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Taekwondo's Belts

Belts point out the degree of maturity and the skill level reached by an apprentice of martial art.

Belt colors are 6 (white, yellow, green, blue, red and black) but the grades (Kup) that brings from the white belt to the black one are 10 (from X to I) because all the belts from the white to the red distinguish between upper and lower grades.

When the black belt is reached, Kups are called Dan. Dans are 9 and are ordered from I to IX.
Reaching a superior Kup depends on the knowledge of the Pooms Se or forms while the passages of Dan depend above all on the practice acquired in the execution of the Dan Grade Poomse.

Contrarily to what is thought, belts in martial arts have been introduced in an enough recent period. On the web site www.barrel.net/belts-exams.html we discover that the first one to use them was Jigoro Kano, the inventor of Judo, in 1883. He had, in fact, the necessity to distinguish his two senior students, Saito and Tomita from the other apprentices.

Before then, in most martial arts, didn't exist a real uniform to distinguish between kup/dan ranking system.
In Japan, for example, the apprentices were usual to train in Kimono or even with everyday clothes.

Tae Kwon Do 6 Belts

White belt represents innocence, naivety of the neophyte. X and IX Kup.

Yellow belt represents the mother-earth where the plant develops its roots. The apprentice starts to take roots in Tae Kwon Do. VIII and VII Kup.

Green belt represents the bud of the plant. The martial art begins to develop in the spirit of the apprentice. VI and V Kup.

Blue belt represents the development of the plant which grows toward the sky. The Tae Kwon Do became an important part in the life of the apprentice. IV and III Kup.

Red belt represents the sunset. The red belt indicates also danger: the apprentice knows techniques that can cause serious damages to the adversaries. II and I Kups.

Black belt represents the night. The fear is distant, and so the temptations and the evil. It contains all the colors of the other belts. I Dan.

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