THE AMERICAN TAEKWONDO ASSOCIATION
The American Taekwondo Association (ATA) is the world's largest centralized martial arts organization, with over 180,000 members worldwide, including 14,000 black belts and 3,000 certified instructors. Its president and founder is Grand Master Haeng Ung Lee.

In addition to the 850 ATA Martial Arts schools and clubs throughout the United States, the ATA operates schools in 16 other countries. (The South American schools are organized under the rubric of the Songahm Taekwondo Federation and the schools in Canada, England, Germany, South Korea, South Africa and other countries worldwide operate under the World Traditional Taekwondo Union. Both the STF and the WTTU are branches of the ATA.)

The American Taekwondo Association oversees the operation of every ATA school and club worldwide, from instructor certification to rank promotions to curriculum development.

Instructor certification
In many martial arts styles, the assumption traditionally has been that once students earn their black belts they are ready to teach other students. But the ATA does not believe that simply being able to do something well qualifies a person to teach it. During the last 30 years, the ATA has developed an intensive instructor training program to insure that all ATA instructors are skilled and professional teachers.

Before becoming certified, ATA black belts spend 2-3 years as instructor trainees, during which time they are required to teach at least 300 hours under the supervision of a senior instructor. They are required to earn certification in CPR and Youth Protection, to write a research paper on some aspect of martial arts training, and to attend instruction seminars. Finally, they must pass several written and practical tests and submit to ATA headquarters a video of themselves teaching Taekwondo, for Grand Master Lee's instruction staff to evaluate. Instructors must repeat these requirements every few years in order to retain their certification.

Rank promotions
ATA Martial Arts holds promotional testings approximately every three months. These testings are judged by certified instructors. The judges' scores are submitted to ATA headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas, to insure that uniform standards are applied in ATA schools worldwide. Based on the judges' assessments, headquarters issues new ranks and printed certificates to each student, and these ranks are respected by every ATA school in the world.

At testings and in class, the emphasis is on individual accomplishment rather than competition or comparisons with other students. All students are encouraged to fulfill their potential -- to achieve "personal victories" -- and when they test for rank promotions they are judged on that basis alone.

Copyright© 1999-2010 Master Schreiber's ATA Martial Arts. All rights Reserved. Used by permission.

Songahm Taekwondo Belt Ranks

* Each belt from orange through red includes two rank levels. The lower level (no stripe) is called "recommended." The higher level (one stripe) is called "decided." For Tiny Tigers, the "decided" level is designated with an animal patch rather than a stripe.

For 1st and 2nd degree black belts, the "recommended" rank is a probationary stage. Upon receiving a 1st degree or 2nd degree recommended, students must test successfully for the "decided" rank within six months, or else they return to the rank immediately below the recommended one. They then are allowed to test again for the recommended rank. There are no recommended levels for 3rd through 9th degree black belts.