How to certify a student??

ricecow

White Belt
Joined
Apr 23, 2024
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
So I am going to be a senior in College next year. I am a 4th dan and am the head coach for my schools tkd club. I want to certify some students next year with Kukkiwon for 1st Dan. How do I do that including what forms to fill out and steps to take?
 
So I am going to be a senior in College next year. I am a 4th dan and am the head coach for my schools tkd club. I want to certify some students next year with Kukkiwon for 1st Dan. How do I do that including what forms to fill out and steps to take?
@Dirty Dog
 
Short version: Download the forms from the KKW. Fill them out. Mail them, along with a check, to the KKW promotions office. Wait patiently. In some places, you might have to go through your National Organization, but generally you can go straight to the KKW. Andy does a lot more KKW promotion than we do; most of our students choose to do MDK.
 
Currently Kukkiwon requires all certifying instructors must take the master and examiner course. After that your students will need to create a Tcon account. After that you can fill out the recommender form for their 1st dan with their Tcon ID and send it in with payment to get their certificate.
 
Currently Kukkiwon requires all certifying instructors must take the master and examiner course. After that your students will need to create a Tcon account. After that you can fill out the recommender form for their 1st dan with their Tcon ID and send it in with payment to get their certificate.
When did that Tcon account go into effect? I've never done this.

Got my 1st degree in 2015, 2nd in 2016, and 3rd in 2018.
 
When did that Tcon account go into effect? I've never done this.

Got my 1st degree in 2015, 2nd in 2016, and 3rd in 2018.
They started rolling it out in 2022 and have been enforcing it pretty much since the start of last year. If you make a Tcon account all of your credentials from your pre-tcon certificates should show up on your profile.
 
When did that Tcon account go into effect? I've never done this.

Got my 1st degree in 2015, 2nd in 2016, and 3rd in 2018.
It is mainly focused at 4th Dan and above so they can continue to 'officially' certify students.
 
When did that Tcon account go into effect? I've never done this.

Got my 1st degree in 2015, 2nd in 2016, and 3rd in 2018.
How were you able to go from 1st degree to 2nd degree in <12 months?
 
How were you able to go from 1st degree to 2nd degree in <12 months?
It was not less than 12 months. 2015 and 2016 are a year apart, or...12 months.

Depending on the dates you select in each year, you might be looking at a couple of hours (i.e. December 31st, 2015 to January 1st, 2016) or you may be looking at over 23 months (i.e. January 1st, 2015 to December 31st, 2016).

I took both tests in June, so they were roughly a year apart. (Or =12 months, not < or >).
 
It was not less than 12 months. 2015 and 2016 are a year apart, or...12 months.

Depending on the dates you select in each year, you might be looking at a couple of hours (i.e. December 31st, 2015 to January 1st, 2016) or you may be looking at over 23 months (i.e. January 1st, 2015 to December 31st, 2016).

I took both tests in June, so they were roughly a year apart. (Or =12 months, not < or >).
Okay. The question is the same. How did you test for 2nd Dan in one year?
 
Okay. The question is the same. How did you test for 2nd Dan in one year?
One year per current grade minimum to next grade (in KKW).

Other styles or individual schools may have stricter requirements.
 
How not? The KKW standard is one year per grade. So one year 1st to 2nd, two for 2nd to 3rd, etc.
I was not aware of the change. We have always done per the forwarding Dan. Two years for 2nd, three for 3rd Dan and so on.
KKW is certainly devaluing the Dan ranks.
2nd Dan in one year? Nope.
 
I was not aware of the change. We have always done per the forwarding Dan. Two years for 2nd, three for 3rd Dan and so on.
KKW is certainly devaluing the Dan ranks.
2nd Dan in one year? Nope.
It's been this way as long as I've been a Dan holder. To my knowledge, it's always been this way. Can one of our more experienced KKW folks say if it has always been this way, or if not, around when it changed?

@Dirty Dog @andyjeffries
 
I was not aware of the change. We have always done per the forwarding Dan. Two years for 2nd, three for 3rd Dan and so on.
KKW is certainly devaluing the Dan ranks.
2nd Dan in one year? Nope.
That's a dojo requirement, not KKW. The KKW has pretty much always been one year per current rank.
 
It's been this way as long as I've been a Dan holder. To my knowledge, it's always been this way. Can one of our more experienced KKW folks say if it has always been this way, or if not, around when it changed?

@Dirty Dog @andyjeffries
Well, I had to laugh at that. I am Not blowing my horn, but with the exception of possibly @DirtyDog (and would need that confirmed), I imagine in am one of the more tenured KKW people on this site or most others. I have been with Kukkiwon since 1982, so no young buck with them, and have been training TKD (and other styles) for 45 years.

Our GM (and most others I know) always go by the next Dan number for wait time between Dan promotions. It is up to the school owner/Master's discretion which way they proceed after 1st Dan, the way you progressed or per the next Dan rank number.

Such a short time to 2nd Dan really sully's the accomplishment to me and speaks Loudly of an extreme limitation in the curriculum, especially in the howto's of teaching (this goes far beyond knowing 'how' to do a form or drill). And for the vast majority of people, there is a time needed after 1st Dan for maturation and 'settling down' after the hard chase into the Dan ranks. Some people really let off the gas after 1st Dan testing and need time to get back on the horse.
That's a dojo requirement, not KKW. The KKW has pretty much always been one year per current rank.
'Dojang' but yeah, that is my understanding as well.

How long have you been training?
 
Such a short time to 2nd Dan really sully's the accomplishment to me and speaks Loudly of an extreme limitation in the curriculum, especially in the howto's of teaching (this goes far beyond knowing 'how' to do a form or drill). And for the vast majority of people, there is a time needed after 1st Dan for maturation and 'settling down' after the hard chase into the Dan ranks. Some people really let off the gas after 1st Dan testing and need time to get back on the horse.
This is minimum time-in-grade, not a guarantee. I was teaching class 15+ hours per week during this time. Including my classes, that's 20+ mat hours per week. So in 1 year, I amassed around 1000 mat hours. Your average student going to class 2 days per week is going to amass 100 hours in that time.

There was definitely not a limitation of curriculum. In fact, my criticism of the school has been the opposite. In order to go from 1st to 2nd degree, I need to take 2 intermediate tests (we called them "gups", so I had get 1st dan, 1st gup then 1st dan, 2nd gup before I could test for 2nd dan). As for the curriculum? Here's what I needed to learn at 1st dan in order to advance to 2nd dan:
  • Punch Combos #9-15
  • Kick Combos #9-15
  • Jump Kick Combos #7-10
  • Koryo
  • Koryo Il-Jang (my Master's in-house variation of Koryo)
  • Keumgang
  • Sword Form 1
  • Nunchaku #1-10
  • Escrima #1-5
  • Punch Defense #1-5
Most people at my school took 2-3 years to go from 1st to 2nd. I was an outlier in getting there in 1 year. Same thing for black belts. It took a minimum of 2.5 years to get black belt. I actually got it in under 2, again because I was putting in 20+ hours per week. Most people took 3-5. I passed up a lot of folks on my way to black belt.
 
This is minimum time-in-grade, not a guarantee. I was teaching class 15+ hours per week during this time. Including my classes, that's 20+ mat hours per week. So in 1 year, I amassed around 1000 mat hours. Your average student going to class 2 days per week is going to amass 100 hours in that time.

There was definitely not a limitation of curriculum. In fact, my criticism of the school has been the opposite. In order to go from 1st to 2nd degree, I need to take 2 intermediate tests (we called them "gups", so I had get 1st dan, 1st gup then 1st dan, 2nd gup before I could test for 2nd dan). As for the curriculum? Here's what I needed to learn at 1st dan in order to advance to 2nd dan:
  • Punch Combos #9-15
  • Kick Combos #9-15
  • Jump Kick Combos #7-10
  • Koryo
  • Koryo Il-Jang (my Master's in-house variation of Koryo)
  • Keumgang
  • Sword Form 1
  • Nunchaku #1-10
  • Escrima #1-5
  • Punch Defense #1-5
Most people at my school took 2-3 years to go from 1st to 2nd. I was an outlier in getting there in 1 year. Same thing for black belts. It took a minimum of 2.5 years to get black belt. I actually got it in under 2, again because I was putting in 20+ hours per week. Most people took 3-5. I passed up a lot of folks on my way to black belt.
Fully agree that you were an outlier. There will always be people in both categories.
I was the same in a different scenario.
When I was a 1st Gup red belt, my original instructor had been completely checked out for over a year and me and two other red belts were literally doing all the class training and running of the school. The school was about 3-years old at that time, so we had a few black belts but none who were interested in running things. Long story short, me and another red belt opened a new school with a Lot of help and blessing from our GM and all the students moved with us. My partner was already scheduled to test for black belt at the next testing (couple of months away). I had only been training for 18-months total but was an over achiever (like you) and had been very active in tournaments. I was allowed to unceremoniously test at the same time. After that we stayed on the Dan number between promotions progression schedule with the exception of my 3rd Dan testing. WT/KKW recognized my competition accomplishments and accelerated the testing. My GM was not wild about it and damn did he make if a very hard testing. Good times.
 
Back
Top