Why don't you ever mention belts or colors?

I refrain from associating belts and/or color ranks with particular patterns because there are as many different systems as there are schools and instructors. Some schools have 10 kups (color ranks) while others only have 9, and once we begin talking about particular colors,... well, there are countless permutations of what was once, in ancient days, a purley black and white rank structure.

The only constant would be to learn and master the forms in the order they are listed on this site. If you are studying the WTF patterns, you would learn the Taegeuk and/or Palgue in chronological order before beginning your excursions into Koryo and those that follow. Most WTF schools require you to learn the eight Taegeuk (or Palgue) and the black belt pattern Koryo before testing for 1st dan. Then, each of the remaining WTF patterns coincides with the next degree of black belt, so that eventually one finishes by studying Ilyo for his 9th degree promotion test.

If you are at an ITF school, they require you to master patterns Chon-Ji through Chung-Mu for advancement to 1st dan. You would then study the next three patterns for each of the next degrees of black belt. (i.e. You would study the final three patterns, So-san, Se-jong, and Tong-il for advancement to 6th degree black.) After 6th dan, there are no new patterns to be learned.

This is only what seems to be typical of said schools, and is not a definite. For instance, at my first school there were 10 kup ranks, and one had to learn patterns Chon-Ji through Po-Eun in order to test for black. (You learned patterns Tan-Gun and To-San together at the same grade.) I have never since seen any school that practices this particular system. I am very fond of this method and think it quite natural, but realize it is not the traditional ITF system.

My point, of course, is that all schools practice TKD a bit differently from one another. If I were to associate color ranks with particular patterns, this would only serve to confuse the gross majority of users because my system would, 9 times out of 10, NOT coincide with their system. In closing, here are two very different examples of ranking systems from the two schools where I spent the majority of my time:


Rank/Grade		Color of belt (school 1)	Color of belt (school 2)
__________		_________________________	_________________________

10th kup			White				White

9th kup				Orange			White w/ yellow stripe

8th kup				Green				Yellow

7th kup			Green w/ one stripe			Orange

6th kup				Blue				Light Blue

5th kup			Blue w/ one stripe			Green

4th kup				Brown				Brown

3rd kup			Brown w/ two black stripe	Brown w/ one red stripe

2nd kup			Brown w/ three black stripes		Red

1st kup			Brown w/ four black stripes		Navy Blue