International Taekwondo Black Belt Association
The black belt:
a beginning, not an end
The day a black belt is earned is rightly celebrated as the culmination of years of dedicated hard work —but it’s not the end of a journey, it’s just the beginning.
While this is an easy idea to agree with, in practice there are often gaps when it comes to supporting the black belt community.
The ITBA exists to engage taekwondo black belts at all levels and from all backgrounds, ensuring that our community continues to grow and thrive.
For Instructors
How can instructors most effectively help their students progress?
Ensuring that students reach their full potential requires more than just teaching them new forms or techniques at each belt level, and tournament competition is not for everyone. Students need an experience that consistently engages their bodies and minds—black belts should get just as much out of every class as white belts.
The ITBA’s programs, workshops, and events are all designed to help you refine your instructional approach so that your black belt students become reliably more engaged over time as they continue to advance.
For Masters
Masters and school owners face a different set of challenges.
To help your students realize their full potential, you need to steadily develop not only your own skills but also your entire learning environment. In many cases, finding an appropriate support system is a challenge—and this is what the ITBA exists to do.
The ITBA exists to facilitate knowledge sharing across our entire community in order to unlock everyone’s full potential for both themselves, their students, and their schools. We provide education, certification, and opportunity to the most advanced practitioners of our art
For Black Belts
As a black belt, you’re hungry to learn.
In the past, this meant subscribing to magazines, competing in tournaments, attending seminars, and devouring as many videos as you could get your hands on. All in addition to your regular training.
At the ITBA, we believe there’s another level of learning to unlock. By connecting thousands of black belts across the world regardless of their affiliations, we believe that the entire taekwondo community will benefit.
There’s always more to learn.
Our Approach
Promote Best Practices
At the heart of any martial art is the endless pursuit of perfection. We are constantly exploring how to refine and share the best technical approaches—both in terms of the technique itself as well as how to teach these techniques.
Develop Healthy Schools
Without a healthy learning environment, our art can not thrive. For our instructors, masters, and school owners we place a special emphasis on what goes into developing a learning environment where each year unlocks a higher level of enthusiasm, attendance, and energy for both students and instructors.
Share Our Knowledge
While taekwondo’s roots go back thousands of years, we also need to take full advantage of everything that modern technology offers. Not everyone is able to travel hundreds of miles to attend seminars and in today’s world, you don’t have to. At the ITBA we are constantly developing new ways to share our knowledge and engage our community.
Membership starts with you
We’re looking for individuals with a very specific mindset. Above all else, you’re looking to learn. You’re curious about how to improve all aspects of your black belt experience.
This usually starts with rethinking how to teach specific techniques but goes far beyond that and includes your entire martial arts experience. Our school owners are often looking to create productive, healthy learning environments for their students while our Masters are interested in examining the way they develop their own high level black belt instructors.
All of this isn’t something we can capture in a form or membership application. Instead, the very first step in applying for membership is to have a 1:1 conversation with us. Let’s talk about where you are, what you’re looking for, and how you and the ITBA can grow together.
Our Legacy
The ITBA is led by Grandmasters Hosun and Tae Sun Kang, sons of the late Great Grandmaster Suh Chong Kang.
The Kang family lineage traces back to the earliest days of the kwans formed in Korea following the end of the Japanese occupation. Won Kuk Lee established one of the first of these schools, Chung Do Kwan, in 1944. Suh Chong Kang was the highest ranking student until he departed to establish the Kuk Mu Kwan in 1953.
A hallmark of the Kang family legacy has been a spirit of collaboration that crosses organizational and political boundaries. All three Grandmasters have been inducted into the Taekwondo Hall of Fame. Suh Chong Kang served in executive leadership roles with both the ATA (President) and ITF (Vice President). Today, Hosun Kang continues to support Kuk Mu Kwan schools and is a well known figure at both World Taekwondo and AAU competitions while Tae Sun Kang continues to refine ITBA teaching standards at his New York City headquarters.