The ISU Tae Kwon Do Club met Monday night for its first test of the year. The students fought off a combination of eagerness and nervousness while stretching on the wood floors of Room 202 of the Forker Building.

Led by two second-degree black belt instructors, the ISU Tae Kwon Do Club is small — Monday’s testing involved three students, all going for the same new rank. Instructors Loren Jones, 312 S. Dakota Ave., and Mike Bellin, freshman in veterinary medicine, led the three students in a few classic Tae Kwon Do drills before the testing began. The testing would be judged in two parts: form and one-step sparing.

Bellin teaches a more practical approach to Tae Kwon Do.

“If you’re talking about Tae Kwon Do, you’re going to hear about a lot of kicking, maybe not a lot of punching, but we try to incorporate both, kind of like Bruce Lee did,” Bellin said.

Bellin said Tae Kwon Do is about more than physical moves — there is a mental aspect to it as well.

“The main characteristics of Tae Kwon Do are the ‘Five Tenets of Tae Kwon Do,'” Bellin said. “Courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control and indomitable spirit; that’s what I build it around.”

Devon Haney, sophomore in animal science, has found Tae Kwon Do to be very rewarding in the couple of months she’s been a member.

“I’ve got more muscle control,” Haney said. “I move around a lot easier.”

Jason McCarthy, junior in computer engineering, agreed.

“It’s a balance issue,” McCarthy said. “[From] all the forms and stances we do, I’ve got better balance.”

The three students were all very different in their forms during the testing. All three had their own interpretations, and all three passed. Though they all did the same routine, different characteristics stood out for each student.

McCarthy, the most athletic of the group, showed new strength that he said can be attributed to Tae Kwon Do.

Haney, though nervous prior to the test, worked through her forms with ease and confidence.

Jones left the students with words of encouragement after they were critiqued on their testing.

“Don’t think about where you are, think about where you came from,” he said.