Taekwondo belt order explained: coloured belts, black belt dan and poom grades

One of the first questions new students ask is how the belts work and how long it takes to reach black belt. The honest answer is that coloured belts vary from club to club, while black belt grades follow a more standard system. Here is how it fits together.

Below black belt, grades are called geup (also spelt gup or kup). You start at the highest number and count down towards black belt, so a 10th geup is a complete beginner and a 1st geup is the last step before black belt. There is no single worldwide colour scheme. Many WT/Kukkiwon-style clubs use something like:

Other clubs add orange, purple or brown, or use tags and half-stripes between full colours, so a club might have ten or more coloured stages. ITF-style clubs often use white, yellow, green, blue, red and black with tags in between. The colours themselves mean less than the grade number and the syllabus behind it.

A grading (belt test) usually asks you to show:

Most clubs set a minimum training period between gradings, and an instructor decides when you are ready. A club that lets you test every few weeks regardless of skill is worth questioning.

Once you pass 1st geup you test for 1st dan, the first black belt grade. From there grades count upwards: 1st dan, 2nd dan, 3rd dan and so on up to 9th dan. Each dan has a minimum waiting time and, for higher grades, a minimum age, and the gaps lengthen as you go up. In WT-style taekwondo, dan certificates are issued by the Kukkiwon, the World Taekwondo Headquarters in Seoul, usually applied for through your instructor and national association. A Kukkiwon certificate is recognised by WT-style clubs around the world, which matters if you move country. ITF organisations issue their own black belt certificates. Each Kukkiwon dan grade is linked to a black belt poomsae, beginning with Koryo for 1st dan.

Children cannot hold a Kukkiwon dan grade before the age of 15. Instead they test for poom grades (1st to 4th poom), which correspond to the dan grades and are often shown with a half-red, half-black belt. When a poom holder reaches 15, the poom can be converted to the matching dan. Exact age thresholds and waiting times are set out by the Kukkiwon and applied by national bodies, so check your national association's current guidance rather than relying on a figure from a forum.

It depends on how often you train, your club's syllabus and how quickly you learn. Adults who train regularly often reach 1st dan in a few years, but there is no fixed timetable, and a black belt earned quickly through a light syllabus is not the same achievement as one earned through a demanding one.

Many experienced students say that 1st dan is the point where you finally know the basics well enough to start learning properly. What belt are you working towards, and how does your club's system work? Tell us in the comments.