• Sports
  • 19/05/2025
  • Nederlands

Sports spotlight | Ilyeo’s favorite number is 17

TU/e boasts a total of 38 student sports associations. And every one of them offers its own unique experience: from slamming aces to skimming across the water. At student sports center SSC, you get a wide range of options to choose from: gaming, jumping, running, cycling, rowing, flying, shooting, hanging, playing chess, surfing, punching and pushing. Cursor wants to put every one of these associations in the spotlight. The first question is “What is your favorite number?”

Our taekwondo association is known for its potlucks

Noa van der Ham
board Ilyeo

Warming up

Student taekwondo association Ilyeo is the only one of its kind. That is, the only student sports association where all members practice taekwondo. “Students can also do taekwondo at Enschede’s student sports center, but the association there offers judo as well,” says secretary Noa van der Ham.

Training at the dojo.

Taekwondo is a type of unarmed martial arts where the feet and fists make special movements with sparring partners and style forms. These are defined patterns of defensive and offensive forms used to learn taekwondo.

Style forms are arranged in ascending order of difficulty. The higher the belt, the more style forms you master. Van der Ham wears a yellow belt; for a green belt you must be able to master the first three style forms. A higher level is achieved by taking a belt exam.

It pretty much goes without saying that Ilyeo’s favorite number is 17. “Our name (phonetically it’s ‘eelyo’, ed.) means the seventeenth style form. It corresponds to the black belt and only our two trainers and some former members have mastered it.” 

 

Sparring during an exam

The exam covers style forms, self-defense, sparring with another person taking the exam, and a theory test. The latter includes Korean vocabulary. In the exams for green belt and above, there’s also a breaking test, i.e., people taking the exam have to break a wooden board.

Scores

  • Ilyeohas 47 members
  • 2004 is the association’s founding year
  • Taekwondo has 17style forms
  • There are 3 types of sparring pads: solid rectangular ones, solid round ones, and flexible flappy ones
  • The wooden breaking boards are 18 mm thick
  • You wear 0 shoes
  • Ilyeohas 16 body protectors
  • The warmup takes 30 minutes
  • There are 3 training nights a week    
  • The dojo where Ilyeo trains is 196 m2
  • 1st participation in Connect with my Culture this year

Analyses

Pot luck at Ilyeo

The key words at the English-language association aren’t ‘fight’ and ‘defense’, but ‘flexibility, food, and gezelligheid’. They regularly organize potlucks, with everyone bringing something to eat to share. Afterwards, they often watch a movie together.           

All photos | Ilyeo

To protect their torso, Ilyeo members wear a protector that is tied around their backs with ropes. “It’s convenient to have this done by someone standing behind you, and you yourself can then help the person in front of you,” says Van der Ham.

Taekwondo is originally Korean, which is why Ilyeo was asked to teach a workshop and give a demonstration at Connect with my Culture on Wednesday, May 21. “We’re really excited about it and maybe it will get us some new members. We wouldn’t mind increasing our membership to sixty.”

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