Originally, the TKD system of rank consisted of four belts: white, blue, brown (later changed to red) and black. The current ITF system, which we use in ULTKD, has 10 kup (or student) grades, each marked by a different belt, and counting downwards from 10th kup to 1st kup. The colours used, in order, are white, yellow, green, blue, and red, with the belts in between each colour marked with the next colour up, either by a tag at each end or a stripe running along the middle of the entire length. These are alternative methods, and are equivalent to each other, e.g.:

10th Kup:	9th Kup:	8th Kup:	7th Kup:	6th Kup:	Etc.

Some clubs have more sub-sets for kup grades, particularly for smaller children where lack of attention span can be an issue. Some organisations use more colours instead of the tags, for example something like white, yellow, orange, green, purple, blue, low brown, high brown, low red & high red.

Above the kup grades are the dan grades, signified by a black belt. There are 9 dan grades in total, counting upwards from 1st to 9th. The correct term for these is in the form nth degree (also written as n°) or nth dan. The holder is addressed as e.g. Mr. Derbyshire, 3rd Degree or Mr. Derbyshire, 3rd Dan, or if using the Korean form, Mr. Derbyshire, Sam Dan (see ‘Counting in Korean’ for more of these). The belts themselves are marked with the appropriate number of stripes, in yellow or gold thread, or with the equivalent Roman numeral, eg:

1° (il dan)	2° (i dan)	3° (sam dan)	4° (sa dan)	5° (oh dan)

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One further variation mentioned by General Choi, but rarely seen in practice, is a black belt with a white stripe along the middle, used to signify a junior dan grade (under 16 years of age).