to the previous belts)
• Green belt with green tab (this belt represents the end of the beginner process)
• Blue belt (this is seen as the first mature belt under iTF rules)
• Blue belt with red tab (at this point you should roughly be a few years into your Taekwondo training)
• Red belt (the last belt before black belt, this is a mature belt which means you should be highly skilled at this point)
• Red belt with black tab (this is the last belt before black belt)
• Black belt (this means you’re incredibly skilled and experienced at Taekwondo and should generally know a lot about the art. However, some argue that when you achieve black belt is when the learning really begins and for some, there is still years ahead of learning)
  
  

As you may have figured, each belt gets a new stripe (or tab) which leads into the next belt. For instance, the white belt then gets a gold tab, the next belt after this is the gold belt. Then, the gold belt gets a green tab before green. In short, each middle belt has a hint of the next belt, showing that the student should soon by ready to get promoted. Under ITF rules, these ranks are sometimes called Geups, which is a Korean word for ‘rank’.

American Taekwondo Association belts and their rankings

Second to South Korea, Taekwondo is most popular in the USA. In short, TKD spread like wildfire in North America and so the ATA was born. This means alongside the ITF, the ATA is the most popular system when it comes to learning Taekwondo. The ATA has a slightly different belt system which even has an unusual camo belt. According to the creator of the ATA system, the belt colors represent a tree that begins as a seed and eventually evolves into something beautiful. Like we did with the ITF system, we shall go through the ATA belt system below and roughly what each rank means.

• White belt (this has the same status as a white belt does in the ITF system and is the complete beginning of your journey)
• Orange belt (the orange belt is still incredibly new and in many cases can take a month or two to achieve)
• Yellow belt (still a beginner belt, the yellow color shows some progress and you may grasp a few Taekwondo concepts at this point)
• Camo belt (this belt is usually given to children and is often skipped by adults)
• Green belt (at this point, the beginner stage of your Taekwondo is coming to an end)
• Purple belt (this is the ‘middle’ belt and means your TKD skills should be competent without being mastered. There is still work to do)
• Blue belt (the last of the middle belts, at this point your technique should be reaching maturity)
• Brown belt (in all martial arts, the brown belt shows authority and years put in. It is no different under ATA rules)
• Red belt (red is the penultimate belt and shows great skill and experience)
• Red and black belt (this is the first dan on your red belt and is when you have reached the final color of your TKD belt system)
  
  

As seen, this belt system differs from the ITK belt colors and uses fewer stripes. Of course, some gyms may have their own sets of rules which differ from one to another. In some cases, people will promote children to different colors too or have names like ‘little tigers’ for kids which is used to show their age.

How do I get promoted to black belt in Taekwondo?

This really depends on the nature of your school, and there is no set methods. As mentioned briefly, levels of skill, training hours and competition experience will all be accounted for. Perhaps the biggest indicator in promotions however, comes down to two things. The first is poomsae, which is similar to kata in Karate. This is basically drilling and shows that your body is aware of its movements. The more fluid your poomsae is, the better this will translate to getting promoted.

Secondly, is sparring. Sparring shows how you can put your learning into practice and shows how to pull things off in a realistic environment. For instance, someone could be brilliant at poomsae but awful at sparring. In short, you could argue that poomsae is like a theory test, whereas sparring is practical. If you do well at both of these, then you will get to black belt soon enough. Of course, your goal in TKD shouldn’t be to get to black belt. Although the status of the belt may seem tempting, really it is about learning and growing both physically and mentally as a martial artist.

What happens after black belt?

After you’ve achieved your black belt, the next promotions are given in terms of dan. For example, your first promotion would be to first dan black belt, and so on. Each dan should take a few years to achieve as they are taken quite seriously. Thus, a first dan on your black belt should take longer to achieve compared to getting your first few belt promotions in Taekwondo. This means that in terms of experience, there is usually a massive difference from a first dan black belt and a new black belt.

When you have achieved the rank of second dan – this usually means that you can serve as a teacher in your gym. Obviously, these rules are different from gym to gym – but this is the average rule. The result means that the second dan holds significant importance in Taekwondo and is seen when the student becomes the teacher.

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