The Internet and “reality” television shows are riddled with pranks on the unsuspecting. One wonders when watching them what would happen if a trained martial artist was present.

It happened on a French speaking Belgian show, similar to Candid Camera. Some idiot threw a net over an innocent bystander, and then taunted him obnoxiously. It is a tired routine, but this one ended unexpectedly.

A martial arts trained bystander saw what appeared to be robbery or some type of attack in progress, and didn’t take kindly to it. As the attacker sprinted past him, the bystander executed a letter perfect spin kick.

To the face.

The bad guy was out for quite a while. He hopefully woke up a little wiser.

Strictly speaking, under the laws in effect in many jurisdictions, the hero of the story may have committed an illegal act, as the purported criminal was trying to flee the scene.

However, the martial arts trained gentleman had very nearly zero time to react. He saw what appeared to be a crime in progress, and nobly attempted to apprehend the apparent attacker.

He he tried to non violently block the sprinter’s way, he likely would have been bowled over onto concrete. The same thing could happen from squaring up and attempting to throw a punch. Grappling could be problematic against a sprinting attacker. The spin kick from the side ended up stopping the situation with no harm to the defender beyond possibly a sore heel.

Please not, the identity of the gentleman in the striped shirt as a Taekwondo exponent is speculative. The kick does appear in various forms in a number of martial arts, but it is used most commonly in Taekwondo; further, Taekwondo is the world’s most popular martial art.

So call it a guess, but an educated on. And if anyone reading this know the identity of the man in the striped shirt, let him know he did great!