

Soo literally means “hand.” Tang refers to the Tang Dynasty (618-907) indicating the Chinese origins of the art. It’s the same word in Korean and Japanese and serves as a suffix for many martial arts like Karate-Do, Judo, and Taekwondo. Tang Soo Do means “Way of the Tang Hand.” Do means “the Way,” same character as the Dao in Chinese. Johnson and Norris practice Tang Soo Do, a Korean martial art, but this is where translation of the terminology gets complicated.


Beyond The Karate Kid, he worked on other films including Enter the Dragon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Mortal Kombat. And despite not disqualifying Daniel’s illegal winning crane kick, Johnson is a highly respected martial arts referee. Johnson is a student of Chuck Norris and captained Norris’ Black Belt Competition team to win 33-consecutive national and international championships. He was the martial arts choreographer for the original films and played the Referee. The martial arts depicted in The Karate Kid must be attributed to Grandmaster Pat E. Cobra Kai – Strike Hard, Strike Fast, No Mercy In action films, actors play roles that require them to portray themselves as masters of different styles than they practice in real life. However, beyond training Kove, Kubota had little influence on The Karate Kid. He named it the Kubotan after himself, and it is still widely used by Police and Enforcement today. What’s more, Kubota patented a self-defense weapon, a rod-shaped keychain fob the size of a sharpie. Gosuku means “hard fast.” Ryu literally means “flow” but is a suffix commonly used in Karate to denote a specific system or style. He created his own style of Karate called Gosuku-Ryu. Kubota was a noted celebrity trainer who cultivated many famous students including James Caan, Robert Conrad, Ron Ely, George Kennedy, Sam Peckinpah, Hilary Swank (who starred as The Next Karate Kid) to name a few. Martin Kove (Kreese) studied Karate under the famous Grandmaster Takayuki Kubota. Ron Thomas practiced Jujitsu, which had little application for his role as Cobra Kai’s Bobby in the film. Only three of the original actors had studied martial arts prior to filming. In many ways, it’s Daniel’s inexperience and awkwardness with Karate that helps to sell the story.
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Like David Carradine in ‘70s TV show Kung Fu, they earned their roles with their acting skills, not their martial arts proficiency. Zabka had some background in wrestling but that was it.

When The Karate Kid began production, Ralph Macchio (Daniel), William Zabka (Johnny), and Pat Morita (Mr. With most productions, a hodge-podge of movie-fu makes for better action than authentic martial arts. They are telling a story, not making a documentary.
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In any movie or series, the filmmakers and showrunners aren’t beholden to a specific style. Now that Netflix has picked up Cobra Kai from YouTube Red, a whole new crop of fans has discovered the show and the question has come up again: What type of Karate do they practice at Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai? The truth is it might not even be Karate. Fans wondered which style Daniel and Johnny were really doing. There are many different styles of Karate. However, for anyone aspiring to learn the true ways of Miyagi-Do-or Cobra Kai as the case may be-Dojos weren’t propounding deck sanding and fence painting as part of their curriculum. When The Karate Kid premiered in 1984, new students rushed to enroll in Karate Dojos across the nation.
