By JARROD POTTER
Choosing what defines you is the most important challenge we can ever face. Fighting to overcome the limitations of a genetic condition, Kyle Lyons’ choice was to push forward – step by step, arrow by arrow. Kyle talked to Jarrod Potter about his love of archery and helping inspire the archers around him.
****PULL QUOTE: “You can do it – if you have a bad hand you can still do it, if you’re in a wheelchair you can still do it – it’s a sport what nearly everybody can do.”
WITH every arrow he shoots, Kyle Lyons aims to be a force of positivity.
It would be easy in his situation to feel trapped or limited, but despite the challenges the 15-year-old from Cranbourne faces daily – Kyle’s unwavering smile and the steely determination in his eyes when he shoots highlight the happiness he has gained through this sport.
Lyons’ abilities are all the more impressive due to a rare genetic condition he has – hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP). It is such an uncommon condition that Kyle and his older brother Luke were misdiagnosed for most of their lives with cerebral palsy, until genetic testing uncovered HSP’s unique footprint.
The Lyons’ brothers can both walk and are star archers on the rise – an exceptional accomplishment in itself considering the effects of their disability, render walking extremely difficult due to progressive lower limb stiffness.
Before archery his only great sporting love was basketball, but for Kyle something changed when he put a bow in his hand for the first time.
“The only sport I loved at school was basketball – I was good at it and had a lot of practice of it and it was the only sport I liked to do – then when dad bought me my bow to try out and shoot, it was different,” Lyons said.
” I loved it as it was new to me… I’ve shot archery before – my dad bought me my own bow – we shot in a paddock before and I loved it.
“When dad took me to Phoenix Archery Club, I was shocked and surprised there was a club near my house.”
The culture around archery is almost as important to Kyle as the sport itself – being part of an inclusive environment where encouragement is prized more highly than perfection.
“You can do it – if you have a bad hand you can still do it, if you’re in a wheelchair you can still do it – it’s a sport what nearly everybody can do,” Lyons said.
“(There are a lot of) kind people – you can make a lot of friends and if people do make mistakes – if you miss – a lot of people say ‘oh I missed’.
They don’t laugh at you, they don’t tease you about it – they just say ‘nice try, your shot looks good’ they say the good thing about what you did, not about the arrow that missed the target.”
After shooting his first arrow Lyons was hooked and pursues his archery with aplomb – shooting at Baxter Sports Park, Akoonah Park and Casey Sports and Recreation Centre multiple times a week.
Lyons’ skills transcend his condition markedly – with the young archer shooting his way to the top of the able body ranks in Victoria.
Kyle placed ninth nationally in his age group at the State and National Indoor Archery Tournament, facing able bodied athletes and going toe-to-toe with them on the line.
His archery acumen is so impressive that his coaches – multiple Archery Australia champions Hans Wright OAM and Darren Wright – believe he could become a Paralympian or as Lyons’ hopes to achieve on top of that… to become an Olympian.
Most importantly for Wright, Kyle constantly works at his craft and continues to inspire everyone around him to work that little bit harder.
“Kyle is an example that anyone can overcome anything if they set their mind to it – I consider Kyle my resilience coach and he is for the rest of the squad and is part of our junior development program,” Wright said.
“He is without a doubt the hardest training person in our squad and is a role model for us and we’re so proud to have him as part of our team.”
His love of archery is helping his classmates at the Nepean School – with Lyons and his coaches running a 10-week program called the All Abilities Archery Program in term four this year.
The assessment phase of the program has already received rave reviews from Lyons’ classmates and teachers alike – with Lyons’ abilities on his bow and his positivity towards other archers making him a natural coach.
“I’ve seen the growth in Kyle, his dad has seen his growth, when I talked to his teacher, she’s seen some amazing changes in Kyle and that’s why she wants to bring the sport to her school,” Wright said.
“Kyle has actually promoted that.
“So he’s already doing it – he’s already being a transformational leader because he’s already bringing this force and positive change to the people in his community and what it’s effectively doing is connecting those communities together.
“He’s already bringing the passion and the love of the sport to others – so my work is almost done – I’ve just got to find the platform for his voice.
“We’re coaching Kyle as an instructor as he wants to share the same experiences with his class mates as some of them don’t have the ability to control their arms and hands.”
For Terry Lyons, Kyle and Luke’s father, the ability to have fun and participate on the same level as his sons has been important to him and the changes in their personalities – especially Kyle – have been dramatic since the family picked up their bows.
“Archery has been good – it’s a sport the three of us can compete in together, that’s been really difficult finding up until now,” Terry Lyons said.
“Before we did archery he would only stick to his friends and family he already knew and he wouldn’t socialise easily with anyone he didn’t know.
“It’s given him the confidence to extend his circle of friends and to meet new people and in his pre-existing social groups, the changes in him have had a great impact there.
“He’s more inclusive, more positive and the general positive attitude and uplifting attitude he’s gained.”
With no upper limit on his talent or what he wants to achieve, Kyle wants to transcend the Paralympic/Olympic divide, but most importantly for him, he wants to work to beat his best achievements every time he goes to the range and steps on the line.
“Go to the Paralympics to win a gold medal, then if I do I want to go to the Olympics and try and win the gold medal there,” Kyle said.
“Train really, really hard and every day – without missing just a second.
“If I do train so hard, it helps me to not beat everybody, just to beat myself.
“Tomorrow I’m going to try my hardest to beat it.”
For more information on Phoenix Archery Club and All Abilities Archery, contact head coach Darren Wright on 0412 659 927.
