SIX-YEAR-OLD Nye Lyn has always been an active child who gives every project — from schoolwork to playtime — his best shot. But even his parents were surprised when, after only eight months of training, he took one of the top prizes at the US Open International Sports Karate Association (ISKA) World Martial Arts Championships held in Florida earlier this month.

Nye won first place in the musical forms category, which involves performing a kata — an exhibition of self-defense moves — to a musical beat.

“He has been attending the (Montego Bay branch of the International Martial Arts Institute) for eight months. I just wanted him to go (to the tournament) to get the exposure, not expecting him to come back with first place,” said his mother, Sandra Kennedy-Lyn.

The institute’s teacher/sensei, Terrence Thomas, who has years of experience in the field under his belt, described Nye as a “natural”.

“It’s really, really incredible. I have never really seen anything like this. I have been doing karate for 27 years and I am actively teaching now for 10 years and I have never really seen something like this; so it is really significant,” he said.

According to him, Nye is a meticulous go-getter who is always among the first to reach the dojo — where training sessions are conducted — and among the last to leave.

“He is not a cocky person. He likes what he is doing, so obviously it is going to be expressed in some way. (And) whatever he knows he tries to show other students,” Thomas said. “As a matter of fact students have been coming and saying, I’m training for Nye Lyn; so he is like a role model for the other kids.”

Nye’s willingness to share his knowledge comes as no surprise to those who know the young boy’s career choice.

“I want to become a karate teacher,” he told the Observer.

His sensei, like his parents, has no doubt that the young boy has the potential to realise this dream.

“When he started at the initial stage, I saw the potential in him from the get-go,” Thompson said. “After about two months (at the school) he entered an “enter the dojo” tournament where he competed with students from the (institute’s) other branch and (students from) here (in Montego Bay). And he was the most outstanding student, and that was selected from right across the board, from black belt right down to white belt and he was a white belt then. And that ‘s when I gave him (his first) six-foot trophy.”

Now Nye has another six-foot trophy, which towers over his tiny frame, from his success at the world championship. A charming boy, who smiles readily, he proudly shared his experiences during the tournament.

His greatest thrill, he said, was beating a young Canadian girl.

“At that big tournament at Disney World, I saw this girl (and) she was training hard and she came second place,” Nye announced as he beamed with the pride of his victory.

The young champion’s father, Trevor, accompanied his son to the tournament and also remembers the young Canadian girl’s performance.

“We saw her practising and I didn’t think anyone could beat her. I was really proud of him,” his father said.

And he makes his parents proud in other ways.

“Last year he got a 92 per cent average (at the Mount Alvernia Preparatory School) and he got a principal’s award,” his mother Sandra Kennedy-Lyn told the Observer.

Nye is now a senior blue belt at the karate institute, and only time will tell whether he sticks to his childhood dream of becoming a karate teacher. But if his performance in the first six years of his life is any indication of the years to come, it appears that Nye Lyn will excel at whatever he does.