How many belts at your school

[StudentCarl]

10th gup = white
9th = white w/ yellow stripe
8th = yellow
7th = yellow w/ green stripe
6th = green
5th = green w/ blue stripe
4th = blue
3rd = blue w/ red stripe
2nd = red
1st gup = red w/ black stripe

Black...

 

[rlobrecht]

When we started our school was:
White
White/Orange Stripe
Orange
Orange/Yellow Stripe
Yellow
Yellow/Green Stripe
Green
Green/Blue Stripe
Blue
Blue/Red Stripe
Red
Red/Black Stripe
Half Red/Half Black (we call it Poom, but don't treat it the same)
Black

Our Sabumnim had a falling out with his master, and formed his own organization. Now we're:
White
White/Yellow Stripe
Yellow
Yellow/Green Stripe
Green
Green/Blue Stripe
Blue
Blue/Red Stripe
Red
Red/Black Stripe
Red/Double Black Stripe
Half Red/Half Black
Black

 

[Manny]

In Hwarang Tae Kwon Do we have: white,yellow,green,blue,marron,red and black.

Manny

 

[cactus]

The grading book, by Taekwondo Australia, has these for belts/rankings:

White belt

9th Gup - Yellow belt, 1 white stripe
8th Gup - Yellow belt, 2 white stripes
7th Gup - Yellow belt, 3 white stripes

6th Gup - Blue belt, 1 white stripe
5th Gup - Blue belt, 2 white stripes
4th Gup - Blue belt, 3 white stripes

3rd Gup - Red belt, 1 white stripe
2nd Gup - Red belt, 2 white stripes
1st Gup - Red belt, 3 white stripes
Cho Dan Bo - Red belt, wide black stripe

 

[bluewaveschool]

Our belt system is a bit odd.

White
Yellow
Green (1st and 2nd degree)
Purlple (1st and 2nd degree)
Brown (1st and 2nd degree)
Black

Now, what is the difference in a 1st/2nd of those belts? Prolly the same as if I actually put different colors in, or used striped belts. I just have to remember that the kids that are 2nd purple due a different form and know more techs than a 1st purple. Back in the day our instructors said something along the lines of adding in 3 new belt colors is just adding cost to the parents/students, so thats why they did rankings that way.

 

[miguksaram]

10th kyu = no belt
9th = white
8th = orange
7th = yellow
6th = blue
5th = green
4th = purple
3rd -1st = brown

Black

Now our juniors have the same rank system but they have a white stripe in their belt to indicate jr. rank. Once they are around 14 or 15 they can opt to take the adult class and will have to retest to convert their jr rank to adult rank (we teach the adult curriculum slightly different that jr. curriculum).

We do have a jr. black belt, but again, they will have to retest for an adult black belt once they reach the age of 16.

 

[Tony49]

If you have more than 10 belts how does the Gup Ranking work. Currently, we start with a higher Gup. Is there a half Gup?

12Gup
11Gup
10Gup

 

[puunui]

Please correct me if I am wrong Terry, but officially KKW does not care anything about any color belt other than Black as there is no mention of any other belt color that I can find on the KKW website.

There was an early film made by either the WTF or Kukkiwon from the mid 70's which showed the belt colors as white, yellow, green, blue, red and black, in that order.

The original belt colors of the Chung Do Kwan was white, red and black, which were the original belt colors used at the Shotokan. The Shotokan used white and red because the country at the time when GM Lee was studying was highly nationalistic and in WWII mode, white and red being the colors of the Japanese flag. Brown was later substituted for red by the Shotokan after WWII.

When GM Lee moved back to Korea he used the same color belt system as the Shotokan. In fact, the original Chung Do Kwan curriculum was exactly what GM Lee learned at the Shotokan from his main teacher FUNAKOSHI Yoshitaka Sensei. When you add the blue from the name Chung Do Kwan to the belt colors, you end up with the colors on the Korean flag.

Students would start off as 8th Guep White Belts and then get double promoted to 6th Guep White in six months, then 4th Guep Red Belt in another six months, and so forth. You could make it to 1st Dan at the Chung Do Kwan under GM Lee in two years. One more year, and you would be eligible for 2nd Dan promotion. I have a copy of the original Chung Do Kwan bylaws and it lays everything out, including time in grade promotions up to the rank of 7th Dan, which was the highest back then. Under GM Lee, you could go from 8th Guep white belt to 7th Dan black belt in fifteen years.

 

[Archtkd]

Our dojang has the following

White -- 9th Geup
Yellow -- 8th Geup
Orange -- 7th Geup
Green -- 6th Geup
Blue -- 5th Geup
Purple -- 4th Geup
Brown -- 3rd Geup
Red -- 2nd Geup
Red-Black -- 1st Geup
Black -- 1st Dan

 

[puunui]

Please correct me if I am wrong Terry, but officially KKW does not care anything about any color belt other than Black as there is no mention of any other belt color that I can find on the KKW website.

The new Kukkiwon Textbook lays out a belt curriculum from muguep (no guep) to over 7th Dan. The guep curriculum lists techniques to be learned at what level as well as poomsae, when to teach kyorugi, including three and one step sparring, etc. They go over this somewhat at the Kukkiwon Instructor Course, depending on who is teaching the subject.

 

[bluewaveschool]

There was an early film made by either the WTF or Kukkiwon from the mid 70's which showed the belt colors as white, yellow, green, blue, red and black, in that order.

The original belt colors of the Chung Do Kwan was white, red and black, which were the original belt colors used at the Shotokan. The Shotokan used white and red because the country at the time when GM Lee was studying was highly nationalistic and in WWII mode, white and red being the colors of the Japanese flag. Brown was later substituted for red by the Shotokan after WWII.

When GM Lee moved back to Korea he used the same color belt system as the Shotokan. In fact, the original Chung Do Kwan curriculum was exactly what GM Lee learned at the Shotokan from his main teacher FUNAKOSHI Yoshitaka Sensei. When you add the blue from the name Chung Do Kwan to the belt colors, you end up with the colors on the Korean flag.

Students would start off as 8th Guep White Belts and then get double promoted to 6th Guep White in six months, then 4th Guep Red Belt in another six months, and so forth. You could make it to 1st Dan at the Chung Do Kwan under GM Lee in two years. One more year, and you would be eligible for 2nd Dan promotion. I have a copy of the original Chung Do Kwan bylaws and it lays everything out, including time in grade promotions up to the rank of 7th Dan, which was the highest back then. Under GM Lee, you could go from 8th Guep white belt to 7th Dan black belt in fifteen years.

I would love to see a copy of the bylaws, if you have them in any electronic form and were willing to share them. We are re-molding our school, I have started moving my thinking towards some of the older things I've read, and moving away from complicated SD towards a 1 strike mindset.

 

[puunui]

I would love to see a copy of the bylaws, if you have them in any electronic form and were willing to share them.

I don't know if it would do you any good. It is written in Korean in GM Lee's handwriting. I have all of GM LEE Won Kuk's photographs as well, including pictures of every belt test from the 1940's, and some while GM Lee was teaching in Japan. There are also pictures of GM Lee wearing a dobok teaching class at the Chung Do Kwan when it was located at the Si Chun Church, which I haven't seen out there. I even have a scan of GM Lee's ITF certificate appointing him as I think senior advisor to the ITF. I want to say that Dr. Dong Ja YANG got that for him. It isn't something that GM Lee would seek out himself. I also have the handwritten report that was sent to him when they transferred the Kwan Jang position from GM SON Duk Sung to GM UHM Woon Kyu. GM Lee used to say that I was like his grandson and he pretty much gave me access to everything. I still keep in touch with his son, who studied shotokan karate when they moved back to japan in 1950. That level of practitioner I find I have no problems with, ever.

 

[bluewaveschool]

I don't know if it would do you any good. It is written in Korean in GM Lee's handwriting. I have all of GM LEE Won Kuk's photographs as well, including pictures of every belt test from the 1940's, and some while GM Lee was teaching in Japan. There are also pictures of GM Lee wearing a dobok teaching class at the Chung Do Kwan when it was located at the Si Chun Church, which I haven't seen out there. I even have a scan of GM Lee's ITF certificate appointing him as I think senior advisor to the ITF. I want to say that Dr. Dong Ja YANG got that for him. It isn't something that GM Lee would seek out himself. I also have the handwritten report that was sent to him when they transferred the Kwan Jang position from GM SON Duk Sung to GM UHM Woon Kyu. GM Lee used to say that I was like his grandson and he pretty much gave me access to everything. I still keep in touch with his son, who studied shotokan karate when they moved back to japan in 1950. That level of practitioner I find I have no problems with, ever.

Well, I can't read Korean, so I suppose that is pretty much out. My interest comes from it being passed down from each generation of instructor to the next in my school that our lineage is CDK, but we do the ITF form set. The best educated guess I can make is from a very old packet from the mid 80s that is an ATA packet, has Chun Do Kwan written on the top of it. That perhaps the guy that started the class was a student of one of the many CDK guys Gen. Choi recruited to the ITF and sent out, or maybe because the ATA was first founded by a CDK master that did the Chang Hon forms. We don't know the name of the man that founded the class. I can't ask my instructors, one has passed away, the other went active in the Air Force and hasn't been seen for a decade. So I'm interested in any of the older pictures/books I can look at, to see the old ways. Right now all I have is some of GM Hee Il Cho's books from the 80s, and a digital copy of some of Gen. Choi's Encyclopedia of TKD. I have asked and hopefully will be receiving GM SON Duk Sung's book 'Korean Karate' for christmas. Some of the other instructors in my school have picked up some BJJ, Muay Thai, Hapkido and gotten into pressure points. I'm more interested in what was taught back in the old days, by the first GMs, and seeing how it differs from what I was taught and merge that into what I teach today. From the Gen Choi SD stuff I've seen, a lot of things I hadn't seen/thought of before. A bit more violent than what we learned, but I also really liked it.

 

[bluewaveschool]

I should also add that I'd love to meet that level of practitioner some day. I know there are a few guys on here than have been in it for a VERY long time. My little corner of the US supposedly has a 7th dan, a 4th dan that I get several of his students, and a 4th dan that I work out with on occasion.