Belt Grading

[monkeygirl]

The norm at my old school was 3-4 years (I got mine in about 2.5 because I was there 5 nights a week teaching (20 hours a week normally, 35 hours for two weeks in the summer due to a morning summer camp).

 

However, there are sooo many different federations and substyles and schools of TKD that are all different from each other, and not everyone belongs to a federation. Those who belong to a federation like ITF and WTF still have a lot of creative freedom, so even within federations you'll have huge differences. It's almost gotten to the point where "Tae Kwon Do" is as broad of a term as "Karate"! Maybe we need to start breaking it up into "Goju-Ryu", etc.

 

Anyway, my point is: because of these differences, you probably won't find an "official" ANYTHING for TKD as a whole. The best you can hope for is the official word from a strict federation. By strict, I mean a federation that has their instructors re-certify with them every few years so that they can be updated on the curriculum. Every school is uniform and demands excellence. At the risk of bringing up everyone's favorite label, these strict federations are sort of like a fast-food chain where every store has to follow menu and health regulations. If the menu and health regulations are excellent, more power to them!

 

OK so I got a little off-topic (what else is new), but hopefully you get my point. TKD can be really really frustrating for someone who's trying to find general info about the style.

[Thruhiker]

I would have to say that it all depends on your ability to complete your requirements needed for your next belt. Being proficient at forms, one-steps, take downs, etc. are very important to making your next belt.

 

Also the amount of time you spend in class is a big determining factor. The person that spends hours upon hours a week in the dojo will earn their belt faster than a person that spends a couple hours a week at the dojo.

 

On the norm I would say any where from 3-5 yrs you should be a black belt barring any injuries.

[karatekid1975]

Same here. My school isn't straight TKD. Now that I'm an assistant instructor (I get private lessons as well as regular classes, and my instructor is "hard core" with lessons), I'm being advanced faster. BUT that doesn't mean I'll test when I'm asked to (I'm picky LOL). It took me 3 years to get my brown belt (3rd gup), once because of moving, the rest cause I wasn't ready (or so I thought).

[mookie]

i found that it all depends on how much the teacher is making this month. for my style, the testing money went directly to the instructor. that ends up in having a bunch of brown belts that dont know what they are doing and have no business wearing brown belts.

[three60roundhouse]

What do you mean by "testing money"? At our school we don't pay to test.

[mookie]

ok. in KSW, we had to pay to test for our belts and stripes.

[John G]

Assuming you are ITF, on average around 520 to 560 hours training from white belt to black.

 

So if you train once a week for 1.5 hours it could take you 6.7 years, if you train 3 times a week at 1.5 hours/session it will take you around 2.2 years.

 

This doesn't mean that if you train 4 hrs a day 6 days a week that you will get your black belt in 6 months, as I think the minimum duration is 1.5 years.

 

These are only approximations as there are many other factors which will determine the duration between white belt to black belt.

 

..

[mskickerusa]

for me, it was a month or 2 for white thru orange belts and then 3-5 months until blue belt. I had my blue, and brown belts for a year each. i had my red belt for 16 months before i got my deputy black belt.

[karatekid1975]

What do you mean by "testing money"? At our school we don't pay to test.

 

Same here. We don't pay anything for tests until BB.

[MichiganTKD]

We hold testings every two months. This does not mean everyone tests every two months, testing is by Instructor recommendation. So some students miss tests because they are not ready. On average, it takes our students about 2 years to make black belt. We do not have provisional or "Poom" belts. When a student is ready, as long as they can do everything required of them to the judges' satisfaction, they can test for black belt. The only restrictions we put on black belt testing are age and length of time requirements between testings. This is per Kukkiwon requirements. Our belt system is: white, yellow, yellow-green, low green/high green, low blue/high blue, low red/high red, black.

 

Our Instructor used to tell us that earning a black belt in less than two years was no good, but taking too long was no good either.