Acrobatic Taekwondo kicks are fun to watch, they look great in the movies and occasionally they are pulled off by professionals in competition, but as the unfortunate individual in this video discovers, they are not techniques you want to be relying on in the middle of a street fight.
The smaller guy in the blue shorts and gray tank top is the first to throw a punch in this fight, hitting nothing but fresh air as he targets his opponent’s body with a winging strike.
Throw something like that again and I’ll put your ass to sleep, his rival in the camo shorts and blue t-shirt warns him.
Blue-shirt continues to employ psychological warfare, asking, what are you throwing weak sh*t like that for? when gray-top does land a punch to the body, and then mocks his constant head movement, saying, what you ducking for? I ain’t throwing nuttin’.
Shortly afterwards, gray-top misses with an overhand right and blue-shirt connects with a right hook to the head.
It’s at that point that gray-top decides that it’s time to break out his Taekwondo moves, but the first spinning hook kick that he attempts is wholly unconvincing and does little more than send one of his sneakers flying into the air.
Undeterred, gray-top kicks off his other sneaker and then decides to go all-out for a highlight-reel finish.
In a martial arts movie this would be the moment where a gravity-defying kick would land flush to the jaw of his foe in slow motion as the music score swells to a crescendo, leaving his opponent in a heap on the floor while he is held aloft in triumph.
Unfortunately for gray-top, this is real life, and so after he launches into his theatrical, telegraphed tornado kick, blue-shirt simply takes a step back and then thumps him with a single straight punch as he lands, knocking him to the ground.
Gray-top is then left cowering on the ground as his rival lands further unnecessary blows, while another bystander thankfully intervenes to break up the fight.
Even for a professional, kicks like this are a low percentage option, and from the looks of things, the guy in this video’s martial arts background likely consisted of nothing more than watching a few Bruce Lee movies and trying a few moves in his backyard.
So, if you ever find yourself in a self-defense situation, leave out the acrobatics and just stick to the basics, but always remember – the best way to avoid getting hurt is to just walk away rather than getting into a physical confrontation in the first place.
