The 5 Best Karate Kid Moves In Cobra Kai, Ranked

This article contains spoilers for "Cobra Kai" season 6, part 3.

"The Karate Kid" movies started it, and "Cobra Kai" embraced it: the use of increasingly absurd special moves to win the day. The franchise was known for these game-changing, super techniques well before fighting games like "Street Fighter II" and "Mortal Kombat" made them popular, and the franchise never really stopped. As a result, "Cobra Kai" builds a wealth of these iconic moves to choose from, usually rolling out at least one every season. All of these secret techniques serve a specific purpose, but they vary greatly in power and the way they're used on the show.  

For the purposes of this list, I'll focus exclusively on feats. As such, an efficient move like Johnny Lawrence's (William Zabka) Eagle Fang special, the Flying Tornado Kick, is out, simply because its two most prominent moments are comparatively underwhelming. Plus, one of them sees Miguel Diaz (Xolo Maridueña) getting injured as he tries to use it. Likewise, Sensei Wolf's (Lewis Tan) Shaolin Sunset is a demonstrably dangerous kick move, but it takes ages to set up. While deadly against a helpless or reckless opponent, Johnny is able to deftly dodge and counter it during their tie-breaker match in the series finale, "Ex-Degenerate." 

With this process of elimination, I've landed on the following five moves. All of them are nothing short of iconic, having ended fights in a dramatic fashion or otherwise demonstrated their danger. It's time to list the best "The Karate Kid"-style special fight moves seen on "Cobra Kai." 

The very first original special move that "Cobra Kai" introduces is the two-legged kick, which is so deeply difficult to execute that even Daniel himself has never managed to pull it off. As such, when he takes Robby Keene (Tanner Buchanan) as a student in season 1, he can only describe the basics of the technique but not actually show how its done properly. This doesn't stop Robby, who eventually figures out how to pull off the move by himself, thus becoming the second person after Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) to canonically do so — and the first person we see doing it onscreen. 

This powerful Miyagi-Do attack falls by the wayside as the seasons progress, but it doesn't take away from the two-legged kick's impact. Apart from being the first new "Cobra Kai" secret technique that we see, the move also gets a major moment in the spotlight when an injured Robby successfully uses it as a desperation maneuver against the cheating, ultimately victorious Miguel in the season 1 finale, "Mercy." 

The two-legged kick might lack a cool name, but its place in the narrative makes it the closest thing "Cobra Kai" has to an original Crane Kick successor. This would go a long way toward earning it a position on this list even if it wasn't such an impressive and effective move in its own right.

Knowing Terry Silver's (Thomas Ian Griffith) flashy and kick-happy fighting style, it's a bit of a surprise that his ultimate secret technique, the Silver Bullet, is essentially just a special karate stance that ends with a very hard punch to the opponent's chest. Still, sometimes it's good to keep things simple. Thanks to its "charging" starter pose, awesome name, and devastating power, the Silver Bullet is a textbook special move — a supremely dangerous attack that can be unleashed with the speed of a lightning when needs must.

Since the Silver Bullet can effectively punch the air out of a person's lungs or even injure them, it's a fight-ending finishing move by design. Reigning All Valley champion Hawk (Jacob Bertrand) finds this out first-hand when the comparatively inexperienced Kenny Payne (Dallas Dupree Young) uses the move on him in the season 5 episode "Taikai." As a result, Hawk drops like a stone and has to withdraw from the fight. 

Versatile, simple, fast, and able to punch a hole in a training dummy, the only reason the Silver Bullet isn't higher on this list is its one achilles heel. As Silver discovers to his detriment in his final season 5 fight against Daniel, the technique can be blocked if the opponent is sufficiently skilled.

The Crane Kick — or Crane Technique, as Mr. Miyagi calls it — is the single most iconic move in the entire franchise, and it's indefensible by its very design. The admittedly goofy-looking starter position and the kick that's delivered with the supporting foot make for a unique attack that catches an attacking Johnny extremely off-guard in "The Karate Kid." Incidentally, that very kick begins the series of events that directly lead to "Cobra Kai," which only adds to the Crane Technique's prestige.

As expected, the move makes a fair few appearances on the show. Apart from the copious flashbacks to "The Karate Kid's" climactic match, Johnny has Miguel briefly use the move to mock Daniel in "Cobra Kai" season 1, and personally uses it as a taunt in season 4. In a somewhat more heroic turn, Daniel himself brings back the Crane Kick to win his fight against Terry Silver in the season 5 finale, "Head of the Snake."   

The famous attack was a behind-the-scenes headache for Macchio, stuntmen, and pro martial artists, since it's ridiculously hard to execute. It's also so unconventional that its legality in a sanctioned match is disputed even in-universe. Still, despite its high status, the move isn't entirely invincible. During Johnny's match against Sensei Wolf in "Ex-Degenerate," it's specifically noted that a fighter of a sufficiently high skill level would scoff at the technique. Chozen Toguchi (Yuji Okumoto) and Daniel actually have some experience with this. In their "The Karate Kid Part II" face-off, the former negates the latter's Crane Kick attempt with a simple feint. Because of these drawbacks, the most famous "Karate Kid" move in history isn't quite the most powerful one. 

One of the two moves on this list that are specifically designed to end a life, the Miyagi pressure points technique enters the show in season 3, courtesy of Chozen. A throwback skill from Miyagi-Do's more warlike days, the pressure point technique is a group of lightning-quick strikes that can incapacitate or kill an opponent. The big move of the season is a partial version of the technique that temporarily paralyzes an enemy, and Daniel uses it in retaliation after John Kreese (Martin Kove) throws him through a glass door and is about to stab him with a shard. 

Apart from catching the old Cobra Kai master completely unawares with the pressure points technique, this moment also showcases a darker side in Daniel's personality. Consumed by his hate toward all things Cobra Kai, he comes very close to administering an extra pressure point hit that would be fatal, but fortunately, he snaps out of it in time. 

Both Chozen and Daniel retain the pressure point attack in their arsenal, though they only whip it out against particularly tough opponents. This shows certain weaknesses in the technique, seeing as Johnny figures out how to partially counter Daniel's attempt during their fight in the season 4 episode "Matchpoint." Chozen's brief attempt to utilize a pressure point against Silver in "Head of the Snake" clearly hurts and causes the towering villain to favor the other leg, but ultimately, it just motivates Silver to grab a sword. Despite these minor issues, both men use the move so masterfully in season 3 that it's plain to see how dangerous it can be. 

Cobra Kai overlord Kim Sun-Yung's (C.S. Lee) unnamed "black scroll technique" makes its debut in the "Cobra Kai" season 6 part 3 premiere, "Into the Fire." The vengeful Master Kim whips out this dark art after learning of Kwon's (Brandon H. Lee) death, and she specifically wants Yoon (Daniel Kim) to learn it, so he can avenge Kwon's death by taking an opponent's life. Even as a complete rookie user of the technique, Yoon is able to wreak terrible havoc upon his fellow students, who fall down in such utter agony that it makes the Silver Bullet seem like a light summer breeze. This, alas, isn't enough, and Master Kim seems hell-bent on making Yoon hone the technique until someone dies. 

Ultimately, Kreese helps Yoon escape the predicament, and after a failed assassination attempt, Master Kim's granddaughter Kim Da-Eun unleashes the black scroll attack on the old martial artist. Master Kim dies within seconds, and she praises Da-Eun's execution of the technique with his last breath. 

This mysterious multi-strike attack is essentially an evil version of the Miyagi pressure points, but it also heavily resembles the mythical Five Point Exploding Palm technique from Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill Vol. 2." This is fitting, seeing as the evil old martial artists who teach the technique, "Cobra Kai's" Master Kim and "Kill Bill's" Pai Mei (Gordon Liu, though Quentin Tarantino almost took the role himself), represent the exact same character archetype. Because of its semi-mystical, deadly nature and the fact that it's horribly painful even when it's performed improperly, this dangerous attack is without comparison in the entire "The Karate Kid" franchise, making in the best movie in the history of "Cobra Kai."