Warning: Spoilers for Cobra Kai Season 4.
Cobra Kai season 4 sees Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) devise a counterattack for the crane kick of Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), but would it actually be effective? Following the events of season 3, Cobra Kai season 4 forces Johnny and Daniel to come together to train their students for the upcoming All-Valley Tournament. With Cobra Kai also competing, the losing school is to close down with the sensei to retire from teaching, making the stakes higher than ever for Johnny and Daniel.
Despite this, their radically different views on martial arts makes teaching side-by-side almost impossible for them. Eventually, they decide on a sparring match to determine who will be the lead teacher of the students of Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang. Ahead of their match, Johnny also thinks he's developed the perfect strategy to defeat Daniel.
During a conversation with Miguel (Xolo Mariduena), Johnny explains his counter to Daniel's crane kick. "I make like I'm gonna walk into it again. At the last second, I slip under, shoulder check him in the b---s, take him to the mat, elbow, elbow, elbow. Point. Lawrence, winner." While Johnny doesn't manage to pull off this counter in the match with Daniel, which ends in a draw, there are questions as to how sound the strategy itself would be.
Johnny's idea of faking walking into a kick he knows Daniel is about to throw banks heavily on him executing his takedown without getting kicked in the face. It would also leave Johnny discarding defense as a component of an offensive technique. Additionally, while the fighting style of Daniel is more defense-oriented than Johnny's, the latter's strategy would require him to be within a certain distance of Daniel in order to nullify the effectiveness of the kick. If he were to attempt it from too far away, Johnny's probability of success would greatly lessen.
That isn't to say that Johnny's MMA fighter style takedown would be ineffective. Daniel standing on one leg for so long would require a good amount of distance as opposed to snapping the kick out more swiftly, which he does in the fight. At the same time, Johnny's timing would need to be perfect in order for it to work. Additionally, Johnny's determination to beat Daniel is fueled by their decades-long rivalry that he can't see past. Because of that, he places a great deal of focus on the technique that Daniel originally beat him with, which ultimately places him at a disadvantage.
Johnny's best bet for victory would be examining Cobra Kai's Miyagi-Do as a whole to determine the most effective counters for it. While his idea for how to counter Daniel's crane kick could work in a vacuum, it would need to be implemented in the most strategic way possible, making it less than a surefire strategy. With Johnny having his eye on what he sees as his inevitable victory, his counterattack is probably too predicated on offense to work as he intended for it to. Johnny's focus on offense at the expense of defense is ultimately one of the most important lessons he learns by the end of Cobra Kai season 4.