By Michael Kelley

Photos Courtesy of Nicole Elstein

A kick to the chest counts as a point, and only Black Belts are allowed to kick to the head. Confused?

These are just some of the scoring rules for Tae Kwon Do, a club sport here at Lafayette. A group of approximately 20 students participate in the sport coached by Master Eom, a sixth degree master in Tae Kwon Do.

The club belongs to the Eastern Collegiate Tae Kwon Do Conference (ECTC) and participates in ECTC and regional tournaments. Ryan King ‘12 serves as the club’s president, while Kate Yoder ‘13 serves as vice president.

The club’s most recent tournament was the Garden State Cup inRahway, N.J. and two of the members, Arthur Fuller ‘14 and SusanGrunewald ‘12 won gold medals. Fuller was participating in his first ever Tae Kwon Do tournament.

“There are some who have had martial arts experience before college and join because we are the only martial arts group on campus,” Yoder said. “The others are people who have no experience whatsoever, but are eager to try something new.”

The team practices Tuesday and Thursday nights from 7-9 p.m. The more rigorous practice is on Thursday when Master Eom comes to teach basic kicks, strikes and technique.

“Learning the technique used in sparring, which means free-form fighting, takes time and a lot of practice,” said Nicole Elstein ‘12, who earned a second place medal.

On Tuesday’s practice, the team goes over what Master Eom taught the previous week.

Master Eom was raised in Seoul, Korea and is skilled in various types of martial arts. Along with being a sixth degree master in Tae Kwon Do, he is also a fourth degree black belt in Hap Ki Do and a fourth degree Black Belt of Special Army Martial Arts.

When at tournaments, the club is split into teams of three – one heavyweight, one middleweight and one lightweight. The teams are also divided by gender. The opponents that are assigned depend on belt rank. To win a match, two of the three members must win in order for the team to advance.

As for scoring within a match, each participant is given a chest guard and kicking the chest guard scores points. There are two rounds, each a minute long and there is a 30-second break between rounds.

Black Belts are held to a different set of rules. “Black Belts are allowed to kick to the head and can score points from it, but lower ranks can get points deducted for doing so,” Yoder said.

There are three judges and one referee present for each match. A judge will press a button when they see a point. However, it takes more than one opinion to score a point.

“If two out of the three judges call a point, then you score,” Yodersaid.

Even the injured participants can compete. “Due to an injury, I wasn’t able to spar, so I competed in the green belt form, which is a sequence of kicks and blocks judged based on technique and power,” Jessica Frey ‘12 said.