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Belts actually do not determine whether a student is skillful or not. What it does represent is the amount of information
the student is familiar with. Each belt level holds specific requirements and expectations. As you begin your
journey from white belt to black belt, the colored belt system serves as a marker that signifies a milestone in your training.
It is used to help explain the concept of goal acheivement. Becoming a Black Belt is a long term goal. The colored
belts are a set of short term goals placed in order to help achieve the long term goal. Each belt test is similar to
a checks and balances system. All tests should serve to show what you know and are capable of doing, and, at the same
time, give a view of what each student needs to work on to achieve their long term goal. Almost like looking at a map
and seeing where you started, where you are, and where you need to go.
The Belt Ranking System is based on six colors: White, Orange, Green, Blue, Red, and Black. Each color stage also
has a black stripe level which reinforces the students progression toward becoming a Black Belt. The reason for these
colors is based on the historical development of Tang Soo Do. When Korean Martial Arts were beginning to be cultivated,
an aristocratic society of young men arose calling themselves the Hwa Rang Dan, or the Um/Yang Kwon Buddhist Monks. This
class was immersed in the cultural study of poetry, literature, art, plants, dance, and self-defense. They
felt that by cultivating their body, mind, and spirit through training and study, any student would develop into the best
person they could. At the peak of a plant's maturity and life cycle, it develops flowers. This symbolizes beauty,
identity, and accomplishment. This is the reason the members of this class chose the name Hwa Rang Do.
It means "the way of the flowering manhood," and serves as a parable for its philosophies developed within. The
colors of the belt system represent the life cycle of a plant as it begins as a seed in late winter to its
growth and development on through to its full maturity and death.
- White Belt: This stage represents the unidentified seed as it lays dormant under the winter snow.
It is symbolic of the new student who first begins instruction because they are without form, without shape, with regard to
the martial arts.
- Orange Belt: This stage represents the sunshine the seed receives as nourishment while it lies
dormant beneath the soil in early spring. It symbolizes the new student as they begin to progress by learning some of
the basics they need to move forward in becoming a martial artist.
- Green Belt: This stage symbolizes the very beginning of growth as the seed begins to sprout
up through the soil in mid spring. It shows how the student has become a little skillful with their basic techniques
and begins to look like a martial artist.
- Blue Belt: This stage symbolizes the continued growth of the plant as it begins to reach maturity
in late spring/ early summer. It represents the student who has pushed through the early development and is able to
use his or her basic skills for more advanced techniques.
- Red Belt: This stage represents the plant as it is about to reach its maturity, mid summer.
The plant has its flower buds, but they have not fully opened yet. It shows how the student has acquired all the basic
skills he or she needs to become a black belt, but still needs to work on their development.
- Half Red/ Half Black (Cho Dan Bo) Belt: This stage represents the fully mature plant as it is in
full bloom in late summer. It symbolizes the student who has progressed through all of the ranks and is capable of performing
the basic techniques skillfully with balance, poise, and power. Just as the fully matured plant is now identifiable
and has taken shape of what it was meant to become, so to does the student become identifiable as his or her skills have taken
shape.
- Black Belt: This stage of the life cycle of a plant represents its death. When a plant dies,
its seeds are spread out through germination so that other flowers may grow the next spring. It symbolizes that as a
black belt has matured into a skillful martial artist, the student must then give back what he or she may have learned to
the students around them. It is how the martial arts had developed and been passed from one generation to the next.
The Ranking System is also numbered symbollically to represent a progressional shift from one way to another. When
a student first begins Martial Arts training, they know almost nothing of the martial arts, except for what they may have
read, seen or heard, but no first hand knowledge. In essence they know perfectly nothing about what they are
going to learn. As they progress they begin to slowly move away from that and closer to knowing all that they need to
know in order to be a black belt. As a student reaches black belt, his or her process begins again because their goal
is now to study what they have learned and figure out the applications to their basic skills. It is similar to learning
a new language. Basic techniques are like words. Combinations are like phrases. Forms are like books. Once
a student learns the basic words, they can then learn to use phrases until they become fluent in the language. Once
you become fluent in a language, you can then read books and discover what the author is trying to tell you. With Martial
Arts it is the same. Once you are able to do basic skills, you have to study and train them to learn exactly what you
are doing and how it can be used. The number system is as follows, gup represents colored belt and dan represents black
belt.
- 10th gup: New student, no belt.
- 9th gup: White Belt
- 8th gup: Orange Belt
- 7th gup: Orange Belt with a black stripe
- 6th gup: Green Belt
- 5th gup: Green Belt with a black stripe
- 4th gup: Blue Belt
- 3rd gup: Blue Belt with a black stripe
- 2nd gup: Red Belt
- 1st gup: Red Belt with a black stripe
- 0 gup: Cho dan Bo (Half Black, Half Red)
- 1st Dan: Black Belt with one red stripe
- 2nd Dan: Black Belt with two red stripes
- 3rd Dan: Black Belt with three red stripes
- 4th Dan: Black Belt with a red stripe through the middle
- 5th Dan: Same
- 6th Dan: Black Belt with two red stripes through the middle
- 7th Dan: Same
- 8th Dan: One side Black, the other side white and red blocks
- 9th Dan: One side Black, the other side black and red blocks
There is no 10th Dan. 10th Dan would symbolize perfection, which there is no such thing as perfection when you are
a martial artist. Everything, no matter how good you are at it, can be improved upon. Excellence is not a goal,
but rather a constant pursuit.
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