Kyler Arnold has come a long way since he had to fight his mom. Now he spars with his sister.
Taekwondo is a family affair in the Arnold’s Port Moody household.
Kyler’s older brother, Riley, competed at the national level and is now an instructor at Port Moody Taekwondo. His sister, Ashlyn, represented Canada at the 2017 Universiade Summer Games in Taipei, Taiwan last August.
Kyler was the last to join the family fray, when he was just four years old. His mom, Tracy, sensed he needed some help at the dojang, so she signed up too. They trained together frequently — even got their black belts at the same time — until about five years ago when Tracy stepped off the mat to focus on managing her brood’s schedules, getting them to and from practices and competitions.
Increasingly that meant trips to the airport as her kids started to find success at competitions across North America and around the world — in Mexico, South Korea, Austria, Luxembourg.
Kyler, who’s in Grade 9 at Heritage Woods secondary school, said growing up in a taekwondo household made his own ascendancy in the sport pretty much inevitable.
“Everyone is on the same page,” he said. “We motivate each other.”
Last year was chockablock with accomplishments for the youngest of the sparring Arnolds as he finished out his career as a cadet and prepares to compete as a junior. Kyler won provincial and national championships, as well as the US Open. He won a silver medal at the Pan Am championships in Costa Rica despite competing with pneumonia and a foot injury.
In October, Kyler won first place at the President’s Cup in Las Vegas then challenged himself by stepping up to some junior competitions so he could get a taste of what’s to come in 2018. He won his junior division at the Governors Cup in Washington and at the B.C. Masters Cup, and he managed to finish first as both a cadet and a junior at a competition in Detroit, Mich.
Kyler credits his coach, Dan Thornton, a Grandmaster who coaches with Canada’s national team, with upping his kagup, instilling in him a keen sense for the sport’s strategic component.
“I think of it as a game,” Kyler said.
And what he doesn’t absorb at the dojang, Kyler’s sure to hear about around the dinner table.
“I do talk about it if they ask for my advice,” his mom, Tracy, said.
The coming year promises to be equally as busy as the one just passed for Kyler. He just had his first competition as a true junior and if February he’ll be at the Canadian nationals in Ottawa. If he does well there, he’ll be headed to the junior world championships in Tunisia. But he’s careful not to look too far into the future.
Kyler said he likes to keep his goals close to his chest, focussing on the short term so he doesn’t put too much pressure on himself.
“My mindset is to have fun,” he said. “When all you’re thinking of is what could go wrong, you can psyche yourself out.”
