History Main / ImprovFu

* Sokka of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' a {{Badass Normal}} warrior in a group where all the other member have {{Elemental Powers}} he is the one who frequently comes up with strategies and plans, including examples like create bombs to try to simulate fire control, spreading perfume to confuse a creature with super smelling senses, offensive use of stink bombs, discovering a moment where the fire nation would lose their powers and plant an invasion on that day, and taking over a fire nation airship and use it as a projectile to destroy other airships... just to name a few.His ability to improvise plans was part of the reason the master Piandao accepted him as his student.

A character's fighting style isn't so much as fighting as it is making up new and ridiculous ways to combat their opponent. [[JackieChan Perhaps they don't like violence]], or perhaps they never learned Kung Fu, or perhaps they just can't catch up. Either way, they find a way to be useful.

* [[Film/TheBourneSeries Jason Bourne]] can beat the shit out of you with a rolled up newspaper and blow up a condo with it when he's done killing you.
** It should be noted that this example isn't theoretical or exaggerated; it's something Bourne actually does in ''The Bourne Supremacy''.

* Sokka of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' a {{Badass Normal}} warrior in a group where all the other member have {{Elemental Powers}} he is the one who frequently comes up with strategies and plans, including examples like create bombs to try to simulate fire control, spreading perfume to confuse a creature with super smelling senses, offensive use of stink bombs, discovering a moment where the fire nation would lose their powers and plant an invasion on that day, and taking over a fire nation blimp and use it as a projectile to destroy other blimps... just to name a few.His ability to improvise plans was part of the reason the master Piandao accepted him as his student.

* ''MartialLaw'' has [[TheDanza Sammo Law]] present this art in its finest form.

[[AC:ProfessionalWrestling]]

* Half the final battle in the first ''KungFuPanda'' is [[AcroFatic Po]] fighting in this manner, frustrating [[BigBad Tai Lung]].

* ''{{ECW}}'': Joke wrestler Wrestling/MikeyWhipwreck stumbled into winning, all the way to the World Championship.

* Krav Maga is a martial art that teaches improvised combat techniques.

* This is Luffy's main fighting style from OnePiece, as he'll use anything available to him so he can win. This cause's his opponents to underestimate him because it, more often than not, looks like him fooling around rather than fighting seriously.

* This Luffy's main fighting style from OnePiece, as he'll use anything available to him so he can win.

* ''{{ECW}}'': Joke wrestler Mikey Whipwreck stumbled into winning, all the way to the World Championship.

ImprovFu tends to involve quick tricks, trips, traps, a lot of dodging, and heavy implementation of objects or the environment available at any given moment. Sometimes the character essentially blunders combat. Most of the time ImprovFu is played for comedy.

Related to IKnowMortalKombat, compare to ConfusionFu, a combination of IndyPloy and CombatPragmatist with a lot of {{Improvised Weapon}}s. This is like an Indy ploy specifically for fighting and while this is similar to CombatPragmatist, the Combat Pragmitist usually uses "dirty tactics" to gain the upper hand rather than fighting indirectly to ameliorate their disadvantage. Usually involves an ImprobableWeaponUser. It's essentially in-universe {{Improv}} for combat.

--------------
!Examples

* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' has many examples of Improv fu but the most egregious one is that a lot of fight scenes throughout the series features the Rangers fighting grunts in a playground and use the equipment to augment their fighting.
** ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'': [[TheSmartGuy Billy the Blue Ranger]] of the team kind of sucks at fighting, but he manages by using this trope, though by the time he leaves the Rangers he's gotten much better at hand-to-hand
** ''Series/PowerRangersZeo'': Occurred with Bulk and Skull when they were accidentally sent to a coliseum in another world and they get saved by another warrior, they have to face down a few guards and ultimately, they were able to take them down with the power of bumbling around.
** ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'': Ziggy The PluckyComicRelief became a Power Ranger by accident and out of desperation so he had no qualifications or skills to actually be a good fighter. Instead he mostly runs around a fight scene dodging enemies or using nearby props as weapons and ways to protect himself. He gets better at hand to hand throughout the series though.
* ''Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger''[='s=] Green Ranger, "Doc" Don Doggoier, is a LovableCoward who resorts to tricks like hiding in brush, {{Explosive Barrel}}s, and even breaking out a squeaky mallet at one point. Then there's [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome the episode]] where [[LetsGetDangerous he mans up]]...

* Sokka of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' a {{Badass Normal}} warrior in a group where all the other member have {{Elemental Powers}} he is the one who frequently comes up with strategies and plans, including examples like create bombs to try to simulate fire control, spreading perfume to confuse a creature with super smelling senses, offensive use of stink bombs, discovering a moment where the fire nation would lose their powers and plant an invasion on that day, and taking over a fire nation blimp and use it as a projectile to destroy other blimps... just to name a few.His ability to improvise plans was part of the reason the master Piandao accepted him as his student.
* Krav Maga is a martial art that teaches improvised combat techniques.
* This was comically sent up in the ''Series/AlmostLive'' sketch "Mind Your Manners with Billy Quan." Billy and his antagonist would always fight using items around them as stand-ins for martial arts weapons. (In a computer room, floppy disks became shirukens; in a meat market, links of sausages became nunchaku, etc.)
* ''MartialLaw'' has [[TheDanza Sammo Law]] present this art in its finest form.
* ''RanmaOneHalf'': Ranma Saotome has this trope reconstructed, featuring an as-serious-as-it-can-get Anything Goes Martial Arts dojo. While the fighting style has some of its own unique characteristics, Ranma's most distinctive ability is being able to adapt with remarkable skill, something that comes in handy when forced to engage in all sorts of rule-restricted MartialArtsAndCrafts.
* ''FistOfTheNorthStar'': Jyuza gave Raoh one hell of a HumiliationConga with a fighting style he invented on the spot. The fight ends with him stealing Raoh's horse, Kokuoh.

* ''Manga/MobileSuitCrossboneGundam''[='s=] protagonist Tobia Arronax makes extensive use of this, thanks to his being a very quick thinker. His bag of tricks includes including throwing logs ([[GrievousHarmWithABody and enemy machines]]), using a re-entry pod to disguise his attacks, and in one memorable instance [[ItMakesSenseInContext crafting a balloon shaped like a bunch of bananas to distract a group of psychic monkey pilots]].
* Half the final battle in the first ''KungFuPanda'' is [[AcroFatic Po]] fighting in this manner, frustrating [[BigBad Tai Lung]].

* ''Manga/MobileSuitCrossboneGundam''[='s=] protagonist Tobia Arronax makes extensive use of this, thanks to his being a very quick thinker. His bag of tricks includes including throwing logs ([[GrievousHarmWithABody and enemy machines]]), using a re-entry pod to disguise his attacks, and in one memorable instance [[ItMakesSenseInContext crafting a balloon shaped like a bunch of bananas to distract a group of psychic monkey pilots]].

* [[FistOfTheNorthStar Jyuza]] gave Raoh one hell of a HumiliationConga with a fighting style he invented on the spot. The fight ends with him stealing Raoh's horse, Kokuoh.

* ''{{Ranma}}'' has this trope reconstructed, featuring an as-serious-as-it-can-get Anything Goes Martial Arts dojo. While the fighting style has some of it's own unique characteristics, Ranmas most distinctive ability is being able to adapt with remarkable skill, something that comes in handy when forced to engage in all sorts of rule-restricted MartialArtsAndCrafts.

* This was comically sent up in the ''AlmostLive'' sketch "Mind Your Manners with Billy Quan." Billy and his antagonist would always fight using items around them as stand-ins for martial arts weapons. (In a computer room, floppy disks became shirukens; in a meat market, links of sausages became nunchaku, etc.)

* ''PowerRangers'' has many examples of Improv fu but the most egregious one is that a lot of fight scenes throughout the series featres the rangers fighting grunts in a playground and use the equipment to augment their fighting.
** ''MightyMorphinPowerRangers'': [[TheSmartGuy Billy the Blue Ranger]] of the team kind of sucks at fighting, but he manages by using this trope, though by the time he leaves the rangers he's gotten much better at hand-to-hand
** ''PowerRangersZeo'': Occurred with Bulk and Skull when they were accidentally sent to a coliseum in another world and they get saved by another warrior, they have to face down a few guards and ultimately, they were able to take them down with the power of bumbling around.
** ''PowerRangersRPM'': Ziggy The PluckyComicRelief became a Power Ranger out of an accident and out of desperation so he had no qualifications or skills to actually be a good fighter. Instead he mostly runs around a fight scene dodging enemies or using nearby props as weapons and ways to protect himself. He gets better at hand to hand throughout the series though.

* Sokka of ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'' a {{Badass Normal}} warrior in a group where all the other member have {{Elemental Powers}} he is the one who frequently comes up with strategies and plans, including examples like create bombs to try to simulate fire control, spreading perfume to confuse a creature with super smelling senses, offensive use of stink bombs, discovering a moment where the fire nation would lose their powers and plant an invasion on that day, and taking over a fire nation blimp and use it as a projectile to destroy other blimps... just to name a few.His ability to improvise plans was part of the reason the master Piandao accepted him as his student.

* [[TheBourneSeries Jason Bourne]] can beat the shit out of you with a rolled up newspaper and blow up a condo with it when he's done killing you.

Related to IKnowMortalKombat, compare to ConfusionFu, a combination of IndyPloy and CombatPragmatist with a lot of {{Improvised Weapon}}s. This is like an Indy ploy specifically for fighting and while this is similar to CombatPragmatist, the Combat Pragmitist usually uses "dirty tactics" to gain the upper hand rather than fighting indirectly to ameliorate their disadvantage. It's essentially in-universe {{Improv}} for combat.

* ''{{Ranma}}'' has this trope reconstructed, featuring an as-serious-as-it-can-get Anything Goes Martial Arts dojo.

** It should be noted that this example isn't theoretical; it's something Bourne actually does in ''The Bourne Supremacy''.

* Sokka of ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'' a {{Badass Normal}} warrior in a group where all the other member have {{Elemental Powers}} he is the one who frequently comes up with strategies and plans, including examples like create bombs to try to simulate fire control, spreading perfume to confuse a creature with super smelling senses, offensive use of stink bombs, discovering a moment where the fire nation would lose their powers and plant an invasion on that day, and taking over a fire nation blimp and use it as a projectile to destroy other blimps... just to name a few.His ability to improvise plans was part of the reason the master piandao accepted him as his student.