What’s funny about this is that there are likely those that would stand with Johnny and say that of course the Crane kick to his head was illegal and that Daniel shouldn’t have won. But the truly amusing thing is that the Crane kick IS legal since it’s above the waist and it wasn’t excessive, meaning Daniel wasn’t actively trying to incapacitate Johnny, he was attempting to get a point. True, he telegraphed it and there was no way that Johnny should have been taken in by this attack, but there are a few things that can be said about this that might explain the moment. For one, Johnny was in an emotional state since his sensei had been telling him to ‘sweep the leg’, something that was actually legal since a sweep wasn’t against the rules. It was the savaging of Daniel’s already-injured knee that was a problem since knees aren’t an acceptable target in the tournament. But there’s another reason, and it’s because emotional as he was, Johnny was amped up and ready to go, but he wasn’t in the right state of mind to be fighting at that point. This is something that anyone can attest to, whether it’s in a fight or just doing something that requires focus. It’s hard to function when you’re too emotional, especially when you’re angry since while some people can focus at will and get right down to it, some people unravel and need to take a moment to focus before they get back to business.
Obviously, Johnny wasn’t in the right state of mind to get back on the mat, as he was pissed and ready to simply end it and take Daniel down. That doesn’t really explain why he walked right into the Crane kick since Daniel wasn’t exactly being secretive about it, but emotion was Johnny’s biggest enemy at that moment since he charged forward without thinking about whether or not Daniel was really going to knock him down. The fact that he calls this an illegal kick when describing it to Miguel in the first season of Cobra Kai makes it easy to see that Johnny really can’t let things go, especially since he’d already earned a point with a shot to Daniel’s head, as had one of his fellow Cobra Kai. The Crane kick is absolutely allowed and the kick to the head can be allowed unless of course it’s being done in excess, meaning the person doing the kicking is actively trying to cause serious damage to the other person. Obviously, referees aren’t going to catch absolutely everything, but if a kick sends teeth flying and breaks bone it’s likely that the one performing the kick might be disqualified or at least get a warning.
Plus, the thing about the Crane kick is that it’s not that complicated of a movement, and as we managed to see in The Karate Kid 2 it wasn’t quite as effective against someone that saw it coming, as Daniel telegraphed it once again. Chozen wasn’t taken in since he didn’t charge and he countered the kick pretty easily. But if you really want another reason for that, Chozen was WAY more balanced than Johnny, despite the fact that he was calling for a deathmatch and was fully ready to die or to kill his opponent. This gave Chozen a big edge that Johnny didn’t have, since the tournament wasn’t about killing the other person, it was about breaking them down and humiliating them in the case of the Cobra Kai. In part 2, as Mr. Miyagi did say, it wasn’t a tournament, it was for real. That’s why it was kind of confusing as to why Daniel would try the Crane kick against someone he already knew was deadly and was trying to kill him, but then Daniel never has made the right choices all the time, as is shown in Cobra Kai. But in the tournament, Johnny could whine all he wants decades later about a dirty kick, but smashing someone’s knee and then taking a kick to the face that doesn’t do much more than knock him down is kind of hard to compare. Plus, a kick to the face versus serious joint damage is hard to equate since unless the kick had broken anything other than his nose or caused serious brain trauma, he would have healed fairly quickly. Damage to one’s joints can be a serious matter since if a knee gets smashed beyond repair it’s likely that a person won’t be walking right for the rest of their life.
Those of us that have suffered knee injuries and broken noses can likely attest to which one carries more of a threat to our overall health and lifestyle since being able to breathe through your nose is important, but being able to walk on your own is something that too many people take for granted. A kick to the face in a tournament, especially one that’s legal and has no lasting ramifications, is painful, but easy enough to weather.
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