Taekwondo ranks explained: every level from first stripe to 9th dan

A Taekwondo rank is really three ladders stacked on top of each other. At the bottom are the small steps a school gives out between tests, usually stripes of tape on the belt. In the middle are the ten color-belt ranks, called geup, which take a student from their first day to the edge of black belt. At the top are the black belt degrees, called poom for children and dan for everyone 15 and over, which go all the way to 9th dan and take a lifetime.

Most confusion comes from mixing those ladders up. A parent hears “she’s going for her third stripe”, “he’s 4th geup” and “the master is 7th dan” in the same week, and none of it is explained on the wall chart. This page lays out the whole hierarchy in order, with what each level means and, for black belt ranks, the official minimum ages and waiting times set by the Kukkiwon, the World Taekwondo headquarters in Seoul.

The whole ladder at a glance

Level	What it is	Who decides it	Roughly how long
Stripes (tips)	Small steps inside one color, marked with tape	Your school	Weeks
10th to 1st geup	The color belts, white up to red or red-black	Your school	2.5 to 4 years in total
1st to 4th poom	Black belt degrees for under-15s	Kukkiwon certificate	Years, by age rules
1st to 9th dan	Black belt degrees from 15 up	Kukkiwon certificate	A lifetime

The key thing for parents is the third column. Everything below black belt belongs to your school, which is why two dojangs can use different colors and stripes. From black belt up, rank is registered with the Kukkiwon and comes with a certificate that is recognized in any Kukkiwon-affiliated school in the world.

Level 1: stripes inside each color

Most American schools test for a new color every two to four months, and that is a long time for a seven-year-old to wait for a reward. Stripes fill the gap. A stripe is a short band of colored tape, or sometimes stitching, wrapped near the end of the belt, and each one marks a piece of the next test that the student has already mastered.

A typical system gives three or four stripes per belt. One might be for learning the new form, one for the required kicks or self-defense moves, one for Korean terms and etiquette, and one for attendance or attitude. When the belt has every stripe, the student is invited to test. The colors of the tape often match: a black stripe for the form, a red stripe for sparring, and so on.

None of this is standardized, so the best question to ask is simply “what is each stripe for?” Instructors are usually glad to explain, and knowing the answer turns stripes into a checklist your child can work through at home. Our guide to belt stripes covers the common systems in more detail.

Level 2: the ten geup ranks

Geup (급) are the ten color-belt ranks, and they count down. A brand-new student is 10th geup, and the last rank before the black belt test is 1st geup. Schools decide which color goes with which number. In a six-color school, most colors cover two geup ranks, with a stripe or a second test marking the halfway point. In a nine-color school, which is the most common setup in the United States, it looks more like this:

Geup	Common US color	Form usually learned at this belt
10th	White	Basics, then Taegeuk Il Jang
9th	Yellow	Taegeuk Ee Jang
8th	Orange	Taegeuk Sam Jang
7th	Green	Taegeuk Sa Jang
6th	Purple	Taegeuk Oh Jang
5th	Blue	Taegeuk Yuk Jang
4th	Brown	Taegeuk Chil Jang
3rd	Red	Taegeuk Pal Jang
2nd	Red with one black stripe	Review of all eight forms
1st	Red-black, or “black stripe”	Black belt preparation

Treat that table as a typical example rather than a rule. Some schools add camouflage or gray, some put brown before blue, and many split red into two or three stages because the jump to black belt is the hardest one. Your school’s curriculum sheet will tell you which color is which geup, and once you know that, any chart online starts to make sense.

Each color has its own page on this site covering what it symbolizes, the attitude instructors look for and what is usually on its test: white, yellow, orange, green, purple, blue, brown, red and black.

Level 3: poom, the black belt for children

When a child under 15 passes the black belt test, they earn a poom (품) rather than a dan. A poom is a real black belt rank. The test covers the same material, it is registered with the Kukkiwon in the same way, and the certificate is just as official. The belt is the giveaway: a poom belt is half red and half black along its length.

There are four poom degrees. The Kukkiwon rules set a minimum of one year from 1st to 2nd poom, two years from 2nd to 3rd, and three years from 3rd to 4th. A poom holder can convert to the matching dan once they turn 15, so a 2nd poom becomes a 2nd dan without a new test. A 4th poom converts to 4th dan at 18, after a supplementary course from the Kukkiwon’s World Taekwondo Academy.

The poom system exists because a ten-year-old’s black belt is real skill, but not yet adult maturity. It also comes with a quiet advantage: the Kukkiwon shortens the age limits up to 5th dan for people who started as poom holders, in recognition of the extra years they have trained.

Level 4: the nine dan degrees

From age 15, black belt ranks are dan (단), and they count up from 1st to 9th. The Kukkiwon sets both a minimum time at each degree and a minimum age before you can test for the next one. These are the numbers from its promotion rules:

Promotion	Minimum years at the previous degree	Minimum age (started at dan)	Minimum age (started at poom)
1st dan	none	15	n/a
1st → 2nd dan	1	16	15
2nd → 3rd dan	2	18	15
3rd → 4th dan	3	21	18
4th → 5th dan	4	25	22
5th → 6th dan	5	30	30
6th → 7th dan	6	36	36
7th → 8th dan	8	44	44
8th → 9th dan	9	53	53

Add up the middle column and you get 38 years from 1st dan to 9th dan at the fastest possible pace, which is why a 9th dan is always a senior master who has spent most of their life in the art.

Dan ranks also bring new roles in the school. 1st to 3rd dan are often called the “low dan” or junior black belt grades: students who have mastered the basics and start helping in class, and who learn the black belt forms Koryo (2nd dan) and Keumgang (3rd dan). 4th dan is the traditional line for becoming a master. It is the minimum rank for the Kukkiwon’s master instructor course, and in many schools a 4th dan and up is addressed as sabeomnim (사범님), master. 6th dan and above are the high dan grades, and in American schools 7th dan and up is often given the English title grandmaster. The head of a school is called gwanjangnim (관장님), which describes the job of running the dojang rather than a rank.

Where other systems differ

The ladder above follows the Kukkiwon, which governs Olympic-style Taekwondo and is what most schools in Korea and the United States use. ITF schools also use ten geup and nine dan ranks, but they add a stripe halfway through each color as a formal rank and use different patterns. The ATA (American Taekwondo Association) runs its own system with its own colors and a “recommended black belt” stage. If your school is ITF or ATA, the general shape here still applies, but the colors and forms will differ. Our comparison of Taegeuk, Palgwe and ITF patterns explains the split.

How to use this as a parent

The quickest way to make sense of your child’s place on the ladder is to find out three things: which geup their current belt is, how many stripes the school gives per belt, and roughly how long the school expects each belt to take. With those three answers you can predict the next year of training, set realistic expectations about black belt, and spot if something seems unusually fast or slow. For the full timeline, see how long it takes to get a black belt, and for the colors alone, the belt order guide.