Black Belt Degrees Explained: What 1st Dan Through 9th Dan Actually Mean

Most people assume a black belt is the end of the ladder. In Taekwondo it is closer to the bottom of a second, much longer one.

Above black belt sit the Dan ranks, numbered first through ninth. Understanding them explains a lot about how martial arts schools actually work, and it tells you something useful about whoever is teaching your class.

Dan and Gup

Before black belt, students hold Gup (sometimes written kup) ranks, which count downward — a 1st Gup is the most senior coloured belt, immediately below black.

At black belt the counting flips and goes upward, from 1st Dan to 9th Dan. So the numbers getting bigger always means getting more senior, it is just that the direction reverses at black belt. This catches almost every beginner out.

What children hold instead

Here is a detail most parents have never been told: in Kukkiwon and World Taekwondo schools, students under 15 are awarded Poom ranks, not Dan ranks.

A child who passes the black belt test holds 1st Poom. The belt is often half red and half black rather than solid black. When they turn 15, the Poom rank converts to the equivalent Dan.

This is not a lesser achievement, and it is not a consolation prize. It recognises something sensible — that the physical and personal maturity expected of an adult black belt is genuinely different, and that a nine-year-old and a twenty-nine-year-old should not be measured against the same standard.

The waiting periods

This is the part that surprises people most. The gaps between Dan ranks are long, and they get longer.

The most widely used rule is that the wait in years equals the rank you are testing for. So a 1st Dan waits roughly two years before testing for 2nd Dan, a 2nd Dan waits three years before 3rd, and so on.

Follow that arithmetic and 9th Dan sits somewhere around four decades of continuous practice after first earning a black belt.

An honest caveat: the exact minimums vary by organisation, and published figures genuinely conflict. Some bodies use shorter waits at the lower Dans, and many attach minimum ages as well as minimum times. Anyone quoting you one universal table is oversimplifying. The pattern of lengthening intervals, though, is consistent everywhere.

Roughly what each tier means

Groupings differ between organisations, but the general shape is this:

• 1st to 3rd Dan. A trained practitioner with sound fundamentals. Often permitted to assist in teaching. Competent, still developing.
• 4th to 6th Dan. The instructor and expert tier. This is where teaching, not just performing, becomes the expectation. Earning 4th Dan is a serious milestone and typically takes well over a decade.
• 7th to 9th Dan. Master and grandmaster ranks, usually carrying minimum age requirements as well as time. At this level, promotion rests on contribution to the art — students developed, organisations served, decades given — not on how high you can still kick.

A 10th Dan, where it exists at all, is generally honorary.

Why this is worth knowing before you choose a school

Because rank tells you what a school can actually teach you.

A school led by a 2nd Dan is not necessarily a bad school. But there is a real difference between learning from someone twelve years into their practice and learning from someone fifty years into it, and that difference compounds as you advance. The question worth asking is not only "is the instructor a black belt" but "how far ahead of me are they, and will they still be ahead of me in five years?"

It also sets expectations honestly. Earning a first black belt typically takes three to five years of consistent training — and that is the beginning of the Dan ladder, not the top of it.

If you want the coloured-belt side of the system first, the belt order and what each colour means is here.

Train under an 8th Dan

Grand Master Jong Yeon Hwang holds 8th Dan in Hapkido, which places him in the master tier — reached through decades of practice, teaching and service, not through a single test.

He trained at the Korea Hapkido Headquarters Dojang in 1971, under the founding grand masters of the art. He won gold at the 10th Wushu World Cup in Milan in 2005. He was decorated by the U.S. Army's 728th Military Police Battalion for training American and Korean soldiers, and received the President's Volunteer Service Award (Gold) at the White House in 2023.

He also still corrects stances personally, in ordinary classes.

Your first class is free, with no contract, and new students receive a free uniform and white belt. Call (408) 243-1001.

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