Preparation..
In 2023, Master CB Lee and I accompanied his most senior student to test in Korea for his Kukkiwon (KKW) 8th Dan, which must be done in person.
He already had his Moo Duk Kwan (MDK) 8th Dan through Master Lee but wished to complete his KKW 8th Dan as well.
Watching this process first hand, from preparation through to the actual test, it got me thinking about my own Kukkiwon Dan testing.
Although currently MDK 7th Dan through Master Lee, I had not kept up with my Kukkiwon Dan levels for various reasons over the years and remained at 5th Dan KKW.
Since Covid, KKW has changed the process of grading to an online system up to 7th Dan, through a combination of video and written submission.
I could have tested online for my 6th Dan, however I would then have to wait another 7 years before applying for my 7th Dan as there is also a time requirement between dans.
Fortunately there is a way to jump multiple dans if the prerequisites are met, which are called ‘skip-dan’ tests.
Prerequisites include: meeting the minimum time requirements, a 4000 word essay, doing both tests for each belt level (plus associated fees) and normally are only allowed up to 4th dan.
However as Master Lee is in a special category of older Masters, he has dispensation to recommend higher dan tests if necessary, which is what we applied to in my case.
I would also have to travel to Korea for the test instead of it being done online as for normal 6th and 7th dan testing (although even this is changing soon to more locally tested system, but I had already booked tickets etc by the time this information came out!).
These next few posts are to provide a little insight into the process and experience of grading at Kukkiwon for a high Dan test.
Tuesday April 15 – Arrival
Which is how I found myself travelling to Seoul on an early Tuesday morning from Adelaide, South Australia.
I wasn’t able to leave on the Monday to give myself a day to settle in for testing Wednesday, instead I left Tuesday to arrive in the evening for next day test registration and 4 hours of practice 9.30am Wednesday morning!
Needless to say I had not slept well the previous nights, and together with the travel and preparing the club to run without me for a few weeks I had a lot on my mind!
I eventually found my apartment nearby in Gangnam, the area where the Kukkiwon headquarters is located.
Wednesday April 16 – Test Day
The next morning, after a not so restful sleep, I woke and prepared for the short walk to Kukkiwon.
Arriving, I was glad for my previous experience travelling and visiting Kukkiwon headquarters as it was already somewhat familiar to me.
After a quick walk around the building to see the Moo Duk Kwan pillar (amongst pillars of the other founding Kwans) I readied myself to begin the day’s activities.
After registration and changing into my dobok (uniform), I entered the central training space.
There is a lot of history here, for example, in the 70’s Master Lee coached the Australian team at the International Championships
There I met some of the other international instructors who were also going for their Dan gradings.
There were two grading for 6th Dan, one from Hong Kong, and one from India.
There were also Instructors from Canada, India, Turkey going for their 8th Dan gradings.
I was the only 7th Dan participant (as well as 6th Dan).
We met our practice Instructor Master Bae Young Shin, who was an excellent teacher and prepared us as best as he could for the time we had.
As I was effectively doing two gradings (6th and 7th Dan) sometimes I would have trouble remembering which part belonged to which test.
Being sleep deprived didn’t help either!
We had 2 x two hour practice sessions before the main test in the afternoon, splitting into our dan groups to practice our sections.
Several of my senior black belts had come to Korea to support me and watched from the outer seating areas.
Injury!
During the first session, as I was practicing one of the sequences which required a high kick, I heard a loud snap, and my supporting leg gave way.
Whether due to improper warmup or just over stretching the kick, I injured my hamstring and collapsed on the floor.
My initial thought was I wouldn’t be able to continue as I couldn’t stand, however by testing time I could stand and finish my requirements, although I don’t think I performed to the best of my ability.
After a Korean bento lunch (Iforgot to take a photo!), we resumed practice and I worked hard to remember my sequences and to get my leg functional.
I actually ended up hobbling around for a few weeks after (I saw the doctor back home and I have torn the hamstring muscle but things look like they are healing well).
We were split into our groups and went through our set forms and basic movements.
My main mistake in preparation was not reading that as I was doing a dual test for 6 AND 7 Dan, I needed to know both sets of basic movements when I had been focussing on only the 7 Dan one. Always read the documentation carefully!
So going into this day I didn’t have as memory perfect a recall of my requirements as I would ideally have liked.
Another thing that is worth mentioning is that the practice and test is predominantly in Korean, so those that had little to no understanding of the language were sometimes at a disadvantage in terms of clarity of understanding of instruction.
The Test
Once the practice was over (2 x 2 hours), we were called to gather at the front.
There we were introduced to the three senior examiners and one technical overseer.
We were then sat at the back in chairs after receiving our numbers to pin onto our uniforms.
One member from each belt division was called up to pick an envelope out of three options which determined our secondary form to do in addition to our primary form.
The 6 Dan forms were Jitae (primary) and Shipjin (secondary)
As I was the only 7 Dan my primary was Cheonkwon, and I also picked Shipjin as my secondary.
This was fortunate as this meant that I only had to know (and perform) 3 forms in total because of the overlap.
If I had chosen anything else, I would have had to have performed 4 forms in total.
The 6 Dan test was done as a group, but the 7 Dan and 8 Dan were done individually.
I feel I did well in the 6 Dan test, however in the 7 Dan Basic movements I had a mental blank and had to start again.
Cheonkwon also has a high spin jump kick which I found difficult to do properly due to my injured leg (you can see it in the official KKW video posted below)
We finished our test with shadow sparring to demonstrate our ability to spar to an acceptable level.
I hope my injury and mistake were not enough to fail me, however I won’t know results for a few months yet!
Aftermath
Finishing was a great relief, even though the actual test wasn’t that long, the lead up and preparation had been all consuming.
In hindsight I could have prepared better and arrived earlier so I could settle in properly, as well as made sure of correct requirements right from the start.
In the time between deciding and booking tickets to Korea and the test itself, there had actually been movement to set up local testing infrastructure, so that I may have been able to do the test in Australia later this year, however I feel that going to Korea to the Kukkiwon headquarters was an invaluable experience and deepened my understanding of the culture and history of this part of our Taekwondo legacy.
I hope you found my experience and observations interesting and maybe some of you may one day find yourselves standing in front of the examiners at Kukkiwon!
Thanks also to my students who travelled to Seoul to support me (also as I had been talking about a Korea trip for over 10 years I’m glad we finally made it!)
Tae Won Lee
May 2025
No video or filming of the event by the public is allowed so the only recorded footage is from the official KKW page: