Belts in your TKD school

Please list what belts your school has, the cost for testing, time in rank requirements.

This is just some personal research on my part.



My goju school has four belts including black with two stripes between each belt.

No cost for testing,no specific time in rank requirements.

Usually students make shodan between 5 and 6yrs.

thanks!

white yellow green blue red black
One stripe in between.

testing is $30 no boards to break $40 with boards to break
you buy your own belt if you pass

no specific time in rank but we hold two test a year (occasionally three)

bb possible in about 5 years

testing cycle is 2 months, white, orange, yellow, camo, green, purple, blue, brown, red, 1st recomended, 1st decided.

24 months with no "half rank" or mid-terms.
School to school variances on how those are handled in terms of fees.

$50 * 10 + $150 BB fee includes the belts (BB is embroidered and costs school over $30) totals $650 in fees.

Of the $50, about $20 goes to HQ to cover cost of record keeping (ok, more than covers cost), belts cost about $5 so with a testing of 30 students there is a whopping cash flow of about $750 every two months less the costs of bringing in a high rank guest (hotel, dinner).

Then again there's the three students I train in their home one night a week with equipment at cost, no testing fees and tuition paid in home cooked khmer food...

Mere money can't buy semi-private lessons from me

We pretty much follow the ITF syllabus. There are the 6 color belts, white, yellow, green, blue, red & black. There are 10 grades or gup level of the color belts. A stripe on the belt indicates the higher grade of that color. We hold gup testings once a month, however THAT DOES NOT MEAN everyone tests. Each gup level has a different time requirement that must be met, along with the other required critera for someone to be evaluated. There are of course 9 BB Dans or degrees. For gup tests, the fee starts at 10 & goes up to 75. BB test fees vary as to what cert(s) you want, as we give choices.

From the "Purple Belt" thread on page 2 of this forum, part of my response to ITFUnity:


White
Yellow
Orange
Green
Blue
Purple
Red
Brown
Black

Time requirements are 4 months MINIMUM for each belt White thru Purple,so that is 2 years MINIMUM from beginner thru intermediate.9 months MINIMUM each for Red and Brown belt so a MINIMUM time of 1.5 years at the advance level.My instructor has always made everybody wear Red and Brown for a full year, so it took me 4 years to get my 1st Dan. I believe that puts us at right about the same time frame as ITF from beginner to 1st Dan, correct ?

VDJ

Test fee's are $30.00 from beginner to intermediate and $50.00 for advanced belts. 1st thru 5th Dan vary from $250.00 to $450.00 as the charges are more for certification. 6th thru 9th are time in rank.

VDJ

To be honest I'm not quite sure how much anymore but this is roughly what it is.

White ... comes with uniform
10th Gup ... White with 1 yellow piece of tape ... $10.00
9th Gup ... White with 2 yellow pieces of tape ... $10.00
8th Gup ... Yellow Belt ... $20.00
7th Gup ... Yellow Belt/Green Stripe ... $20.00
6th Gup ... Green Belt ... $30.00
5th Gup ... Green Belt/Blue Stripe ... $30.00
4th Gup ... Blue Belt ... $40.00
3rd Gup ... Blue Belt/Red Stripe ... $40.00
2nd Gup ... Red Belt ... $50.00
1st Gup ... Red Belt/Black Stripe ... $60.00
1st Dan ... Black Belt ... $500

It is not so much paying for the belt and the certificate but for the testing time for our school. Along with our Instructor an outside person is brought in; which also tests the Instructor to make sure what he is teaching. Fees go up as more must be shown at each level. Black Belt has testing time, testing panel and the chunk that goes to the Kukiwon/WTF or whatever and the certificate coming from Korea; with after 6 months still waiting.

The reasoning behind the striped belts between the solid colors is not a money making scheme as some would believe. Years before I joining almost 6 years ago there was only solid belts however they found that many found it too difficult to learn all of the requirements and also do to the extended period between testing that they had a high drop out rate. With the belts in between the solids they were able to break down the system in smaller increments while still give the students goals to shoot for. While many will say belts mean nothing, in the real world unfortunately to the majority they do. I myself enjoyed going through the ranks and pushed myself to get as high as I could until I got to blue and realized that I was rushing things so slowed it down to "learn" all that I could and not just meet the requirements. My training got better as I did.

As for class time for anything from white up to blue is a minimum of 20 classes. For blue to red/black is 40 classes. For black belt 60 classes or 1 year. Now understand this is the minimum and in fact even with myself going regularly 3 times a week with starting in September of 2002, I did not get to black belt till November 2007; 5 years. Granted I took some time off for injuries but very few will ever get their black belt in less then 4 years in our system. Red Belt and Red/Black Belt were 1 year each and should be as there is so much to learn and to refine. Even if you had everything required at those levels you would have to wait for the next test and the Instructor's nod which meant when you actually tested you probably had twice as many classes. Testing for colored belts is 6 times a year and black belt is 3 times a year. Black belt requires physical endurance requirements and all technical requirements proven in class prior to being approved. Black Belt is a two part test with one by 4 school head Instructors and if pass then a Provincial test two weeks later. Final test awarded with new uniform and two belts; one you put on a plaque also provided. And again have to wait for the certificate to come from Korea.

Just as a note, requirements for black belt testing are:

• 60 classes minimum approximately 1 year
• 10 colored belt patterns
• Koryo pattern
• Color belt One-Step Sparring 1 - 9
• Full contact sparring
• 8 single board breaks
• Endurance test
• 2 Essays; 1 about the history, 1 about your experiences and how Taekwondo has helped you in life

Endurance test is:

• 3 kilometer run
• 50 flat hand push-ups
• 100 sit-ups
• 50 stand-ups continuous
• 5 chin-ups arms straight
• 12 minutes stairs
• 1000 continuous skipping

Usually done in less then an hour.

Board breaks are:

1. Elbow or Punch or Palm Strike
2. Front Kick or Step Side Kick
3. Ax Kick
4. Back Kick or 360 Back Kick
5. Jump Front Kick
6. Turning Kick
7. Back Round House or 360 Back Round House
8. Knife Hand or Ridge Hand (power or speed)

Only allowed 2 tries and is usually timed

white, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, red, brown, recommended BB, 1st dan BB. with "stripe tests" in between.

When I started at my TKD school some 20 odd years ago, the belt structure was simple:

White
Orange
Yellow
Green
Blue
Red
Black

Each gup belt had a stripe associated with it (black electrical tape). From white to orange to yellow took about 6-7 months, then 4-5 months or so from yellow to green. From green to blue was about 6-8 months, then you spent about a year at blue, and 2 to 2.5 years at red. Costs were $10 for stripe tests, and $15 for belt tests (included the belt). Shodan test was $250, and included an embroidered belt, certificate, and ID card.

Now they have a ridiculous number of belts, and I think they charge $40 or more for gup testing, and 4th Dan is probably going to cost $1000+.

there's a local mcdojang that charges 500 for 1st dan. my school doesn't charge that much for 4th dan.i remember the colorful electrical tape. the good ole days eh? now it's all fancy with this stripe and that stripe.

White
High White
Yellow
High Yellow
Green
High Green
Blue
High Blue
Red
Red I (black electrical tape)
Red II
Red III
Junior Black (ages 10 to 13)
Teen Black (ages 13 to 16)
Adult Black (16 +)
and 9 ranks for black belt.

we also have a little ninja rank system, but I can't remember all of the variations. And yes, we have a camo belt for these little guys, but only because my instructor wanted to keep the colors completely separate from the regular program.

Colored Belt testings are held every 3 or 4 months depending on the overall progress of the students. Black belt testings are held every other colored belt testing cycle (so every 6 to 8 months. All black belts are required to maintenance test even if they aren't going up for promotion.

Colored belt testings cost $30, junior and teen are $50, and its $100 for black, $200 for second, etc. but maintenance tests are only $25 I think.

As an instructor, I haven't paid for anything in a while, so I could be wrong, although I wouldn't be upset if I did have to pay because the money from testing goes right back into the school, and covers the cost of belts, boards, and certificates where necessary. And, in the case of the black belt test, pays for the pizza party afterwards.

Laura

We still have that old electric tape

A Black Belt Test

Performed infront of one of the founders of Tae Kwon Do and two other high ranking black belts

All patterns up to and including Kwang Gae. You won't have to do all of them but you will be told to do a selection given to you at the time of the exam by the examiner.

Sparring several rounds of one on one possibly multiple and some one step sparring (full speed not prearranged)

Board Breaks

2 boards
Punch
Knife Hand
side kick
turning kick
jumping reverse side kick

One board
High jumping (above head hieght) front kick

One break
Your choice (I remember mine it was a high jumping reverse turning kick)

We have standard ITF belts- White, Yellow, Green, Blue, Red and Black with a stripe in between. Costs about 20pounds to test, which is now quite a lot of dollars, but used to be about 30 dollars before the pound became so strong. Black belt test is a hundred pounds.

Testing times, well I think in theory it takes just over 3 years to get to black belt. But even when for me going to 10 hours of classes a week it took me 4 years, and for others with less time it usually takes 4-8 years.

yup generally between 3 and 6 years in most schools. took me ten because when i was younger i moved a lot and i had to essentially start over about three times. by now if i had stayed in one place i'd probably be a 3rd or 4th dan!

Quote:

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] Costs about 20pounds to test, which is now quite a lot of dollars, but used to be about 30 dollars before the pound became so strong. Black belt test is a hundred pounds.

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Yes, our crappy American dollar is declining in value.

My school follows the standard ITF syllabus...
White Belt
White Belt/Yellow Stripe(a piece of electrical tape!)
Yellow Belt
Yellow Belt/Green Stripe
Green Belt
Green Belt/Blue Stripe
Blue Belt
Blue Belt/Red Stripe
Red Belt
Red Belt/Black Stripe
Black Belt(1st-8th Dan, each belt with Roman Numerals)

The average span of white belt to 1st degree black belt in my school is 3-4 years. Some take as long as 7 years due to poor consistency in attendance and performance. Tests generally get more expensive as belt rank increases.