TAEKWONDO RANKS

I don't train in Taekwondo regularly but I have a good friend from Korea who is an instructor, he is very traditional he's been training for over 20 years and I asked him his rank he said 3rd gup. I always thought Taekwondo had dan ranks but he said that dan ranks in taekwondo are made up and traditionally there are 30ranks in Taekwondo and they are all called gups so you start at 30gup and go to 1gup. 1 Gup he told me was similiar to somewhere aroung 5th Dan in karate which is really about as high as karate goes based on technical ability. But he insisted that the highest possible rank in Taekwondo was 1gup. Does anyone know about this ranking system?

I personally have never heard of such a system in taekwondo but who knows? I have studied both ITF and WTF styles with various clubs and all used either 10 or 9 gup rankings (same as kyu) and then dan rankings. If your friends system trains the way he said it would be interesting to hear more about it. What forms? What techniques are focused on? If he has the training it really does matter that much what rank he is. Can you really ever compare the rank of one person to another's? [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif[/IMG]

Also it is commonly excepted that modern TKD is developed from karate (mainly shotokan) and should have a similar ranking system.

are you sure he wasn't kidding you?

He said it was based on military ranking to some extent, it was obdvious to me he had top technique. He said that the top 10 gup rankings became dan rankings so people could understand equivalent rankings, and that the bottom 10 gups were dropped so students didn't start moving up in gup rank till 19th gup. It seemed reasonable to me.

the gup system is often used from white to black in ranks. Often the dan system picks up where that left off. In my system, we have 10 gups, white being gup 10 and red being 1 gup. Then you just go up in dans at black. Never heard of a system like the one he mentions, but you gotta remember that there are hundreds of different TKD systems and schools out there that all do things differently. My school does different forms from almost any other school!

How does one achieve a rank higher than first dan?

[QUOTE]Originally posted by OklahomasGreg:
How does one achieve a rank higher than first dan? [/QUOTE]

In this guys system he said 1gup was roughly equivalent to 5th Dan in karate which is about as high as technical ranks go in karate nowadays.

No, Im speaking in general terms. After you earn a blackbelt, what do you do to earn a second degree? And after Second, what do you do to gain even higher ranks? Do test again, and then that makes you a second degree BB? Or do you train under a different instructer?

Sorry if I didn't make my question clear.

older times?

wait 2 years.
Learn the 2nd degree form.
Become more active in the martial arts community. ie. give back
Test under someone that can test you.

He said 9gup is black belt 8 gup I would expect is 2nd degree black belt. It's funny I asked him the difference between 2nd gup and 1st gup he said 3rd gup is a strong fighter 2nd gup is a very strong fighter and 1st gup is very very strong fighter. This guy was an english student studying in the U.S. so I'm not sure if his he was able to express to me the exact subtlties, but it was pretty funny.

Depending on the system of course....but it is not uncommon to see a 7th,8th,or 9th dan ranks in traditional Karate. And of my Knowledge of TaeKwonDo ranking system after black belt they use dangrades as well. Granted there are many different systems and each may have a different grading scale, just speaking from what I know.

I've heard of 9 total in TKD. There might be 10, but there's only 9 black belt forms. 20 years and only third degree doesn't sound right, unless he's taking his time. He should be at least 5th by now.

I've only taken WTF, maybe it's different in ITF?

qua,

lets look at the WTF (think they just changed it to make it a year off) black belt MANDATORY time wait.

Assuming he got his 1st dan on his 18th birthday...

1st to 2nd = 2 years
2nd to 3rd = 3 years
3rd to 4th = 4 years
4th to 5th = 5 years
5th to 6th = 6 years
-------------------------
20 years

So you are correct. IF he got his black belt on his 18th birthday, with no previous martial arts experience, according to WTF, he can be, at most, a legitamate 6th dan.

Now assuming he spent a few years getting a black belt then the MOST he really should be is a 5th dan

Which is actually what you said [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif[/IMG]


Forgot one thing. Yes, ITF is different. At least I know of someone that is an ITF/ITC 3rd dan that has maybe 5 years total experience.

[This message has been edited by Uriel (edited 07-18-2004).]

Well he said that he was a 5th or 6th degree blackbelt, he just said that 3rd gup in Taekwondo is 5th or 6th degree blackbelt.

hmmm lets see... if you are 1st dan and you want to move to second, your instructor could give you the test and promote you.. if you are like my instructors whom their instructors retired... they went before basically a committie well my master did and got promoted to 7th and he lives in Alabama now and my other still lives in Oklahoma with me and a tape of him was givin to the same committie and he was then promoted. Remember these days... martial arts are very political.

heres how we do it

white->gold
gold->purple
purple->high purple
high purple->green
green->high green
high green->brown
brown->high brown
high brown->red
red->high red
high red->black
black--->(up through 9 degrees to Grand Master


is this normal?

i have only just started tkd with the tagb took my first grade in april 2004 next grade is yellow in september my instructor is 3rd dan

i do itf taekwon do. there are 19 ranks overall 10th gup the lowest being white belt up to 9th dan or 9th degree black belt so if ur friend says there 30 that cant b right if hes doing itf an i no that wtf an gtf are based around the original itf an there for have the same ranking system

It seems then that the ranks you refer to as dan ranks he calls gup ranks so he would say 1 gup is the top rank instead of 10dan.