Good afternoon, everyone! I'm probably going to get nicknamed for the length of my posts someday, but here's another big one... hehe I am very curious to know how everyone's ranking systems were organized and the approximate, if not exact, time in training one should have. Any philosophical meaning behind the ranking you can provide would be interesting too! I'll begin with ours, and perhaps you could follow the same format, if you're not sure how you'd like to present it. System: Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan All stripes are .5" thick, appear on the practitioner's left belt end, the first being two inches from the tip and each stripe after that being .5" away from the next 10th Gup - White Belt 9th Gup - White Belt w/ one blue stripe (Approx. 6 Wks of Training) 8th Gup - Orange Belt (Approx. 3 Months of Training) 7th Gup - Orange Belt w/ one blue stripe (Approx. 6 Months of Training) 6th Gup - Green Belt (Approx. 9 Months of Training) 5th Gup - Green Belt w/ one blue stripe (Approx. 12 Months of Training) 4th Gup - Green Belt w/ two blue stripes (Approx. 15 Months of Training) 3rd Gup - Red Belt (Approx. 18 Months of Training) 2nd Gup - Red Belt w/ one blue stripe (Approx. 24 Months of Training) 1st Gup - Red Belt w/ two blue stripes (Approx. 30 Months of Training) Cho (Beginner) Dan - Midnight Blue Belt (Minimum 42 Months of Training) After Cho Dan, each rank's test is the same number of years apart as the degree you're testing for. 2 Years to Ee Dan, 3 More to Sam Dan, and there is no skipping ranks. Ee (2nd) Dan - Midnight Blue Belt w/ two white stripes Sam (3rd) Dan - Midnight Blue Belt w/ three white stripes Sa (4th) Dan and Higher (Master) - Midnight Blue Belt with a Solid Red line running through the middle for the entire length of the belt. After Sa (4th) Dan ranking, there is no addition of stripes. Our belt color philosophy is this: White belt represents winter, a seaon where all potential is hidden, like the plants that could sprout if the ground were not covered with snow. Orange belt wasn't an official rank until 1975, likely because American practitioners couldn't see being a white belt for 9 months. Green belt represents spring, a season of renewal and liveliness. By this rank, practitioners should be more comfortable with the techniques they've learned. Red belt represents summer, where students should feel fiery and active with everything they posess. The Midnight Blue belt represents Autumn, when it's time to harvest everything you put into the past seasons. Blue is also the color of knowledge, the tranquil sea, or the night sky. Dan members should be knowledgeable but calm and mature. A master's midnight blue belt with the red stripe through the middle represents "Neh Kahng, Weh Yu," or "Inside Strong, Outside Gentle."
10th Gup White 9th Gup Yellow 8th Gup Orange 7th Gup Orange w/ Green Tag 6th Gup Green 5th Gup Green w/ Blue Tag 4th Gup Blue 3th Gup Blue w/ Brown Tag 2th Gup Brown 1th Gup Senior Brown (Brown w/ white stripe) 1st Dan (Midnight Blue w/ white stripe) 2nd Dan (Midnight Blue w/ yellow stripe) 3rd Dan (Midnight Blue w/ green stripe) 4th Dan and beyond (Midnight Blue w/ red stripe) I believe when you reach Black Belt (Midnight Blue) you have 6 months to learn a new black belt form and train for a confirmation test. When you get to the dan belts the colourd stripe signify that your starting your training again (i.e. white, yellow, green, red etc) For tags, we have them on each end of the belt. For the first few belt (approx 10th - 6th Gup) it's about 6 months between gradings, then it starts to speed up to around 4 months per grading, then as your start to reach brown belt it goes back to 6 months per belt again. I think Senior Brown to Black is around 1 year (although not entirely sure exact timings). Not enitrely sure about dan ranking, but i think it's 2 years for 1st to 2nd dan, then 3 years for 2nd to 3rd dan and so on.... Not 100% on that though.
Cool. Would you say that the time in training requirement is approximately the same as I'd described about Soo Bahk Do?
Our system is similar. The Gup belts are a bit different, but the time until 1st Dan and then the system for Dans is the same for us.
10th White Belt 9th Yellow Belt 8th Orange Belt 7th Orange Belt w/ Green Stripe 6th Green Belt --Green Trim on Jacket Front 5th Green Belt w/ Red Stripe --Green Trim on Jacket Front 4th Green Belt w/ Two Red Stripes --Green Trim on Jacket Front 3rd Red Belt --Red Trim on Jacket Front 2nd Red Belt w/ Blue Stripe --Red Trim on Jacket Front 1st Red Belt w/ Two Blue Stripes --Red Trim on Jacket Front Pre-Test Red Belt w/ Three Blue Stripes --Red Trim on Jacket Front Pre-Test Red Belt w/ Four Blue Stripes --Red Trim on Jacket Front 1st Dan --Midnight Blue on Jacket Front and Around Wrists. 2nd Dan w/ Two White Stripes --Midnight Blue on Jacket Front and Around Wrists. 3rd Dan w/ Three White Stripes --Midnight Blue on Jacket Front and Around Wrists. 4th Dan --Midnight Blue With Red Stripe on Jacket Front (except on waist line, no red strip) and Around Wrists. 5th Dan --Midnight Blue With Red Stripe on Jacket Front (except on waist line, no red strip) and Around Wrists. 6th Dan --Midnight Blue With Red Stripe on Jacket Front (except on waist line, no red strip) and Around Wrists. 7th Dan --Midnight Blue With Red Stripe on Jacket Front (except on waist line, no red strip) and Around Wrists. 8th Dan --Midnight Blue With Red Stripe on Jacket Front (Has Red Stripe on waist line) and Around Wrists 3 [2 1/2] months for a color belt Testing Dan Testing: # of Years between ranks equals the next rank (2 years before 2nd Dan, 3 before 3rd, etc) Pre-Testing: Due to the number of defense techniques and forms taught, the last two color belt ranks and a division between dan ranks are tested as a "pretest" to grade you on your knowledge so far before the actual Dan test. The number pre-tests also determines what form you are to learn next. Dan Pretesting: 1st Dan: 1 / 3 months, 5 pretest. 2nd Dan: 1 /6 months, 4 pretests. 3rd Dan; 1 / year, 4 pre tests (they are once / year after)
ours is very similar as above.except there arent any pretest stripes and all blackbelts have black trim on wrists, waistline and front. time increases with grade so its 2months to yellow belt, 2 months to orange, 2 to orange tag. 4 to green, 4 to green tag, 4 to green 2tag, 5 to red, 5 to red tag, 5 to red 2tags. a mimimum of 4years before black belt. our tags are approx 1.5cm thick
Our belt system in the UTF goes something like this (I say "Something" because there's minor deviation from school to school). Anyhow, This is how I do things at my school... Junior system (under 12yrs of age) White White/Yellow stripe (4-6yr olds only, 7yrs and up skip it and test for yellow/white) Yellow/ white stripe Yellow Yellow/green tips Green/White stripe Green Green/blue tips Blue/White stripe Blue Blue/brown tips Brown/white stripe Brown Red/white stripe Red Black/white stripe Solid Black (deputy 1st Dan) Senior system (over 12 yrs of age) White Yellow Yellow/green tips Green Green/blue tips Blue Blue/Brown tips Brown Red/White Stripe Red Black/white stripe Solid black (Deputy 1st Dan) Colored belt testings are held 4 times per year (every three months) The purpose of the added belts in the junior system is to lengthen the amount of time it takes kids to reach 1st dan (7 year old black belts are one of my pet peeves). If a student on the junior system makes every testing on schedule (few actually do) it will take them about 4 years to reach 1st Dan, as opposed to about 3 years for students on the senior system. Children under 12 who show exceptional skill are periodically (at my discretion) allowed to skip the white stripe belts. I am currently attempting to convince the other instructor I teach with (who outranks me) to eliminate the black/white stripe belt (it's 1st gup in our system) and replace it with a Red/Black stripe belt, as I don't think you have any business wearing any form of black belt if you're still a gup.
