I almost became a black belt but i had to stop cause of another sport and school work. I did teach classes to younger kids. Generally I usually helped in classes and rarely taught them
OP (original poster): what style TKD are you, WTF, ITF or something else? Do you compete in Poomsae or sparring?
After a dozen years of farting around and doing various martial arts but never grading in any of them, I decided I should commit to learning one (or many) of them, so I picked up WTF TKD. Work is slowing my progress down considerably so I don't intend on grading for 1-dan until at least 2015. Also I started competing in sparring tournaments but again work gets in the way, so I'll come back to it later, but I feel that as far as tkd is concerned sparring is important to sharpen one's technique. One can really tell the difference between the black belts who do spar competitively, and those who don't, by the sharpness of their technique, and their sense of space.
Funnily enough I kept getting busted for using karate stance (because of my prior karate experience), and my opponents get dreadfully confused by my habit of parrying every strike instead of dodging (because of my prior kung fu experience). Which makes me think, a long long time down the track, once I feel I have attained a basic level of competency in TKD, I should probably do the same for karate and kung fu, though I feel those will be much harder than for TKD.
Both. I Took Grand Champion in Weapons, Poomsae and Sparring. Glad u did well hope u get that Belt in 2015 I will be testing also in 2015 for my 3rd dan
The ranking and training one has doesn't necessarily reflect the color belt they wear. Some places have more colors between white and black some have less. Some places you have to earn a white belt, some places will just give it to you flat out. The requirements to go to the next level can be vastly different as well. So in the end finding out what belt a person wears tells you nothing.
I have trained in various martial arts however I never received a "rank" or a "belt" because my training was somewhat unorthodox. If I could say my belt ranking I think it might be a black belt, might be. I am not sure but I do have some sort of high rank.
So in the end finding out what belt a person wears tells you nothing.
In a way yes. Depends on where you come from, especially if you're in an Asian country, or a country which cites a national martial art. In particular, you do not want to mess with a black belt in TKD in Korea (especially not an ITF practicioner), nor would you want to pick a fight with a black belt karateka in Japan. By and large the training and their requirements are hardcore and they don't get a choice between sparring or not, they just do everything.
I find the Australian approach to grading and advancement in TKD to be generally very relaxed (except at the clubs which train international and olympic fighters). Here, all the colour of the belt will tell you is how many forms that person has learnt.
