When it comes to martial arts techniques, it is often the most basic ones that are most effective. The great Bruce Lee even quipped “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

Even in more modern arts such as BJJ, great BJJ players such as Demian Maia and even Rickson Gracie had relatively basic jiu-jitsu and that’s not meant to be derogatory either. It is the basics that define the art and though it may not be as fancy as some would like, the basic techniques are always the most effective.

In this YouTube video we see a good Samaritan intervene on a crime and uses just one basic technique to stop the man in his tracks. This news clip, which is from the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, shows a man clearly stealing from another. Some taxi cabs then stop when they see what is going on to confront the man.

Now the YouTube title is ‘Taxi driver knocked out thief with kick in the head’ but he is not seen exiting any of the taxis that stop so it is unclear if he really is a cab driver or just a random guy intervening.

Nonetheless when the thief starts getting aggressive and looks to try to run, this ‘good Samaritan’ leg kicks him then follows it up with a head kick that knocks the thief out cold. He goes down hard too and I’m sure was out for a while after.

The police eventually come and haul the same guy away as well so you know the Samaritan was in the right and knowing how they run things in Brazil, I’m sure he wasn’t in too much trouble for lending a hand in this one.