Agree Kyler comes off legit. His character is much better written in S3 and when he squares off with "Penis Breath" in their dojo challenge match, he looks believable as a wrestler and an athlete. Tory looks like an athlete and given the guideposts for her character, I guess she does a decent job. But the writers making her both ridiculously OP in the group fights, and her mission in life being only "that's my man, bitch!" really knocks her down IMO.
Robby. Yeah. He comes off like an in shape kid and way more believable than Sam, that's for sure. But his poorly written flip flopping from hardened street thug to goody two shoes houseboy and back, combined with his crooked dirty sanchez grin make me want to push the eject button.
I've also trained combat sports most of my life. If you expect combat sports realism from franchises like Karate Kid, you're always going to be disappointed. This is the universe where an elderly 2' 8" gentleman clowns 3 expert martial artists one after the other, who are 30 or 40 years younger. Johnny himself goes through 30 years of binge drinking with no training and somehow comes out as a master sensei.
IRL training in combat sports, like military service, is uncommon in the general population. If you went to an IRL kids karate tournament and cast the most athletic looking kids, you'd have a shitshow of an acting disaster on your hands. Acting ability is paramount and it's going to have to compensate for some shortcomings in casting. As a vet, most hollywood military scenes (including the ones in Cobra Kai) are pretty cringe but (just like the fight scenes), if they made them completely realistic, they would be both boring and unrelatable to the general audience.
Re. the black basketball chick, apparently her name is Gissette Valentin. Yeah. 'Nuff said.
