>>737182My TKD club only lets under 12's get up to 7th Kup (11th kup is white belt, after 0 kup is first dan)
it should take a minimum of 3 years to get up to 0kup, that's where I am now, a probationary blackbelt. Going higher requires a written essay, showing that I am capable of all the 8 Tae Geuk forms, the 5 Pyung Ahn forms, and a new form called Koryo. It also requires proving to the Council of Blackbelts that you are emotionally and physically ready by completing physical challenges and at least one training session with the Grandmaster who i have never trained with before, but i've heard it's hell.
There are actually 15 year olds with black-belts, and some of them have in the past been shit, that's why there are now physical tests and why a lot of the shit ones dropped out, very few 15 year old blackbelts will be handed out now, the only current teen with a black belt is an amazingly talented girl who is the daughter of one of the trainers, a man with decades of experience in many martial arts.
I need a Beep test score over 8, 60 push ups in 3 mins, 60 sit ups in three mins and some other tests they get to name.
Blackbelt is really only the beginning of your training though, 1st dan means very little and can be acquired in as little as 3.5 years by anybody with little effort, working hard you can reduce that time by a year, or technically to 2 years if you train 4 times a week over any of the 3 dojos under this grand-master, but it's never actually been allowed to my knowledge.
Failing a grading is rare, but that's because trainers will not allow you to grade if they feel you are not ready for it.
