What is the order of the belts for tae kwon do?
Belt order varies by school and is somewhat flexible, in my experience. The usual groupings are as follows: White (almost always where you begin) Orange/Yellow/Gold Green/Purple/Blue Red/Brown Black There are pink belts, and camoflauge belts, but these are non-traditional, and can fit in almost anywhere in the system. Each belt other than black can potentially have either a black or colored stripe in it to denote a higher rank. Black belts get stripes or numbers on them, to denote higher dan ranks. Once in a while, a school will vary those ranking groupings, and if you need to find out how skillful someone is, your best bet is to ask how long they have been training, not the color of their belt.
To clarify a lot of bad (and some good) information. There is no standard for color belts. The only standard is for black and above. ITF and WTF both have boards (in Korea) that decide the qualifications for the different degrees (Dans) of black belt. There is an old story, but I am not sure if it is true, that in ancient martial arts there were no belts. You were given a white belt when you started and you kept that belt as you progressed. The other students would know how advanced you were by how dark (dirty, sweaty) your belt had become. An earlier commenter (Skip115) referred to his master of Korean martial arts as his Sensei. Sensei is a Japanese (Karate) term. It is Sabum Nim in Korean. He also stated that his Sensei holds 6th degree BB in both TKD and KungFu. Although it is possible to be a master of both, KungFu does not have “degrees” of black belt. There is a lot of bad information about the martial arts on the internet. You are correct to investigate the martial arts you put
White Requirements 11 Kub White – Signifies innocence, as that of a beginning student who has no previous knowledge of Tae Kwon-Do. Advanced White Requirements Junior Yellow Requirements: 10 Kub Yellow – Signifies Earth, from which a plant sprouts and takes root as the Tae Kwon-Do foundation is being laid. Advanced Junior Yellow Requirements Yellow Requirements: 9 Kub Advanced Yellow Requirements Junior Green Requirements: 8 Kub Green – Signifies the plant’s growth as the Tae Kwon-Do skill begins to develop. Advanced Junior Green Requirements Green Requirements: 7 Kub Junior Blue Requirements: 6 Kub Blue – Signifies the Heaven towards which the plant matures into a towering tree as training in Tae Kwon-Do progresses. Advanced Junior Blue Requirements Blue Requirements: 5 Kub -Advanced Blue Junior Red: 4 Kub Red Requirements: -3 Kub Advanced Red I Requirements -2 Kub Advanced Red II Requirements -1 Kub Black: Requirements- 1st Dan to 9th Dan Black – Opposite of white, therefore, signify
the order depends of the school: “Taekwondo ranks are separated into “junior” and “senior” or “student” and “instructor” sections. The junior section typically consists of ten ranks indicated by the Korean word geup 급 (also Romanized as gup or kup). The junior ranks are usually identified by belts of various colors, depending on the school, so these ranks are sometimes called “color belts”. Geup rank may be indicated by stripes on belts rather than by colored belts. Students begin at tenth geup (usually indicated by a white belt) and advance toward first geup (usually indicated by a red belt with a black stripe as 1st Guep). The senior section is made up of nine full ranks of black belt along with an honorary tenth degree which you can be voted by a group of other senior instructors and the grand master. These ranks are called dan 단, also referred to as “black belts” and “degrees” (as in “third dan” or “third-degree black belt”). Black belts begin at first degree and advance to second,
