JIMMY
Most people know of Jimmy Tsai in one of his roles as accountant, fantasy basketball commissioner, or purveyor of athletic sportswear. But what people do NOT know is that under the pseudonym Tequila Rush, Jimmy authored the “mockumography” Go! Opium Pandamonium! Go!: From the Opium Pipe to Saturday Morning Children’s Cartoons. It currently ranks #5,339,475 on the Amazon.com sales ranking list. Amongst Jimmy’s latest ventures is a website devoted to Asians and Asian-Ams in sports entitled beyondbadminton.com.
The crane kick.
Everyone knows it. Who doesn’t get chills up their spine when Daniel Larusso (played by Ralph Macchio) sets up for the kick, Kreese yelling to Johnny from the sidelines, “FINISH HIM!,” dramatic horns blaring as part of the film’s score? It has been firmly embedded in the public consciousness ever since Daniel used it to snap back Johnny Lawrence’s head and win the All Valley Karate Tournament in The Karate Kid.
And since that time, the crane kick has become synonymous with martial arts—at least in America. How many times have we seen someone idiotically assume the crane kick stance when trying to show that they’re ready to unleash some martial arts on yo’ ass? All this despite the fact that the move itself was just a figment of screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen’s imagination, with no ostensible basis in reality.
As both an avid fan of cinema and an out-of-practice martial artist, I’ve always wondered: is it a real move? Or is there at least a real kick that’s reasonably similar? Can it be accomplished in real life? Would it even work?
