What Kind of Karate is in Cobra Kai? | ART OF ONE DOJO - YouTube

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All right, all right, all right, all right, you got the idea.

It's no secret that YouTube's newest show, "Cobra Kai," is an internet sensation.

But we're not going to review the show today, but rather I would like to address the burning

question that many fans seem to be asking.

What kind of karate is in "Cobra Kai?"

Thirty-four years after the famous crane kick felt around the world, we're treated to a

modern update of the "Karate Kid" saga.

It plucks the strings of nostalgia for my generation, and it strikes the chord of inspiration

for the young generation.

I am part of the legion that stumbled across this under-the-radar hit back in 1984 and

decided that I, too, wanted to learn the way of the fists.

Martial arts schools in America weren't as prevalent in the 80s as they are today, and

the term karate itself is still often used as a general term for most martial arts.

But as I grew up, I asked myself, "What kind of style is it?"

What did Mr. Miyagi teach Daniel and what kind of karate is in "Cobra Kai?"

There's a lot of discussion about this online.

There's a bunch of theories, but we're going to run down some of the more popular opinions

and evidence that has been presented to us.

Also, for the purpose of this discussion, we will be including the original three "Karate

Kid" films and the "Cobra Kai" series.

We will not be basing anything off the next "Karate Kid" or the 2010 "Karate Kid" remake.

Okay.

Time to geek out.

Before we answer the question of what kind of karate is in "Cobra Kai," let's point something

out.

If we're talking about "Karate Kid" in general, there's actually kind of two different styles

to approach.

We've got Miyagi style and Johnny style, the "Cobra Kai" way and the Miyagi Do way.

Basically, when they filmed the "Karate Kid" back in 1983, came out in 1984, all choreography

was done by Pat Johnson.

He's one of the earlier martial arts greats.

He was Chuck Norris's top student.

He's the grand master or really high-ranking master of Tang Soo Do.

He did all the fight choreography in the film as well as he starred as the head referee

in the tournaments in both the first and third movie.

What I find is really fun trivia is I love the way he approached choreograph in the film.

He didn't just all of the actors together and say, "You're going to do this.

You're going to do this."

Mr. Johnson actually kind of worked on the dynamic as well as the art.

So Ralph Maccio and Pat Morita were taught together.

They were trained separately from all the other actors.

Mr. Johnson worked with them two together, so they actually could develop a bond by doing

their training.

When it came to the Cobras, Mr. Johnson actually trained the Cobra actors, Tommy, Bobby, Johnny,

Jimmy, separately.

I mean, they were together in the group but separately from John Kreese.

He taught John Kreese completely separately as their sensei and kind of told them that

he knows more than you, but the Cobras didn't know what he knew.

So he wanted the dynamic of you have your high-level teacher.

Then you've got the cobra students who don't know what he knows, and you've the completely

different art over here with Miyagi and Daniel that had their own bond and dynamic.

So I love the way that Pat Johnson approached this film.

Pat Johnson is also known for choreographing multiple films such as "Teenage Mutant Ninja

Turtles" and the "Mortal Kombat" film.

Now, if we break this down a little bit, let's look at Miyagi Do karate.

He doesn't really give much information other than it was taught to him by his father, and

it came from Okinawa.

Then "Karate Kid II" even further exemplifies this, that Okinawa was the origin of his art.

So we know that's a good starting point to begin with, some sort of Okinawan karate,

traditional Japanese.

The bigger hint comes in "Karate Kid Part III" when Miyagi is teaching Daniel Kata.

If you ask a lot of martial arts practitioners the art of Goju Ryu, they will recognize the

Kata.

They'll all tell you it's performed incorrectly and wrong and the wrong timing.

It was modified for cinema, but the moves are very similar.

So if we look at Goju Ryu origins, Goju Ryu is an Okinawan art.

Okay.

Starting to line up a little bit.

Then let's look at the name, Mr. Miyagi.

Looking at Goju Ryu, if you trace it back to its grand master, the guy who created it

is Chojun Miyagi.

So now we can kind of see the picture of where the inspiration of Mr. Miyagi came from.

We have an Okinawan art with a Kata that's performed in the film, albeit altered, and

Miyagi named after Chojun Miyagi.

So we can conclude pretty confidently that Miyagi Do karate is Goju Ryu or at least a

Hollywood version of it.

Johnny's a different story.

In the "Karate Kid" films, we see Daniel's training constantly.

It's all about his instruction, all about his level of discipline and his art.

But we never really learn anything about Cobra Kai.

We don't see the classes being taught besides no mercy, strike hard, strike first.

That's all we get.

Now, in the "Cobra Kai" TV show, there's a lot more into that as we see Johnny training

his students.

But even he himself doesn't go any further than to say it's old school karate.

So what does Cobra Kai train in?

What kind of martial art is it?

Let's look at Johnny's style.

In both the movies and the TV show, he's very kick-oriented.

He's got lots of high kicks, lots of fancy kicks, especially in a tournament.

That's very prevalent in the Korean arts, Tang Soo Do, Taekwondo, they're very kick

heavy.

If we go into "Karate Kid Part III," there's actually a scene where the villain, Terry

Silver, comes to Miyagi and Daniel's training and says he was a classmate and colleague

of John Kreese, and he's here on behalf of his master from South Korea to give his apologies

for Johnny Kreese's action.

Okay, so now we have the South Korea aspect, which lines up with Taekwondo or Tang Soo

Do.

Let's take this even further.

Pat Johnson, as we talked about earlier, choreographed the films.

He is a Tang Soo Do master.

So now you put the pieces together.

You've got Terry Silver, who mentions their sensei in South Korea.

You've got the kick-based arts in Johnny's techniques, and then you've got the fact that

Pat Johnson is Tang Soo Do master.

I think we can confidently conclude that Johnny and Cobra Kai train in Tang Soo Di or at least

a variance of it.

It's really interesting because you see a lot of debate online.

A lot of fans theorize that it's Shotokan or Taekwondo, and it's kind of funny because

it gets really heated.

Because you've got Shotokan practitioners saying, "No, I trained in Shotokan.

This is definitely Shotokan."

People are like, "Well, no, it's Taekwondo."

"Oh, no, but Taekwondo came from Shotokan."

People jump in, "No, it's Kyokushin karate."

So it's kind of funny to see people talking about it because it's never really stated

in the film, but all we can do is take the pieces and kind of put it together.

For fun, what kind of art is it?

Because as we grew up, again, karate was just karate, but now that we can kind of break

the levels down, it's kind of a fun thing to examine.

The reason we're not going to include the next "Karate Kid" and the "Karate Kid" remake

in this list is because there's a lot of inconsistencies in the training and the martial arts style

and the fact that the "Karate Kid" remake is actually kung fu.

So that could be a whole different discussion on its own.

Now, here's some little fun bit of trivia.

That crane kick.

The crane kick is the most iconic thing.

It's been immortalized by this film, and the thing is it doesn't even exist.

It's not a real karate technique.

When they were working on the first film, Pat Johnson was working with the stunt coordinator,

a famous martial artist known as Darryl Vidal, really high-ranking.

He's a 10th-degree now, I believe, in Chinese Kenpo Karate.

He helped with the stunts on the film.

I think he was some of the stunt doubles as well, if I'm not mistaken.

Mr. Johnson went to Mr. Vidal and said he was looking for some sort of cool, unique

technique to end the film with.

So Vidal, on the spot, just came up with the crane kick.

Just something flashy, something fun, but it's not based on any reality.

Even a fun fact, too, is you can see Darryl Vidal in the film.

He is the opponent that Johnny defeats right before fighting Daniel, and he's also Miyagi's

stunt double on the beach scene on the tree stump doing the crane kick where we see it

for the first time.

So what do you thinK?

What kind of karate is in "Cobra Kai?"

Do you agree that Goju Ryu and Tang Soo Do are the foundations at least for the arts

of the films and the series?

Tell me below if you agree or if you think I'm completely full of crap or if you think

it's something else altogether.

So don't forget to subscribe and share this video, and thanks for watching.

No mercy.