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

*PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE COMMENTING THAT THE CRANE KICK IS REAL OR THAT I LEFT OUT FUMIO DEMURA* I get comments on this DAILY, and I addressed this in fuller detail in the second video. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Ct9DqIrpAqk.html There are many SIMILAR moves to the crane kick in other arts, but nothing that is exactly the same as it is presented in the film. If you disagree, please post a video demonstration of another art doing the crane kick EXACTLY as we see it in the film, and from a source or an art that existed before 1984.

I have reached a new level of nerd.

William zabka the actor for Johnny actually became interested in tang Soo do and has a black belt in it. Guess who's the real karate kid.

It’s not karate It’s Cobra Kai

Zabka confirmed recently at C2E2 that Cobra Kai was trained in Tang Soo Do.

I'll have the McCobra combo with special kai sauce

Spoiler alert 🚨 but in season 3 when Kreese has a Vietnam flashback his captain says he was trained in Tang Soo Do and that he will teach kreese the same. So that pretty much confirms that because kreese founded cobra Kai and that is probably the only variant he knows.

The style is American Tang Soo Do aka American Karate. Pat Johnson and Chuck Norris both earned black belts from the Moo Duk Kwon in Korea in the art of Tang Soo Do during their time stationed there in the Airforce. They added American boxing and judo throws and called it American Tang Soo Do/Karate. Chuck ended up modifying the art more adding BJJ and amending the forms and creating the Chuck Norris System. Pat Johnson stuck with American Tang Soo Do and is a 9th degree Black Belt Grand Master. This is what he taught the Cobra Kai! There are several instructors in Southern California from Pat & Chucks lineages who still teach this style and were trained under them at Sherman Oaks Karate back in the 70’s and 80’s. Thought I’d add a little history for you 👊🏻 OSU

That was a stunt double on the beach stump? My world has just been shattered

Fun fact: the actor who played Miguel confirmed in an interview that he and his fellow cobra kai costars were trained by Simon Rhee, who is a Taekwondo and Hapkido master and actor in martial arts movies like "Best of the Best"

I lean to Cobra Kai karate being Kyokushin Karate. Mas Oyama the founder of Kyokushin was from Korea.

I think you're spot on especially about Cobra Kai. A lot of Korean war veterans learned Korean Martial Arts and came back home and taught under the umbrella of "Karate" because it's a more mainstream word. In the 70's and 80's no one would know what Tang Soo Do was so it was easier to just explain it off as Karate. Like Chuck Norris's biggest secret is his style is actually Tang Soo Do, not Karate. He learned it in the Air Force while stationed in Korea

It’s tang soo do , there’s the short answer

William Zabka states in an interview that his style is Tang Soo Do.

Strike first, strike hard, no mercy, win at all cost is what is taught to Cobra Kai students. I didn't realize where that came from until I joined the military. In the movies John Kreese and Terry Silver were both in the army special forces which is how they met. They were taught to be that way. The same thing was drilled into my head when I was in the military and was taught "gutter fighting " techniques. It is taught because of it brutal effenceny and simplicity. The point is to strike first and end the fight quickly. William Fairbairn the founder called his style gutter fighting because it was a dirty way to fight. He was a gentleman but knew that you couldn't be in a street fight. He taught the allies in WWII his system. The military still teaches his system today because of the short learning curve. Today it is known officially as Defendu. I still practice it but realize it is best not to fight because it's not a game. I didn't notice any gutter fighting techniques in Cobra Kai but I did notice the kill or be killed mentally.

Miyagi style, is definitely a very soft Hollywood version of Goju ryu. It's not so much the poor version of Seiunchin, but it's the sequence of paint the fence and wax on/wax off. Goju ryu is known for circular soft blocks and hard linear strikes. The hard and soft style. Wax on and wax off represent this really well and are features of one of Goju's core kata Tensho. Tensho is a very simple but beautiful kata, and employs these soft but but very effective techniques.

the Kick exists in Karate, it's called mae tobe geri. Lyoto Machida used it to defeat Randy Couture. Just not as stylized.

During the rehearsal movie, Pat Johnson plays Kreese. He is actually wearing a uniform with Tang Soo Do written on it.

Lol it was officially confirmed in season 3 that kreese learned tang soo do

And at Comic Con this year Billy Zabka said it was Tang Soo Do. Great job!

In real life, William Zabka is currently a green belt in Tang Soo Do and continued training after the OG film. So I concur with the analysis as well.

I was training in Goju-Ryu when the movie came out, and was ecstatic that I recognized Mr. Miyagi's style 😁 Yeah, I'm old. I still remember that training fondly.

This episode was freaking fantastic! As a Taekwondo instructor, I always felt like Kobra Kai was TKD because of how widespread TKD was becoming in the US in the late 70s/early 80s...especially in California. But glad to see that it seems fairly obvious based on who did the choreography that is was TSD. Awesome!

It's pretty clear that Miyagi-Do and its back-story is based off of Goju-Ryu. It's likely that Cobra Kai (at least part of the back story) is also based from the story of Goju-Ryu's American cousin. There is actually (more than one) Americanized style of Goju-Ryu. These styles have their roots directly in the US military occupation of Okinawa after world war II. Yamaguchi, the first heir of Goju did train a number of foreign students but did not believe they ever deserved the rank of master. Many of Yamaguchi's American students did come back to the US to branch out and create their own styles of Goju mixing a more Americanized militaristic training with traditional Okinawan Goju. Peter Urban is a prime example of this. Urban taught basic elements of Boxing and Judo. Something many of his students still do today. There is a style of Goju that dates back to the early 70's that not only had a fierce militaristic style of training but also used a Cobra as its call sign. American Cobra Goju founded by the late Nelson G Garcia used the logo of a Cobra with the traditional Goju fist in the center. Nelson Garcia died a few years back and did not leave an heir to his style however some of Garcia's students are still operating Cobra Goju schools across Florida.

I practice Goju-Ryu, and i noticed the kata Miyagi taught Daniel. When i was a kid, this movie inspired me to practice karate, and i never woulda thought the style i’m practicing in is the one Miyagi’s character is using. Love it!

I have over 7 years experience in Tang Soo Do, and currently practice it. A lot of people compare it to shotokan and other styles similar to it. Having seen some of those styles in videos online and at tournaments, I can see the comparison. I have practiced TSD in 2 different federations/associations and see differences between them. In the cobra Kai show they mention that Kreese was trained in TSD during the Vietnam war. I think with all you’ve shown, and them actually saying it, I would say it’s a variant of tang soo do.

I come from the future. Cobra kai is indeed based on Tang Soo Do.

in the simplest terms, miyagi-do does "kara te", and cobra kai does "kuh-rottie"

I 100% agree with the analysis. I said over 10 years ago it was goju-ryu karate and Tang soo do

The great mistery of what style is kobra kai is tang so do is apear in the 3 season back story of john

Well it was tang soo do, in season 3 of cobra Kai kreese’s army teacher said it was tang soo do in a Way

Cobra kai is Tang soo doo. Since pat Johnson choreographed it and he's a Tang soo do master. !! Besides I used to train in Tang soo do. I recognize it..

Its been confirmed to be tang soo do, even thought it doesnt look like it

Cobra Kai: *Death* Kune Do 💀

yep. fair to say it's Tang Soo Do. You noted the emphasis on kicks used by Johnny and the other Cobra Kai students (as seen in the tournament scenes). Korean arts are "kick-heavy" and Pat Johnson's base art is Tang Soo Do; seems only reasonable to say that Tang Soo Do is the base art for Cobra Kai students perhaps with some variations from Master Johnson's creativity

The movies inspired me to get into martial arts training too. I never really thought much about the styles until I became an advanced black belt and starting my own school. I clearly say Miyagi Do as Goju Ryu. I had beloved that Kyokushikai was Cobra Kai as it had the kick heavy style and brutal culture, but Tang soo Do makes a lot of sense for the reasons this video highlighted. My style is an offshoot of Kyokushin (Seido) and the katas and movements have their roots in Okinawan karate. So it was always a conundrum as an adult to see these movies and figure out their origins. And like most Japanese martial arts they are derivatives from Kung Fu brought back to Okinawa around 16z uth century.

You forgot to mention Fumio Demuro's part in the original Karate kid as a technical advisor. At least that is what was stated a few months ago in Martial Arts Success Magazine. As far as the crane kick, it is a variation of the scissor kick in traditional Karate. The block Daniel San is doing while doing the kick are tencho blocks, very common in Goju. The Kata they are doing is Seiunchin Kata, it is a very common Goju Kata I would almost say Goju's flagship Kata. Then what would I know? I am only a 7th dan who put my first gi on 50 years ago.

Also with Cobra Kai, there was an episode in Season 1 where Sensei Lawrence addresses the students with “Chun bi”, a Korean term for ready stance. Johnny also uses various Japanese words throughout Season 1 so Tang Soon Do would be an appropriate answer to the question.

Pat Johnson also starred in enter the dragon as the villain who tries to get the money off roper,when playing golf

Cobra Kai - Tang Soo Do. Miyagi - Goju Ryu Karate. Always knew that Cobra Kai's art was similar to Shotokan, cos Shotokan is similar to Taekwondo and Tang Soo Do, even Kyokushin Karate.

It is confirmed that John Kreese and Terry Silver were trained in the art of Tang Soo Do

I think you're dead on about both styles. In the 1st film miyagi even mentioned that his ancestor renamed Te which lends credence to the Goju ryu guess, as well as Goju being a descendant of White Crane Kung Fu, ergo the crane technique. As to cobra Kai, knowing the choreographers style as well as the line about masters in South Korea is good enough evidence to me that it is Tang Soo Do. Johnny's kicking style as well as Dutch's series of crescent kicks are just further evidence. I can't understand why anyone would think it was Kyokushin! That style and its competition is so different from anything on the movie. Good job, and great video!

Acredito também que o Karate da Cobra Kai poderia ser mais uma interpretação americana do Karate de modo genérico, ou seja, uma fusão do Karate japonês como o Shotokan com artes marciais coreanas como o Tae Kwon Do ou mesmo o Tang Soo Do. Pelo que noto os americanos não se prendem a métodos tradicionais orientais e criam sempre seus próprios métodos, mas uma coisa é certa. A palavra Karate e Kai são japonesas.

I watched an interview with Billy Zabka and Ralph Macchio. Zabka says something like "We were trained separately. I was trained in Korean style and [Macchio] was trained in Okinawan style". Plus, the name "Tang Soo Do" is the Korean pronunciation for the ORIGINAL kanji for "Karate-do" which translates to "Way of the Tang (Dynasty) Hand" instead of the current "Way of the Empty Hand". The style itself was created by Koreans who trained in Japanese karate (primarily Shotokan, since that was the mainstream karate style in Japan at the time) during WWII. Since Tang Soo Do is descended from Shotokan, I can totally see how Shotokan guys would recognize those techniques and methods.

The kick itself is a real Karate technique, its in the kata Chinto, but putting your arms up like that seems more like a Kung Fu type of posture

Miyagi s Karate is Okinawan Goju Ryu....Kobra Kai is Tang Soo Do

Season 3 confirmed what I said earlier: Cobra Kai karate is Tang Soon Do! Props to Anthony Michael Hall as Kreese's Captain in Vietnam. I like what Chosin taught Daniel, which Daniel used against Kreese in the season finale. The whole Okinawa trip was worth it.

When you watch S3 and realize this guy way right all the time :3

I have all the other Commenters Beat. I just found in the Attic my Original Karate Kid Action Figures and the pre-broken wooden chop stacks

Watching Daniel do Seiunchin hurts my soul, it's the only kata he ever does too 😂

I beleve cobra kai is what came to be known in the eighries as American Freestyle. This was coined by a,tournament fighter named Dan Anderson. American Freestyle seemed to take elements from various punching and kicking styles and added American ingenuity in terns if footwork setups positioning and taciics. Lets not forget that The original instructor of Cobra Kai was a viet nam vet as my instructors wwre. Many Vietnam instructors had a street based no mercy element to their art tgat they learned as life and death combat soldiers

Okinawan Karate and Adapted Tang Soo Do is objectively correct. The creators and actors have confirmed that so the discussion is over and you are correct.

They jus confirmed that cobra kai style is tang soo do don't know if you watched the entire season 3 yet but the captain who trained kreese confirmed it

*I done the crane kick to my bully ..* Now I’m in hospital 😂

Hello sir I appreciate your channel and I thought I would just offer some insight. for the record I am a fourth Dan in American Tang Soo Do. Putting the American in front of it is extremely important because this is the martial art that the cobra Kai practice. this is the martial art that grandmaster Pat is a 10th Dan in. if anybody was to watch and suspect that it might be Shotokan I would find that interesting as it really is not relative to the Art other than forms, the forms from shotokan are the grandparent if you will of the forms in Tang Soo Do. There is a pretty big difference between variants of Tang Soo Do. The art I am ranked in and teach here in Arizona is American TSD, which as you mentioned the connection between grandmaster Pat and grandmaster Chuck Norris, the American version of it in Chuck Norris is united fighting arts Federation is now called the Chuck Norris system. they are essentially one in the same. Back in the 60s when Chuck Norris came home from Korea he brought the art to America. Eventually he broke apart from the Korean organizations because he felt they were too relaxed on their standards and that’s when he created the American variant. At some point grandmaster Pat broke apart from Chuck Norris and Chuck Norris began calling it after his name because, well he’s famous so he used that to his advantage. Ultimately today’s tae kwon do is mostly known as sport because of the Olympics but old classical taekwondo is very similar to traditional Tang Soo Do. Just throwing that out there for the people that see some similarities in taekwondo in the movies. To even further express how obvious it is that grandmaster Pat taught his art, The American version of the art encompasses very much a non-traditional uniforms and other aspects as seen in the movie. In the American version of our art it is very common to use unique looking uniforms whereas in the traditional version which by the way I am also ranked in as a first Dan, The word tradition alone encompasses that aspect of everybody using the more traditional uniforms which look nothing like that in the new system. Bruce Lee is often called the real grandfather of mixed martial arts but I would like to also note that Chuck Norris is on that same level as the American version of the art and sometimes called Chuck Norris system is very well-known at this point for having Brazilian jujitsu and wrestling as well as boxing and kickboxing incorporated into the art of Tang Soo Do which is what completes our system. Chuck Norris was quoted as saying that Bruce did not want to incorporate head kicks or kicks above the waist in his fighting system but that he himself Mr. Chuck Norris talked him into it because you never know if you might need it so why not practice it. Nothing but respect to all of these old martial arts experts who had such a big impact on the arts and much respect to you for doing these videos. MMA has become so popularized that the heyday if you well of Karate has long been passed but I believe that what we do in teaching or doing videos or speaking about the arts is exceptionally important to keeping them and their momentum alive. Take care.

So series 3 of Cobra Kai has confirmed that Kreese's style of karate is Tang Soo Do!

it's definitely Tang Soo Do From South Korea Period

I believe the Crane kick is inspired by Crane Form Kung Fu: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-SAdx-pIu7eA.html You can see it demonstrated here at 0.14 seconds.

This is very interesting. I would love to learn Goji-ryu but I don't see a school in my area.

Master Ken from "Ameri Do Te" is the Original master of Kreese.. Therefore, they use the famous martial art *AMERI - DO - TE*

If Johnnys karate was Kyokushin poor Daniel would not have survived the first fight in the tournament..

People also forget in the OG Karate Kid Johnny can be heard giving class instruction during warm up in Korean. Chuck Norris actually learnt Tang Soo Do while stationed in Korea with the US military. It would line up that Kreese and Silver, ex-military men, could've also learned TSD in Korea.

Front hit, front kick, SIDE DAB!!!

...And you were absolutely accurate about Tang Soo Do, cheers!

He also doubled for Morita during the Halloween beating when Miyagi drops in as Daniel was outnumbered by the skeleton dressed Cobras.

The Myagi-do style is collectively Naha-te which includes Gojo-Ryu as well as other styles. A central influenced was Southern White Crane Kungfu from China that was imported into Okinawa. Interestingly, as a Shaolin Kempo student, the 8 point blocking system as practiced open handed is basically the identical to the one shown in the first Karate Kid.

Bad ass Sensei #OSS🥋

I visited Goju Ryu dojos in the 90s in Okinawa. I was told the producers visited them in the early 80s for inspiration. Also the original Paint the fence, Paint the house block is from a Goju Ryu kata called Tensho.

GOJU RYU! A totally hard style Japanese karate, really old school!

Fun fact, both Tae Kwon Do and Tang Soo Do were heavily based on Shotokan by combining it with Soo Bahk, the main difference is that there is also much more influence from Northern Kung Fu and Okinawan Karate styles and Judo in Tang Soo Do. If there are other influences for Tae Kwon Do I just don't know them, as I never practiced it but if someone knows, fill me in.

Rip Pat Morita

The name of the man who introduced Tang Soo Do to US in 1960s was Jhoon Rhee. In 1980s he had a network of dojos in the Washington D. C. area. It might be accidental that his name is similar to John Kreese, but maybe it's not. Pat Johnson must have heard of him, at the very least.

At least inside their own "Universe" I've always looked at Cobra Kai as a mixture of a traditional Martial art Kreese learned at a civilian dojo mixed in with hand to hand combat he learned in the Army.

Revisiting this episode. If there was a Tang Soo Do or Goju Ryu school around my area I would be totally down. Unfortunately the only 2 traditional Karate schools in my area I won't train with because of reasons of disrespect. Respect is a huge part of martial arts. Pretty much leaves me with 2 options. Revisit my own Karate with no chance of advancement in rank or enroll in a distance learning program

I could see Tang Soo Do which I did learn as part of Hwa Rang Do. I can also see why people would say Shotokan karate as well. No way it's Tae Kwon Do though. Far to many punch/hand attacks and blocks for Tae Kwon Do.

I thing I got hooked by this channel! Anyway, just my thoughts about the crane kick and a couple of facts. As you know, the screenwriter Robert M. Kamen was a Goju-Ryu practitioner. He was a student in Toguchi Seikichi's Shorei-Kan. In Shorei-Kan, we have this kata, called Hakutsuru no Mai (The Dance of the White Crane) which is our flagship as it was created directly from Toguchi Sensei as the tenth and last Fukyu Kata. In this kata, we perform a similar technique twice: the first one with a different hand position but same kick (just not that high) and the second one with the same hands position but no kicks. So, the iconic technique that gave Daniel San the winning point, seems to be combination of these two techniques. And, IMHO, the fact that Mr. Kamen trained in the Shorei-Kan should at least lead to a reopening of this cold case!

I'm a 2nd degree black belt in Goju Ryu and I've always recognized the similarities, albeit cinematized version of the Miyagi Karate from the film.

The analysis is accurate, which can be supported by recent interviews from the two principal actors.

I am already well advanced in the martial art of Tang Soo Do and have noticed a lot of the same things.

Oh boy! You're going to get the onslaught of opnions with those questions Dan my man! 😊 Great video! Easy to watch and fun! 👍 It's difficult to tell what art they are portraying since actors and stunt men are performing modified versions of the arts in question. To me it looks like a hybrid of Tang Soo Do and Tae Kwon Do with a dash of George Dillman. 😜

There was an interview with Pat Johnson for Karate Kid 3 where he specifically talks about using Goju-Ryu. Chojun Miyagi trained Sensei Teruo Chinen, who was the greatest karate teacher of all time. Sensei Chinen always talked about Goju-Ryu coming from white crane gung-fu.

Stingray looks weird without the beard

Great video. Explained really well which real martial arts were used in the making of the Karate Kid movies.

I think i saw one guy in the last episode of cobra kai doing capoeira.

OOO...OOO...I KNOW THIS...I KNOW...is it...is it...TANG SOO DO? hahaha. miagi's style is GOJU RYU... :D

The system of miagi is goju ryu+ miagi was the name of the creator of goju ryu

I think you have got the two styles correctly identified: a modified for movie version of Goju-ryu (Miyagi-do) and Tang Soo Do (Cobra Kai). The confusion around Kyokushin and Shotokan imo, is largely caused by the fact that Tang Soo Do and Kyokushin are both syncretic arts created by Koreans to incorporate Japanese Karate with traditional Korean kick-based styles. The name ‘Tang Soo Do’ itself is a direct translation of the original meaning of Karate = Way of Tang’s Hand = Chinese Kungfu. In particular this refers to the origin of Karate being an Okinawan arts that blended Southern White Crane (Chinese Kungfu) and Te-shuri (Okinawan arts). While Chojun Miyagi retained many elements from White Crane in his Goju-ryu style (the Sanchin form being one example), on the other hand Gichin Funakoshi changed/removed some Chinese elements in order to popularize Karate in mainland Japan in the 30s at a time when nationalist chauvinism was running rampant close to World War 2. Funakoshi’s Shotokan style became so widely popular that it was this style that was brought to Korea, and later modified into what we know today as Tang Soo Do. So they are all related styles. Plus the Crane Kick seems like a variant of similar kicks in all styles of martial arts based on White Crane, which you can find even in Taiji.

Miyagi do karate is Goju ryu

Tang soo do is found from Shotokan Karate. Taekwondo is formed from Tang soo do after after the break away of hand full students in the early 1950's. But this all is taboo to be spoken of. Interesting facts: William Michael Zabka (Johnny) train in Tang soo do earning his 5th gup for the role. Martin Kove (Kreese) was training before The Karate Kid in Kendo and Teakwondo for another role. Pat Johnson had Kove focus his training in Teakwondo for the role of John Kreese. Pat Johnson trained Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita with rudimentary techniques for there roles. So in long run everything point to Shotokan Karate and Tang Soo do for the styles of karate used in the filmography.

Master Pat Johnson has had quite an illustrious career as a stuntman and, even more so, as a stunt choreographer/coordinator. Besides the 3 original Karate Kid movies, the 3 original TNMT movies and the first 2 Mortal Kombat movies, Pat was also stunt coordinator/choreographer for Showdown in Little Tokyo (with Brandon Lee and Dolph Lundgren), To Live and Die in L.A., Batman & Robin (but don't blame the movie on him!), Punisher: War Zone, Force: Five (with Joe Lewis) and many more. BTW, although not called the 'White Crane' technique, we do teach that kick in the American Karate system. We call it a flying front kick, form 2 (because the second foot off the ground delivers the kick).

Lyoto machida MMA legend did that kick on lyoto x belford fight ... he kod vitor ...

If you pay close attention in Cobra Kai, Johnny bows in his class with Joon Bi, a Korean term used in Tae kwon do, Tang Soo Do and Hapkido...it means ready stance

It's confirmed as tang soo do

YOU WERE RIGHT IT WAS TANG SOO DO

It was Tang Soo Do!

This is so cool! I did not know that a student of Chuck Noris, with his own wicked stash, did the choreography on these movies, Ninja turtles and Mortal Kombat! And i like the way he trained everyone!

Yo, imma tell my school that cobra Kai is taekwondo, so that I can get the dope uniforms.

I can see why people are getting the vibes of Shotokan mix with the one of Tang Soo Do. I actual practice Shotokan and had this conversation with my Sensei. Danny is doing Goju-shito As per Johnny Tang Soo Do with the Stunt coordinator

I grew up thinking Kobra Kai was Shotokan; my grandfather earned a blackbelt after the war while stationed in Japan, then he taught my uncles up to Brown belt. I took Shotokan just up to Yellow belt after getting a yellow W/ stripe in TKD. They all said it was Shotokan. But, if shotokan was a main ancestor school to Tang Soo Do (I didnt know that until now) then it makes perfect sense why there's recognizable characteristics of Shotokan (body punches, deep stance, linear movement, strong kick emphasis, etc.) Plus, I always wondered about the "my master is South Korea" line from KK3, but I thought maybe he had gotten a different master than Krease later on or something.

Fun Fact William Zabka (Johhny) actually has a Black Belt in Tang soo do started training after filming Karate Kid