There Is a Season for Every Belt
As martial artists, we spend a lot of time talking about growth.
We talk about the growth that happens between belt promotions. We talk about the difference between simply knowing a technique and truly understanding it. We talk about patience, perseverance, discipline, and recognizing that nobody walks into the dojang on their first day already knowing the path ahead of them.
But something I have been thinking about recently is that our belts themselves tell that same story.
And, as it turns out, researching that story taught me something too.
First, a Correction From Your Sa Bom Nim
Before getting into the history, I want to correct something that I have taught on our floor.
I have explained to our students that the early Gup ranks—10th through 7th Gup—represented the spring season: the beginning of growth, when a martial artist is just starting to develop.
Philosophically, I still understand why I made that connection.
Historically, however, that is not correct.
When I started digging deeper into the history of Tang Soo Do, the Moo Duk Kwan, and Soo Bahk Do, I found that the original belt system created by Grandmaster Hwang Kee had a much more specific relationship with the four seasons.
As an instructor, I think it is important to say when I learn something that changes my understanding. We tell our students all the time that earning rank does not mean we are finished learning.
That applies to Sa Bom Nim too.
So let’s go back to where these colors came from.
The Original Moo Duk Kwan Belt Colors
Grandmaster Hwang Kee founded the Moo Duk Kwan in Korea in 1945. During the development of the Moo Duk Kwan, he eventually established a colored belt system tied closely to nature and the development of the martial artist.
According to World Moo Duk Kwan historical material, around 1954 Hwang Kee began using four primary belt colors:
White — Winter
Green — Spring
Red — Summer
Midnight Blue — Autumn
These weren’t arbitrary colors.
They represented a cycle.
White — Winter
Winter can appear empty.
The trees have lost their leaves. Growth isn’t obvious. The earth can seem quiet and still.
But underneath the surface, the potential for growth is already there.
That is the white belt student.
A new student may walk onto the floor knowing very little about Tang Soo Do. They may not know how to make a proper fist. They may struggle with Choon Bee Jaseh. Left foot and right foot can suddenly become surprisingly difficult concepts when someone tells you which one to move.
But that doesn’t mean nothing is happening.
The potential is there.
Like the seed beneath frozen ground, the beginning already exists even though we cannot yet see what it will become.
Green — Spring
Then comes spring.
The ground thaws. Plants begin to rise. Trees regain their leaves.
Growth becomes visible.
That was the traditional meaning associated with the green belt.
By this stage, the student isn’t simply learning how to stand on the floor anymore. Techniques are beginning to connect. Hyung becomes more recognizable. Stances become stronger. Korean terminology starts making sense. Students begin understanding why we do certain things instead of simply copying the instructor standing in front of them.
The seed has broken through the ground.
Red — Summer
Summer represents activity, energy, strength, and ripening.
That fits the red belt remarkably well.
By the time someone reaches our advanced Gup ranks, we expect much more than memorization.
There should be confidence.
There should be power.
There should also be control.
A red belt is becoming technically capable enough that their actions carry greater consequences. Strong technique requires greater responsibility.
Summer is when the plant that first appeared in spring grows strong and approaches maturity.
So does the martial artist.
Midnight Blue — Autumn
And then we reach something distinctive about our Tang Soo Do tradition.
Our Dan belt isn’t truly black.
It is midnight blue.
The International Tang Soo Do Federation explains that black traditionally represents an ending, while midnight blue represents something that continues. Reaching Dan is not graduation from Tang Soo Do. It is another beginning in a lifelong process of learning.
In the original seasonal philosophy, midnight blue was connected with autumn—the season of maturity and harvest.
The work performed through the previous seasons has produced something.
But anyone who has watched the seasons knows what happens after autumn.
Winter returns.
The cycle begins again.
That might be one of my favorite parts of this philosophy.
A Dan rank doesn’t mean, I know everything.
In many ways it means, Now I am ready to begin understanding everything I have been learning.
So What About Orange Belt?
This was the question that sent me down this rabbit hole in the first place.
Orange belt was not part of Hwang Kee’s original four-color ranking system.
Early Moo Duk Kwan practitioners progressed through multiple Gup levels while wearing white before advancing to green.
The orange belt came later in the United States.
World Moo Duk Kwan records an account from Sa Bom Nim Lawrence Seiberlich, one of the charter members of the United States Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan Federation. American instructors had noticed that other martial arts organizations were using an additional colored belt as an incentive and milestone for beginning students.
They approached Hwang Kee about doing something similar.
After considering the idea, the Founder approved it.
Orange was selected for the 8th and 7th Gup ranks, in part because orange was an unusual martial arts belt color in the United States at the time.
Historical Moo Duk Kwan material places this change around 1974–1975, right around the establishment of the United States Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan Federation.
Interestingly, Grandmaster Chun Sik Kim—founder and president of the International Tang Soo Do Federation and the Grandmaster under whom our Federation continues today—was among the original members involved in that early U.S. Federation history.
Orange therefore became a bridge between white and green.
Later Moo Duk Kwan material describes it beautifully as the developmental period between winter and the spring thaw.
Not quite winter.
Not quite spring.
The first signs that change is coming.
And What About Our Yellow Belt?
Students at Owosso Martial Arts will immediately notice another difference.
We don’t go directly from white to orange.
Under today’s International Tang Soo Do Federation ranking system, our progression begins:
10th Gup — White
9th Gup — Yellow
8th Gup — Orange
7th Gup — Orange with Green Stripe
6th Gup — Green
Yellow was also not one of Hwang Kee’s original four seasonal colors.
Like orange, additional ranks developed as the ranking structure evolved.
That means we shouldn’t necessarily try to force every modern belt color into its own ancient seasonal meaning.
Instead, I think there is an even better way to look at it.
The seasons came first. The additional milestones came later.
White, yellow, and orange are stages occurring during that long period between planting and visible growth.
Then comes green.
The spring.
Belts Measure Moments. Seasons Measure Growth.
That’s where this history really connected with me.
We sometimes become very focused on the next belt.
“When do I test?”
“When do I get my stripe?”
“How long until green belt?”
Those milestones matter. They give us goals and allow us to recognize progress.
But nature doesn’t suddenly change because we put a different colored belt around our waist.
A tree doesn’t wake up one morning and announce that it earned its spring belt.
Growth happens little by little.
Sometimes we see it.
Sometimes we don’t.
Sometimes a student struggles with something for weeks and then suddenly it clicks.
Sometimes the biggest growth isn’t a better side kick at all.
It is the student who finally raises their hand.
The child who doesn’t give up when something is difficult.
The teenager who becomes willing to help a younger student.
The adult who walks through the door after a terrible day and trains anyway.
The student who learns enough confidence to say, “I don’t know.”
And even the instructor who researches something he has taught, discovers that his understanding wasn’t quite right, and comes back to his students saying:
I learned something new.
That is martial arts.
Our Season Is Changing
There couldn’t be a more appropriate time for me to discover this piece of our history.
On Wednesday, September 23, Owosso Martial Arts will gather for our Summer Gup and Dan Promotion.
Some students will put on a new belt.
Others will receive recognition for another major step in their journey.
And one of our martial artists will step forward into a new Dan rank.
All of this will happen almost exactly as summer gives way to autumn around us.
When Grandmaster Hwang Kee connected our ranks to the seasons more than seventy years ago, I doubt he could have imagined a small Tang Soo Do school in Owosso, Michigan gathering generations later and talking about that philosophy.
Yet here we are.
White becomes green.
Green becomes red.
Red becomes midnight blue.
Winter becomes spring.
Spring becomes summer.
Summer becomes autumn.
And autumn eventually leads us back around again.
There really is a season for every belt.
The important thing isn’t how quickly you get to the next one.
It is what grows within you along the way.
— Sa Bom Nim Bradford
Owosso Martial Arts
Sources & Further Reading
For students and families who would like to explore the history further:
World Moo Duk Kwan — “History & Motivation of the ‘Trimmed Do Bohk’ of the Moo Duk Kwan School”
This historical article documents Hwang Kee’s introduction of the white, green, red, and midnight-blue belt colors around 1954 and includes the recollections of senior Moo Duk Kwan practitioners concerning the later addition of orange belt.
World Moo Duk Kwan — Moo Yei Shi Bo, Volume 13
This publication directly describes the original seasonal symbolism as white/winter, green/spring, red/summer, and midnight blue/fall, and describes orange as an additional belt added in 1974 representing the developmental period between winter and the spring thaw.
United States Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan Federation — Federation History
This history documents the development of the U.S. Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan Federation, including the November 1974 organizational meeting and June 28, 1975 charter convention. Grandmaster Chun Sik Kim is listed among its original Board members and charter-convention attendees.
International Tang Soo Do Federation — Certifications and Standards
The ITF’s current ranking standards document our modern progression from 10th Gup white, through yellow and orange, into green and red, followed by Cho Dan Bo and Dan rank. The Federation also explains the use of midnight blue instead of black as representing the continuing nature of learning rather than an ending.
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