Taekwondo belt order

You look up the order of the colours, and you find three different lists. It is not you: there really are several orders, and each one is right within its own frame. Here is the one that applies in France, along with what explains the others.

The short answer

For teenagers and adults, the French Taekwondo Federation's progression runs from white belt to black belt through four colours:

white → yellow → blue → red → black

For children, from the age of 8, the path is the same but cut more finely: fifteen keups represented by eight belt colours, with two-tone belts between each full colour:

white → yellow → yellow-orange → orange → orange-green → green → green-purple → purple → purple-blue → blue → … up to red, then red-black, then black.

The keup (급) is the grade held before black belt. They count down: you start at the highest keup and work towards 1st keup, which comes before 1st dan. Confusing at first, and logical: the counter measures what is left to travel, not what has been earned.

Why your club may not show the same list

Three reasons, and none of them is a mistake.

Taekwondo is not one school. Olympic taekwondo (World Taekwondo, grades issued by the Kukkiwon) and ITF taekwon-do are two distinct disciplines, each with its own syllabus and its own colours. An ITF club will show a different list, and it will be correct there.

The Kukkiwon does not mandate colours for keups. It defines the grades, not their shade. Each national federation — and sometimes each club — settles its own mapping. That is why a list found on an American or Korean site does not describe what the person next to you on the mat is wearing.

The in-between colours are a recent addition. The French federation says so plainly: traditionally five colours were enough; it was masters in the 1970s who introduced the intermediate shades to bring the steps closer together and keep people motivated. So the "yellow-orange" and "purple-blue" belts are teaching devices before they are traditions — which takes nothing away from their usefulness, especially for an eight-year-old being asked to wait a year between two colours.

The detail, age by age

Teenagers and adults

Four colours, and one simple principle for assessment: you are examined on the syllabus of the belt you are wearing, not the one you are aiming for. A white belt taking yellow is examined on the white syllabus; a yellow belt taking blue, on the yellow syllabus. And so on to 1st keup — the red-black belt — which opens onto 1st dan.

The federation publishes a booklet per grade: taking the blue belt, red 3rd keup, red 2nd keup, red 1st keup / black. If your club follows the French progression, those documents are what count — not a list found online.

Children, from the age of 8

The federation holds that at this age — the benjamins category — motor development allows a technical standard close to that of adults. Hence a full syllabus, cut into fifteen steps.

The eight full colours are: white, yellow, orange, green, purple, blue, red, red-black. Between each sits a two-tone belt announcing the next. The 1st dan black belt is reachable from age 14.

Before the age of 8

The Baby Taekwondo programme (3 to 5) does not use keups. It validates motor and behavioural skills — jump and hit a target, hold five seconds on one leg, stay quiet during instructions, tie your own belt — across nine levels named after animals, from the Crane to the Dragon. A booklet replaces the sports passport.

What the belt says, and what it does not

The federation gives a sober definition: the ti — the belt — joins the top and the bottom of the dobok, and indicates technical level and time spent practising. Two things, then, not one. A belt does not read like a score: it also says that you stayed.

The symbolism fits in two sentences: white is birth, black is a fresh start. It is the line that puzzles beginners most, and the truest one — the black belt is not a finish line, it is the grade from which you start counting again, upwards this time: 1st dan, 2nd dan, and onwards.

How long between two belts?

There is no universal answer. The federation publishes the technical content required for each grade, not a calendar: the instructor decides that a student is ready, and the pace depends on sessions per week, on age, and on the grade in view — the first keups follow one another quickly, the last ones take months.

If you want an answer for your own case, the only one worth having is your teacher's. They know the syllabus you have to pass, and they have watched you train.

In practice: which belt to buy, and when

Three simple markers.

Do not buy before you know. The colour you will be handed depends on your club's system. Ask first, not after.

Get the right length. A taekwondo belt is tied in a single turn, and once the knot is made both ends should reach mid-thigh. Too long and it gets in the way of kicks; too short and the knot comes undone. For a child who is growing fast, one size of margin is reasonable — not two.

Keep the old ones. They are no use in class any more, but they are the only material trace of the road travelled. Plenty of practitioners keep them, and no one has ever regretted it.

Our belts (new tab) and doboks (new tab) are in the shop.

Sources

This article draws on the page Passer ses ceintures from the Fédération française de taekwondo et disciplines associées, consulted on 11 September 2026, and on the progression booklets it publishes: https://www.fftda.fr/fr/31-passer-ses-ceintures.html (new tab)

Time between grades, colours specific to a club, and ITF systems do not appear in that source: they are flagged as such in the text.