My question is what is an acceptable time to reach BB? Glenn has stated that in Korea it is about 1 year. In America it averages about 2-4 years. Some people may feel that a student should be in their respective art for AT LEAST 4 years to be considered for a BB.
The bolded words, respective art, makes this a general rather than TKD specific question. Kendo, both in Japan, and elsewhere, is an average of three to four years. Same goes for Judo, Aikido, and from what I have seen, most styles of karate.
In the states, I have seen everything from 18 months to four years +, with the average being two in most schools (based on my observation and that of other posters; no hard data).
Are the Guep belts simply a measurement of minimum knowledge that you either know or don't know? Something that if you can demonstrate knowledge in, you will pass and once your reach Dan level this is when you will refine all your knowledge. Or should Guep stage be considered the time of refinement for when you reach dan level you are ready for more advance and in-depth knowledge?
I would say that a lot depends on the mindset of the instructor. My main focus on colored belt students is to teach them the basics of the art and to train bad habits out of them as soon as they are identified.
In the context of taekwondo, every technique learned in tenth and ninth geub should be honed to a reasonable level of proficiency (doing it correctly) prior to moving on to eighth geub. That would include all techniques utilized in Taegeuk Iljang.
These are the foundational techniques of the art. My experience has been that in those grades, I am learning front kick, roundhouse kick, side kick, axe kick, and reverse punch strikes, low, middle, and high blocks, and horse, front, back, and walking stances.
As the student progresses, the same approach should be taken with new techniques as they are learned. My measure is not based on how long Koreans, Americans, or anyone else, take to do it. My measure is the development of the student. The belts are unimportant. Each student is different and has different lifestyle factors affecting their frequency of training.
Let's expand a bit. Why do you all feel it should take the minimum time you quoted?
Well, I teach a sword art, so my reasons may be different from others here, but I find that three to four years is the amount of time it takes to fully ingrain proper technique in the student. I teach a combination of practical sword skill (dobeop) and bamboo sword sparring (kendo/kumdo). This mirrors the dichotomy between taekowndo the art and taekwondo the sport that is discussed frequently in this section.
The skills between dobeop and kendo/kumdo overlap quite a bit, but also diverge in areas as well. While the quanitity of techniques is really not all that great, getting them right is time consuming. Footwork and posture especially. I will not move a student much further than eighth geub until their footwork and posture issues have been dealt with, as footwork and posture affect
everything.
My own preference is to do a fair amount of honing prior to ildan, be it in kumdo/geomdo, hapkido, or taekwondo. It really has less to do with time in grade than effective training; why let a student learn bad habits because they have moved through the curriculum too quickly, only to have to spend another year between first and second dan
unlearning those same bad habits and then
relearning those skills correctly?
What constitutes too quickly? Depends on the student. Some students just get it and progress more quickly.
Why keep such a student in the same time frame as other students with regards to testing? One answer is that it will only make their current techniques more solid. Also, people have a tendency to forget what they learned if they move through the ranks too quickly, particularly with regards to forms or codified technique sets, such as one step sparring.
I personally am not attached to any particular time frame to ildan. Its not about the belts, but about the student's progress. In a sword art, I find that three to four years is optimal for most students.
In taekwondo? Depends. When I was a colored belt, I learned a whole host of HKD culled SD techniques along with the Kukkiwon curriculum. This included WTF tournament sparring and an in house sparring rule set that allowed for a broader range of techniques. That is a hybrid TKD and will take longer to learn than a straight Kukki taekwondo class. For that style of TKD, three to four years is optimal for most people.
Straight Kukki Taekwondo? Yes, I can see students training three to four days a week at the dojang plus practice outside of class making from tenth geub to first dan in a year and have a fair level of proficiency.
Daniel
