The colors of the belts and number of stripes are indicative of both a student’s time in training and skill level. Throughout your training, you will progress through 6 different belt colors before becoming eligible to test for Black Belt. Each level color also has black stripes for progress checks and colored stripes (up to two per belt) to designate how many quarterly stripe tests the student has passed.
Each of the levels above has its own set of curriculum that is taught and which will be expected that the student knows and can perform to test for the next level. Each colored belt level should take an average student at least 9 months to complete. After reaching black belt level, the time increases – we will explain this to you when you get there. In the meantime, every three months we have a quarterly progress check where, if passed, a student would receive a stripe on the tip of their belt. A maximum of 2 stripes would be given — the first after 3 months and the second after 6 months. When a student has two stripes and has completed 9 months in a level, they would be eligible to test for the next level. Eligibility to test does not guarantee that a student will pass or move up. If a student fails a test, they would remain in their current level (giving them time to practice more) until the next testing, where they could try again.