Most people have seen and enjoyed the martial arts movies of Jackie Chan or Jet Li, and would love to be able to mimic what those guys are able to do.

In the Taekwondo club at the University of Dayton, students can start doing just that. The club is not well known, but it is an opportunity for students to learn something they have always wanted to know, or for more experienced martial artists to continue their training while at school.

Graduate student Patrick Hammer is a second degree black belt and one of the students that helps instruct the class during their weekday meetings. Hammer says that most of the club is made up of students that had no prior experience in martial arts or had very limited experience in a different form of martial arts, such as karate, so it is easy to fit in to what they are doing right away. With several black belts in the club as well, there is plenty of students willing to help out, like Hammer.

"When I got here I wanted to see if there were any clubs that I could help out at," Hammer said. "There was the UD Taekwondo club, so I joined it. Most of the people had no experience coming in and decided to give Taekwondo a try."

Hammer also stressed that this Taekwondo is as real as any other formal classes that can be taken, in that students get to move up in belt rank, just like anywhere else.

"Generally you come in as a white belt, a 10th cup, and at the end of each semester there is a testing for you to go up a rank," he said. "So people generally go up in rank as they spend time with the club."

Not only do students get to increase their rank in the club, but they can also put their skills to the test against others in tournaments. Hammer said there are generally two to three tournaments per year, and any number of students of any rank are welcome to go and see what they can do.

The tournaments consist of two different types of competitions: forms and sparring. Forms are basically techniques such as punches or blocks, and they are scored for balance, focus, intensity and good technique. Sparring is the actual fighting. Competitors wear pads on their hands and torsos and look to score points by connecting on attacks.

Four UD students competed in a tournament at Purdue last weekend, and the club performed admirably. Jason Roland placed second in forms and third in sparring in the green belt division. Cody Potts was first in both in the gold belt division. In the white belt group, Joe Clinton and Sebastian Lazar took second and first in forms and first and third in sparring, respectively. With about 50 participants in the tournament, UD represented itself well.

"They did very well. I was very pleased with how they did," Hammer said.

The Taekwondo club meets Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7-9 p.m. and Saturdays from 4-6 p.m. in RecPlex Studio B and is always excited to take in new members. For more information, students can visit their Web site at campus.udayton.edu/~itc/.

Having done Taekwondo for 13 years, Hammer still loves it and would encourage anyone who is interested to give it a try.

"If you have any interest at all or are seeking any information, come out to our club," Hammer said.