Watching Sports

The only sport that Tyson keeps up with regularly is cricket and, even then, he is much more likely to keep up with the scores and decline to actually watch any matches.

Of all the sports that he has any actual interest in, watching cricket suits him the best as it’s a longer format where his attention can drift to and from it without feeling like he’s missing most of the match by doing so.

Without fail, he will always watch the Ashes and Tyson tries to keep up with the one day internationals whilst he’s working from his laptop. Outside of cricket, the only sport that Tyson will regularly watch is rugby and the only guarantee then is watching the Six Nations.

Dance

Amongst many other lessons, Tyson and Jethro were both tutored in ballroom, ballet, classical, tap, and contemporary dance.

Primarily they were taught ballroom and classical, with ballet only appearing as punishment when they needed to work on posture or balance. Jethro excelled with tap, whilst Tyson still holds great contempt for the sound the shoes made when talking around.

He enjoyed the technique of tap, however, which might be why shuffle dance was on of the few modern dances Tyson is actually good at. Jethro is passable with most dances that were around from his teens until late twenties, with an unforgivable - and completely unironic - love of the macarena. 

Predictably, Tyson favoured the slower partnered dances where Jethro preferred faster pace and was fine with dancing on his own.

Archery

Though archery was also one of the many lessons that Tyson and Jethro were given as heirs to the Delaney family legacy, the brothers are far more likely to remember playing with Nerf-dart bows than the actual archery lessons.

Archery was one of the few activities where their father would actually watch them whilst they practiced. Perhaps simply as those lessons lined up with warmer, fairer weather that coaxed the Professor outside, but it meant that they looked forward to them; and practiced with the toy bows to impress him.

Fencing

Tyson was a good fencer in his teens.

A damn good fencer. Tyson’s brother and P.E. teacher can be quoted as repeatedly saying that Tyson “improved with the weather” when it came to sport, which was true. Tyson likes to relax and ‘conserve energy’, but he has shown himself to be talented in dancing [ballroom, classical, tap, and contemporary], cricket, tennis, rugby, and fencing.

Whilst Tyson was willing to go out and play cricket where people could see him, he kept fencing - like dancing - between himself, his tutor, his brother, and his father. When playing cricket a lot of the focus was on other players, were as in dance and in fencing more of the attention was on Tyson. This made him nervous and, therefore, unwilling to ‘perform’ outside of the classroom.

Tyson’s fencing tutor - who was also his Latin and Geography tutor - said that Tyson could have made a living out of fencing had he gotten over his nerves, Tyson never believed that.

Tyson would leap at the chance to fence again. His social anxieties mean that he’d never join a club to take up fencing, but if he got the chance to fence with some one he knew and trusted Tyson wouldn’t turn down the opportunity.

His talent with swords - mostly fencing swords, but he has dabbled with a fair amount of success with other swords - played a large role in him favouring knives over guns; after hand to hand combat (focusing on nerve, pressure, and vital points), obviously.

Of all the sports Tyson took part in as a teenager, fencing was the one he was best at. Though Tyson never believed his tutors when he said this, Tyson could genuinely have made a living out of fencing professionally if he wanted to. He favours Saber then Épée, and then Foil.

In most verses, Tyson has left swords behind, but his skills are much sharper in Pirate!Verse, XPirate!Verse, and RWBY AU. Within his Orphan AUs, in Teen!Verse Tyson is an active fencer and in Teen!VerseLDN Tyson only recently left fencing behind to take up boxing.

Rock Climbing

Though Tyson isn’t particularly fond of rock climbing, it’s something he does enjoy doing with his brother.

When they were growing up, it was one of the few activities unrelated to academic lessons that their father would set aside time for and allowed them to do together. Even with sports that they both took, they were in separate lessons or had separate tutors. Rock climbing was just for them.

It was one of the first things that Tyson and Jethro did together when they reunited after Jethro ran away from home, when Tyson returned from his time with The Colonel, and to celebration once Jethro recovered from his cancer.

Gym

Despite calling himself lazy, Tyson actually gets more exercise than most people and keeps himself to the standard of fitness that he was at during his army days.

Typically the days when Tyson finds himself going to a gym are the times when Tyson has been too busy to complete his normal workout schedule. He finds that going to a familiar private gym and grabbing one of the trainers helps keep him motivated, and it’s a good way to have his form corrected or areas that he needs to work on pointed out.

His need to keep wounds from his work with the web secret and his constantly fluctuating schedule to work around the Moriarty Mirrors prevents Tyson from going to the gym as his default way of exercising, but Tyson would struggle if he needed to primarily go the gym regardless. It’s a refreshing environment every once in a while, but he finds it too chafing to be a regular.

The other reason why Tyson will choose to go to a gym is to work himself to exhaustion, until every muscle hurts and he cannot move the next day. He won’t always go that far, but sometimes Tyson needs to ground himself in reality, to feel that ache with every movement and know that his body is solid.

And in agony, but mostly the solid and corporeal thing.

Tennis

Though he was a member of the tennis club at his secondary school, Tyson hated playing tennis. He only played because it made his brother happy to see Tyson playing the sport that their mother used to play.

His distaste for the sport didn’t stem from the association with his mother or loathing his trainer, as was the case with other sports that were forced on Tyson at a young age. Instead, Tyson simply found tennis boring to play. He still does. He can’t explain why, but it just never clicked with him like rugby and cricket did.

He was aware of the pressure in being the only player on his side, instead of part of a team, but that had never stood in the way of his enjoyment of fencing.

Tennis is simply one of those annoyance that Tyson cannot explain. It makes him bristle with unanswerable resentment. Not towards his mother or brother for asking him to play, but simply towards the monotony of the sport itself.

Ice-Skating

Though Tyson generally has poor balance and doesn’t tend to make large open gestures, he takes to ice-skating like a natural with now controlled his arm movements generally are.

He dislikes skating around other people, his anxiety going into overdrive with the possibilities of taking a blade to his throat, but when the ice is quite, Tyson genuinely loves to ice-skate.

It’s an indulgence that Tyson rarely allows himself when he isn’t babysitting his nephew James or dragging Dick out of his apartment to get some exercise.

Tyson has his own set of ice-skates that, like everything else in his apartment, is stored away under his bed in one of the many boxes that are only dragged out on special occasions.

Posture

Tyson has perfect posture.

Though he regularly falls back on parade rest from his army days, Tyson learnt to hold himself correctly from a much younger age.

Posture was a large part about having to present himself as a proper heir to the Delaney family legacy, and is the leading cause for Jethro regularly hunching over as an ingrained defiance; a bad habit that James ends up mimicking.

Those lessons were further reinforced by dance - a mixture of ballroom, ballet, classical, tap, and contemporary - and fencing lessons that required Tyson to keep good posture and positioning. Various other sports also played a lesser role in reinforcing that.

Following on from Tyson’s struggles to release his control enough to properly balance, Tyson struggles with slumping. Kinda. He can curl and nestle back into anything regardless of the angle it puts him in, Tyson will pretzel himself without even noticing, but he can’t comfortably hunch over without something to lean against/into.

It feels unnatural and stiff, despite his usual rigid posture.

Balance

Tyson has appallingly bad balance for how agile he is in other matters.

Especially when he so easily pivots around on the balls of his feet within his apartment and parkours around London as though he were born to run over those roofs. He’s a natural at ice-skating, already accustomed to using his hands to keep balance and direct his motion.

The issue is comfort. Whilst keeping the core muscles tight is important to maintaining balance, being too rigid throws off balance. Tyson is comfortable in London. He is comfortable in his home.

When Tyson isn’t comfortable, when he is trying to balance in a place he isn’t familiar with, Tyson cannot relax his muscles enough to maintain proper balance. It isn’t in his nature to be loose with his actions.

In terms of keeping his balance, being familiar with the place completely overrules feeling uncomfortable around other people. Being in that situation may make him uncomfortable emotionally, but Tyson can typically keep his muscle memory for balance.

Climbing

As mentioned in Tyson’s sports headcanon:

Though Tyson was pretty good at rock climbing when he went with his brother, Jethro, to his classes, it wasn’t one that Tyson particularly enjoyed. He prefers the freedom to pick his own paths that climbing trees, mountains, or parkouring around London provides. 

He doesn’t find climbing rewarding in the same way as other exercises. He doesn’t mind being at heights and the view can be enjoyable, but the actual task is one that disinterests Tyson.

To take a break - or stop altogether - when he’s running or lifting weights before meeting any significant stopping point doesn’t feel like a defeat, as he has still achieved whatever distance and however many lifts as the point he stops at. Whereas when he’s climbing, Tyson has either completed that attempt at climbing the wall or he hasn’t. It feels like a defeat to lower himself back to the ground without completing the wall.

Parkouring around London goes into the running category for Tyson. It’s like running through an obstacle course in his army days. Every building he manages to get over, around, or through counts as a success.

Even when he needs to haul himself over a ledge or climb up drainpipes to make his way to a window, Tyson would never put that into the same category of climbing up as a rock wall. In his mind, it’s more dynamic and involved than a climbing wall.

Sports

Tyson’s brother and P.E. teacher can be quoted as repeatedly saying that Tyson “improved with the weather” when it came to sport, which was true. Until his issues with excessive heat rear their head, Tyson’s sporting proficiency blooms with the weather.

As part of the archaic series of endless lessons that Tyson was required to learn as an heir of the Delaney legacy, Tyson took part in archery, horse riding, fencing, and dancing lessons; his dance lessons included ballroom, classical, tap, and contemporary dance.

His favourite one, and the one that he was best at, was fencing. Though Tyson never believed his tutors when he said this, Tyson could genuinely have made a living out of fencing professionally if he wanted to. He favours Saber then Épée, and then Foil.

Though Tyson was pretty good at rock climbing when he went with his brother, Jethro, to his classes, it wasn’t one that Tyson particularly enjoyed. He prefers the freedom to pick his own paths that climbing trees, mountains, or parkouring around London provides.

Tyson played cricket on his secondary school and university teams. At his secondary school, Tyson was also a part of the rugby team, but he always prefers to watch rugby than play it.

He was also a reluctant part of the tennis club at his secondary school. Tyson hates playing tennis, but he joined because it was a sport his mother used to play and Tyson saw that it made Jethro happy when Tyson practised the sport.

Through forces unseen, Tyson ended up getting roped into the cross-country team at his primary school. He didn’t mind that too much, even if he still doesn’t know how he ended up there. He regularly goes for runs around London, with or without his dogs at his heels.

In his free time, Tyson actively enjoys swimming - especially swimming outdoors - and goes mountain boarding with his sister-in-law, Rosie. He likes skateboarding during the early morning hours with his dogs on lazy days. His bicycle is his primary mode of transport around London, though Tyson enjoys cycling more off-road.

Running

Tyson is a good runner. He’s surprisingly fast when he wants to be and, once he gets tunnel vision, Tyson will run for miles upon miles without pause; until finally collapsing when it occurs to him to question how far he’s travelled, and then gets driven home - tail between his legs - and too tired to fully register that he’s afraid of vehicles.

He’s best over very short distances, say twenty-one feet, or over very long distances. Over the standard 100 meters, Tyson is more likely to lose to someone of equivalent physical fitness. He’ll take an early lead, but by the ⅔ mark, others will have drawn level with Tyson and start to overtake him.

At longer distances, however, Tyson is endurance incarnate. Tyson will run until his legs physically cannot hold him any longer. He will regret doing so every time, but he will still do it. He had to do that to survive. This is why Tyson tends to escape when chased, his Synesthesia gives him the terrain advantage and he can - typically - run for long enough that his pursuers tire and concede.

He frequently goes for jogs in the mornings with his dogs, an old habit from the army that he never truly managed to shake off. Normally he does this in the very early morning, before most people are on the streets to appease his anxiety and to enjoy the brief quiet, to enjoy lovely Lady London.

Though he’ll change up his wardrobe occasional, Tyson typically wears a rotation of these shirts when he goes for his morning jogs. They’re all older shirts that Tyson doesn’t mind getting sweaty. He usually won’t wear them when working out, unless he ran to the gym. He has a different group of shirts for that.

Fitness

Though Tyson would call himself lazy for only maintaining rather than pushing himself to his limits, Tyson gets far more exercise than the average person and keeps himself to the same standards that he saw in the army. He is fit for purpose, nothing more.

He regularly goes on runs with his dogs and works out in his apartment. On top of that, his work for the web and escaping The Colonel are great practical forms of exercise. The amount of good that does is somewhat undermined by constantly under-eating and his erratic sleep cycle, and as such Tyson is always a little underweight; especially given how hard he works his body.

On the rare occasions when he wants to do more exercise he prefers to do so indoors at a private gym, away from the general public less his anxiety flare up too much. He can still get a little stressed on the running machine or in the sauna, but going into the swimming pool to do laps or into one of the one person meditation booths always calms him down.

This usually happens when Tyson has been too busy to complete his normal workout schedule. He needs to maintain his body to be useful to the web in an ‘in the field’ capacity long term, but actually completing his tasks for the web takes president over maintenance.

When he’s not working out, Tyson tends to move minimally, to conserve the maximum amount of energy that he can: slowly stretching one limb at a time and lounging on the settee with his dogs for hours at a time. To do otherwise leaves Tyson feeling constantly tired.

Though he considers it to be his own laziness, always the first to criticise himself, it is actually a mild form of chronic fatigue from how overtaxed his body constantly is; in addition to the fatigue imposed by a combination of his anxiety, OCD, PTSD, & borderline split personality disorder.

Yoga

In a previous headcanon I mentioned that Tyson tried yoga once but never since and that, though flexibility wasn't an issue for him, causing pain in the dent in his torso was.

In Tyson's main!verse - despite occasionally doing control exercises with Jasmine - Tyson didn't really start meditating until he was taught to by monks whilst the dent in his torso recovered and yoga came afterwards. This applies for almost all verses, except Orphan AU - child!verse, child!verse 2, & teen!verse - and Hogwarts AU where Tyson doesn't have, and isn't going to gain, the dent in his torso.
Tyson isn't going to take up meditation [fully; he's dabbled slightly as a teenager in both AUs] or yoga in any of those verses, but beyond them - an adult Tyson within those universes - he would end up doing both. In his early twenties, Tyson would begin meditating frequently in those verses and by mid-twenties would be doing yoga frequently too. In his main!verse he's decently flexible already, but those version of adult Tyson would be very flexible and happy to let his dog join in the fun.

Fencing

Tyson was a good fencer in his teens.

A damn good fencer. Tyson’s brother and P.E. teacher can be quoted as repeatedly saying that Tyson “improved with the weather” when it came to sport, which was true. Tyson likes to relax and ‘conserve energy’, but he has shown himself to be talented in dancing [ballroom, classical, tap, and contemporary], cricket, and fencing.

Whilst Tyson was willing to go out and play cricket where people could see him, he kept fencing - like dancing - between himself, his tutor, his brother, and his father. When playing cricket a lot of the focus was on other players, were as in dance and in fencing more of the attention was on Tyson. This made him nervous and, therefore, unwilling to ‘perform’ outside of the classroom.

Tyson’s fencing tutor - who was also his Latin and Geography tutor - said that Tyson could have made a living out of fencing had he gotten over his nerves, Tyson never believed that.

Tyson would leap at the chance to fence again. His social anxieties mean that he’d never join a club to take up fencing, but if he got the chance to fence with some one he knew and trusted Tyson wouldn’t turn down the opportunity.

His talent with swords - mostly fencing swords, but he has dabbled with a fair amount of success with other swords - played a large role in him favouring knives over guns; after hand to hand combat (focusing on nerve, pressure, and vital points), obviously.

He was never into watching football but when asked what team he supports he answers Burnley because when he was growing up that was the only team he knew who most of the players were.

Every weekend Jethro would take Tyson swimming in a near by creak. Once Jethro ran away from home Tyson would hang up the leather jacket his brother left him hanging from a tree branch and sit by the side of the river hoping he would see Jethro again. 

Tyson played cricket on his school's cricket team every year. He was an excellent bowler and fielder, but his batting was definitely his weakest point. He wasn't bad, just not as good.