Originally, the TKD system of rank consisted of four belts: white, blue, brown (later changed to red) and black.
The current colours used in the ITF system, in order, are white, yellow, green, blue, and red, with the belts in between each colour marked with the next colour up, either by a tag at each end or a stripe running along the middle of the entire length. These are alternative methods, and are equivalent to each other, e.g.:
10th Kup: | 9th Kup: | 8th Kup: | 7th Kup: | 6th Kup: | Etc. |
Some clubs have different set-ups for kup grades, particularly for smaller children where lack of attention span can be an issue. Some organisations also use more colours instead of the tags, for example white, yellow, orange, green, purple, blue, low brown, high brown, low red & high red.
Students reaching dan grade are awarded a black belt marked with the appropriate grade as a Roman numeral in gold or yellow thread, and usually with the student's name; Taekwon-Do in English or Korean; the name of the school or organisation; and sometimes other decorations.
1° (il dan) | 2° (i dan) | 3° (sam dan) | 4° (sah dan) | 5° (oh dan) |
6° (yuk dan) | 7° (chil dan) | 8° (pal dan) | 9° (goo dan) |
Some organisations still use the older system of marking dan grades with the appropriate number of stripes at the tip of one or both ends of the belt: | ||||
One further variation mentioned by General Choi, but rarely seen in practice, is a black belt with a white stripe along the middle, used to signify a junior or cadet dan grade (under 16 years of age):