EXAMINATIONS

For a competitor, an exam is a concrete goal and confirmation of progress. You don’t have to be a top-performing competitor to see your own progress. Each new grade means a new belt color or stripe, and new skills. At our club, we hold exams for student grades regularly – in winter, before summer break, and at the end of the summer camp. The requirements for each grade are described and available for download, so competitors and parents always know what to work on.

For children up to 12 years of age, we use our own system of children’s grades. The path to the next belt color is divided into smaller stages, marked with stripes on the belt, so the child sees the results of their work more often and stays motivated to keep training. During the exam, we assess technique, patterns, sparring suited to age (from soft-stick sparring to light contact), physical fitness including gymnastics, and basic knowledge of taekwon-do.

Older competitors follow the classic path of ten student grades (cup) – from white belt to red belt with a black stripe, which precedes the black belt. Requirements include technique, patterns, sparring, board breaking, and taekwon-do theory. Grades earned in the children’s system are recognized when moving up to older groups, so no one has to start over.

The kickboxing section has its own system of ten student grades. For each grade, a competitor must master new techniques and defenses, prove themselves in sparring of increasing length and difficulty, and pass a fitness test. Each new grade introduces a new sparring format – from boxing-style sparring, through pointfighting, to low-kick and K-1. Reaching at least the 5th grade is a requirement for entering kickboxing competitions.

The black belt is the crowning achievement of years of training, but also the start of a new stage. Exams for master grades (dan) are held at the national level, under the Polish Taekwon-do Union, and our candidates prepare for them under the guidance of the club’s most experienced instructors. At KCT, masters from 1st to 7th dan train and teach, and many of our instructors earned their black belts training at the club since childhood.