Under 18 All Valley Tournament

You know, I have thought about this too( not too often, but a fair amount). I always assumed that they called it "the Under 18 All Valley Tournament" instead of "the 18 and Under All Valley Tournament" because the former name is shorter. I'm guessing that the KKIII tournament took place before Daniel's 19th Birthday. Another possibility is that Daniel lied about his age in order to compete in the first tournament. Another possibility is that it wasn't really Daniel's Birthday yet and they were celebrating it a few days early because his mother was going to go out of town for something.

That bothered me too the last time I watched the series. There's no way if the tournament is truly "under 18".

Maybe he got to compete one last time because he was still under 18 during the sign up process? I'm going with that loophole.

My birthday is late September and I started college while still 17.

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I've always thought of this too and this is what I've come up with: Back in the 80s (at least where I grew up) you were placed in the class with other kids born in the same calendar year. So someone born in December of 1970 would be in the same class as kids born in January of 1970. Somewhere along the way it was changed so it was kids born in the same school year (from September to August) but in 1984 it was likely the same calendar year. The date of the All Valley tournament was December 19th and Daniel's birthday was December 18th (unless I'm mistaken it was the day before). So with Daniel's birthday in mid-December, he was likely one of the youngest kids in his class.

Though not specifically stated, I assume he turned 17 the day before the tournament in the first film. My theory is that the tournament the following year was held on a slightly earlier date and took place just before Daniel's 18th birthday.

You couldn't really trust Daniel to tell the truth about anything. So who knows? As for Mike Barnes, being Terry Silver's hired gun, he was probably the karate equivalent to one of those kids' sports teams that put a 20 year old man on the team in order to win.

Didn’t Daniel just get his drivers license right before the tournament? If so this would make him 16 at the tournament in part one and 17 one year later (kayfabe) in part 3.

Are we ever told he is a senior? I never hear he is a senior, at least in the first two. We know Ally is going for a college guy but that doesn’t say anything about Daniel’s year in high school. I think people on this threat are incorrectly making the assumption that he was a senior when that was never stated (to my recollection) in the movie.

he was 15 and turned 16 Johnny was 17 the tournament was the one after the one in the first movie Karate Kid II takes place roughly six months after Karate Kid I and so Karate Kid II takes place over Daniel's summer so I always thought Karate Kid III is taking place right after Summer Break so in Karate Kid III it's 1985?