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Tyler Weaver Jr., who emerged just three years ago as a phenomenon in youth martial arts forms and weapons competition, will appear as a featured guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show on Tuesday, September 9th.
Tyler, 12, holds the current ISKA World Title in the Black Belt Advanced Skills (Tricks) Demonstration Division, for youth competitors 13 years & below. He captured the title at the 2008 ISKA World Championships, held at the US Open in July at Walt Disney World. He is expected to defend the title next year at the US Open, his last year before graduating up to the 14-17 year age group.
Tyler previously held the 2006 World Musical Forms and 2007 World Weapons titles. He caught the attention of the show’s producers after viewing footage provided by the ISKA and KICKgen.com in response to an inquiry from the show. Clips of his title-winning performance are expected to air on the show as well, with the full recording airing as part of the two-hour ESPN2 special on the US Open scheduled for broadcast on November 26th of this year.
Not bad at all for a young man who, at the age of one, was diagnosed with Kawasaki disease, a rare illness of unknown cause that strikes children under five with a high fever and potential cardiovascular damage. “We were advised to keep Tyler out of strenuous activities as he grew up,” says Tyler Weaver Sr., “but we knew what martial arts could do for him, and he just took to it like it was second nature.” Not surprising, since his father is a 25-year practitioner and chief instructor at the family’s martial arts studio in Denver. According to his mother, Stephanie, the turning point for his interest in competition came in 2003, after seeing Taylor Lautner win the US Open on ESPN. “After that it was all he could think about,” says Stephanie. “He wanted to follow the same road Taylor had, so we enrolled him in Mike Chat’s camp at the US Open in 2005. A year later he had his first world title, and there was no turning back.” (Lautner is now a full-time movie actor, appearing in 2005’s Shark Boy and Lava Girl and Cheaper by the Dozen 2, and is cast in this year’s Twilight, based on the book by Stephenie Meyer).
Despite his busy travel schedule for competition, Tyler excels academically as well, studying mathematics at a high school level even though he is only in the seventh grade. So with all this success, how does a 12-year old stay humble? “I just remind myself that though I have the title now, in a year I’ll be defending it, and there’s always someone just like me working just as hard for it. I have to continue to earn it.” Adds his dad Tyler Sr., “He’s very disciplined for someone his age, and he knows what kind of effort it takes to be the best. Tyler understands that being a martial arts world champion is a journey, not a destination.”
Not bad at all for a young man who, at the age of one, was diagnosed with Kawasaki disease, a rare illness of unknown cause that strikes children under five with a high fever and potential cardiovascular damage. “We were advised to keep Tyler out of strenuous activities as he grew up,” says Tyler Weaver Sr., “but we knew what martial arts could do for him, and he just took to it like it was second nature.” Not surprising, since his father is a 25-year practitioner and chief instructor at the family’s martial arts studio in Denver. According to his mother, Stephanie, the turning point for his interest in competition came in 2003, after seeing Taylor Lautner win the US Open on ESPN. “After that it was all he could think about,” says Stephanie. “He wanted to follow the same road Taylor had, so we enrolled him in Mike Chat’s camp at the US Open in 2005. A year later he had his first world title, and there was no turning back.” (Lautner is now a full-time movie actor, appearing in 2005’s Shark Boy and Lava Girl and Cheaper by the Dozen 2, and is cast in this year’s Twilight, based on the book by Stephenie Meyer).
Despite his busy travel schedule for competition, Tyler excels academically as well, studying mathematics at a high school level even though he is only in the seventh grade. So with all this success, how does a 12-year old stay humble? “I just remind myself that though I have the title now, in a year I’ll be defending it, and there’s always someone just like me working just as hard for it. I have to continue to earn it.” Adds his dad Tyler Sr., “He’s very disciplined for someone his age, and he knows what kind of effort it takes to be the best. Tyler understands that being a martial arts world champion is a journey, not a destination.”
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