i was reading the articles about grading on the Kukkiwon website but i couldn't find how much time should pass between your grading for the last colored belt and your black belt grading. i would like to hear the opinion of the people who train WTF.
The Kukkiwon has no official stance about time between 1st gup to 1st dan, just like they have no official stance on anything pre-1st dan. It's left up to the Instructors to decide.
"hmm, can you support it with an article online?" Nope, thats why I said always thought. Due to moving around the country for work I have had the pleasure of going from white to 1st gup bo black 4 times. Under some top rated Masters as well. Just going by my more than average almost expertise experience in this case. Even in these cases there were folks ready in 4 months so its not in stone. Again just what I have seen in the 20 years of practicing. 2-3 months per gup. 6 months last gup to dan. Dan ranks should match years 4th dan= 4 years. Of course this complicates the sudden deluge of 7th dans. Cheers, Dave O.
From the Kukkiwon website, time limits for Dan gradings: http://www.kukkiwon.or.kr/english/examination/examination08.jsp?div=01#08 There's nothing anywhere on the site about gup ranks.
i've already seen that, but does that mean that one can test for the black belt 2 months after getting 1st gup, or 6 months, or 9 months....?
Speaking only for our school, we test every 3 months up to Red/Double tip. Kids have to weight 1 year before they are able to test for first Poom and Adults, 6 months.
LamaTKD is correct. As long as I know the proper curriculum, if I start class today, I can theoretically test for 1st Dan tomorrow.
no, she is not completely right. i checked with two federations (two countries) and one year has to pass between 1 gup and 1 dan
Its always been 6 months between 1st kup and taking your Black Belt grading in the associations I have been with.
You asked particularly about the Kukkiwon itself (or so I thought), and as far as they are concerned, there's no regulation for any of the gup levels - not even a set curriculum or belt coloring set. Federations under the Kukkiwon, however, have the authority to add additional regulations as they choose, within their sphere of influence.
I don't know for sure. I have never seen anything in writing from Kukkiwon (books or online) that mention a "time in grade" from 1st geup to 1st dan. As a school that offers Kukkiwon certification, we've never been required to "prove" time in grade for recommended promotion to 1st dan either. As a student who tested for 1st and 2nd dan in Korea I was never aware of any minimum time between 1st geup and 1st dan (in fact I know some military groups and some schools that will go from white belt to 1st dan in a year). In my opinion, as a school we generally offer the opportunity of testing very 2-3 months and for a student who attends regularly and makes good progress, they can earn their 1st geup in 2.5 to 3 years generally. From 1st geup to 1st dan our school has a minimum wait time of 6 months. After 6 months we may hold a pre-test (closed testing, longer and more in depth than the formal dan test) to evaluate their progress. If they look "great" then we schedule a formal dan test. So, long story short, we enforce a wait time of "at least" 6 months between 1st geup and 1st dan... although we've never been informed by Kukkiwon of any such regulations.
I've always known it to be a 6 month minimum wait between 1st gup and 1st Dan. I'm sure I remember reading this as a suggested guidline on the Kukkiwon site back when it was in its old layout (the white one with the image of the archway at the top), and a minimum of 3 months between other gup ranks. I could be hideously wrong on this though, so don't hold me to it, but its what I believe.
