What are the color codes for kyu/kup grades for TKD in the USA ?

[Zendokan]

Hello everyone,

When reading in the TKD forum I read about purple belts, brown belts, orang belts. These colors aren't used here in Belgium at the time that I got my 1st dan BB. Can someone explain the color-codes that go with the different kyu/kup grades in the USA or in any other country if it's differant from what I knew:

Belgium
-------

10th kup: white
09th kup: white with yellow
08th kup: yellow
07th kup: yellow with green
06th kup: green
05th kup: green with blue
04th kup: blue
03th kup: blue with red
02nd kup: red
01st kup: red with black

and then the 10 dan grades.

 

[terryl965]

To many orgs' to really get into it, some school even have comoflaug belts.

 

[FearlessFreep]

Each school uses it's own gup rating and belt colors....

 

[Twin Fist]

the ATA is the only group that uses a camoflague belt that i know of.

I use 10 kyu grades
a student black rank
and 10 dan ranks

 

[Kacey]

Hello everyone,

When reading in the TKD forum I read about purple belts, brown belts, orang belts. These colors aren't used here in Belgium at the time that I got my 1st dan BB. Can someone explain the color-codes that go with the different kyu/kup grades in the USA or in any other country if it's differant from what I knew:

Belgium
-------

10th kup: white
09th kup: white with yellow
08th kup: yellow
07th kup: yellow with green
06th kup: green
05th kup: green with blue
04th kup: blue
03th kup: blue with red
02nd kup: red
01st kup: red with black

and then the 10 dan grades.

This rank system is the one we use - as far as I know, it is standard within the ITF. Gen. Choi's rationale, as I was taught it, is that there are 9 degrees of black belt because 9 is the largest single-digit number; there are ten grades of color belt because that is the smallest two-digit number. There's more... but it's early in the morning here; I'll have to go look it up later.

 

[IcemanSK]

As has been said, the colors in the belt order vary from school to school. I was going to say that the 10 gup system is what is most used. However, I know that some schools use more than 10.

I wish I could say it was consistant.

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

Hello everyone,

When reading in the TKD forum I read about purple belts, brown belts, orang belts. These colors aren't used here in Belgium at the time that I got my 1st dan BB. Can someone explain the color-codes that go with the different kyu/kup grades in the USA or in any other country if it's differant from what I knew:

Belgium
-------

10th kup: white
09th kup: white with yellow
08th kup: yellow
07th kup: yellow with green
06th kup: green
05th kup: green with blue
04th kup: blue
03th kup: blue with red
02nd kup: red
01st kup: red with black

and then the 10 dan grades.

This is the same progression that my school uses. Some schools use half belts, some use solid colors with stripes, but its the same color progression that I've seen at quite a few schools in my area. I've also seen different progressions with different colors instead of the half & half belts. Color doesn't make a difference unless its either a black or white belt, as those seem to be the only two that have a degree of universality. What is important is the kup/keup/geub rank. At a school I used to go to, green was seventh geub, orange was eighth, and yellow was ninth. Blue was sixth, purple was fifth, navy was fourth, third was red, second was brown, first was brown with a black stripe. At my current school, the progression is, as I said, the same as yours. Thus the yellow belt at my current school was roughly the same as the green at the old school. But it doesn't matter what color the belt is; you're still third geub.

Really the only important thing is to learn the techniques of your geub level to the best of your ability and to be a solid and competent dan rank practitioner. Frankly I'd be happy with just white and black, as the rest of it is extraneous.

Daniel

 

[Tryak]

Even not all ITF schools use a standard ranking system here is ours:

white
yellow
orange
<camo belt - kids under age 12 only>
green
purple
blue
blue with red stripe
red
red with black stripe

It gets somewhat confusing because of the camo belt. Since adults do not get that belt I am 9th Gup at white in the adult program but if I were in the kids program white would be considered 10th Gup..not really sure why they chose to do it like that. Also note that I am in Canada not the USA.

 

[Zendokan]

The reason that I asked was because of competition problems that I had with a few of my younger students (it evolved a dutch TKD club).
The junior belts 8th(yellow) and 6th kup(green) had their first competitions and the rule set is that you can fight only an opponent that has the same or 1 kup difference than you.
Example my 6th kup (green) can only fight an 7th (yellow with green stripes), a other 6th (green) or a 5th (green with blue stripes). These kids were 12,13 years old. The dutch opponent was also a 6th kup but he wore a red belt. In our club a 2nd kup wears a red belt.
You try to explain to your students that this red belt was the same level as his green belt when the only red belts he had ever seen were of a greater level.
The dutch kid had hereby a great phsychologic advantage than my student, he even won when I could see that my student normally was technical better, but he freezed by the color of his opponents belt. He was only 12 years old.
And that sucked.

 

[terryl965]

The reason that I asked was because of competition problems that I had with a few of my younger students (it evolved a dutch TKD club).
The junior belts 8th(yellow) and 6th kup(green) had their first competitions and the rule set is that you can fight only an opponent that has the same or 1 kup difference than you.
Example my 6th kup (green) can only fight an 7th (yellow with green stripes), a other 6th (green) or a 5th (green with blue stripes). These kids were 12,13 years old. The dutch opponent was also a 6th kup but he wore a red belt. In our club a 2nd kup wears a red belt.
You try to explain to your students that this red belt was the same level as his green belt when the only red belts he had ever seen were of a greater level.
The dutch kid had hereby a great phsychologic advantage than my student, he even won when I could see that my student normally was technical better, but he freezed by the color of his opponents belt. He was only 12 years old.
And that sucked.

Yes I can see where that could have caused problem, sorry about your student. Remember to tell them a belt is just that a belt and sparring or fighting is much more and any person can beat any person on any given day.

 

[cbjr5]

My school uses the same rank system you used at your school in Belgium. I'm still new in TKD, but from the diffrent schools I've seen around, I have not seen Purple, Orange or Brown used. What I have seen though, is when earning your stripe, some schools give a new belt with a horizontal stripe while others will put a piece of color tape vertically at the ends of the belt.

 

[FearlessFreep]

The dutch kid had hereby a great phsychologic advantage than my student, he even won when I could see that my student normally was technical better, but he freezed by the color of his opponents belt. He was only 12 years old.

May be an unpopular thing to say but... that's a training issue.

Most tournaments are geared toward handling the various gup belt colors by arranging people by 'beginner/intermediate/advanced' so assuming people are honest in their evaluation, you're going to be matched up with people who are close to your level of experience. If a competitor is intimidated by the color of the the opponents belt, then I would have to say that's an issue for how the competitor was prepared.

 

[YoungMan]

The schools affiliated with the Kukkiwon tend to use white, yellow, green, blue red, and black. Each of the major organizations tends to use their own system. Otherwise, belt colors can be whatever the instructor wants.
There are 9 gup ranks and 9 Dan ranks. As it was explained to me, the reason why 9 was used was because there were 9 Kwans in the KTA.

 

[hong kong fooey]

in my TAE KWON DO SCHOOL this is our colors

10th kup: white
09th kup: Yellow
08th kup: Green
07th kup: Purple
06th kup: brown
05th kup: BLACK

and then you had the 10 dans.

 

[DojangMom]

What I have seen though, is when earning your stripe, some schools give a new belt with a horizontal stripe while others will put a piece of color tape vertically at the ends of the belt.

Our school uses the coloured electrical tape at the end of the belt for the kids only, as a way to show what part of the curriculum they have mastered (each colour of tape refers to a different part of the curriculum - e.g. poomsae, sparring, SD, etc...), so they (and the other instructors) know what they need to work on and whether or not they're ready for testing. As far as belt colours, we use the same as those in the original post. We're WTF.

 

[Miles]

Our school uses the coloured electrical tape at the end of the belt for the kids only, as a way to show what part of the curriculum they have mastered (each colour of tape refers to a different part of the curriculum - e.g. poomsae, sparring, SD, etc...), so they (and the other instructors) know what they need to work on and whether or not they're ready for testing. As far as belt colours, we use the same as those in the original post. We're WTF.

This is a good point-I have seen instructors do this for dan-level students too. I think it is great incentive for kids (and probably a good way for the instructor to quickly determine what he/she needs to cover in a given class).

Miles

 

[kittybreed]

I trained at a traditional school without belt tips (except for red).

White: the color of innocence
Yellow: all good things start with a little gold
Green: growing from the earth
Blue: reaching toward the sky
Red (4 levels): the color of danger, the student lacks control
Black: the student is just beginning to learn.

There were 9 levels of Black but at the time, no Americans were at that level. When I see a huge number of belt levels, I always wonder about the cost of the testing fees.

 

[YoungMan]

The color of the belts is open to instructor preference. However, anything more than 7-8 color belt levels is a warning sign that the instructor is milking the students for money. More belt ranks equals more testing fees.

 

[Tryak]

The color of the belts is open to instructor preference. However, anything more than 7-8 color belt levels is a warning sign that the instructor is milking the students for money. More belt ranks equals more testing fees.

We have 9 color belt levels at my school but the only "fee" we pay is $10 for the actual belt -- we don't pay to test. I guess if you want to call an extra 10-20 bucks milking the students go ahead..

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

When I first started, there were far fewer belts. As time went by, it got up to about nine, and everyone seemed to have their own color system. Now its ten, twelve, and sometimes twelve with tags. Personally, when outside of my own dojang, I try (but don't always succeed) to couch things in terms of geub rank rather than belt color, as the same colors often appear in different orders at different schools.

Daniel