Cradle Playbook: Near-Side and Cross-Face Folds, From Entry to Pin or Control

Mat Manual companion guide to "How to Cradle From Anywhere." Print it. The article explains the fold. This book drills it: both cradles specified step by step, the five entries as progressions, the pin finish and the control finish scored separately, and the defense taught in the order it actually works.

Name: ______________________________ Gym: ______________________________ Coach: ______________________________

SAFETY, BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE ☐ The head arm steers and folds the head. It never cranks the neck sideways or drives the chin into the chest with bodyweight. A partner tapping to neck pressure ends the rep and the set is reviewed. ☐ Rolls are run only after the hands have joined and the call "joined" has been made out loud in drilling. Rolling on an unjoined cradle puts the rider's own shoulders on the mat under a partner. ☐ A folded partner who cannot breathe comfortably says so, with a word or a tap on the mat, and the fold is eased at once. Compression is a coaching conversation, never a surprise. ☐ Bridging out of a cradle loads the neck by design of the escape. Bridge work is taught progressively and never against a partner squeezing the fold tighter to stop it. ☐ Live cradle rounds run at the stage signed in Part 24. A pair drops a stage the moment depth checks start failing.

Part 1: The Fold, Defined for the Mat

A cradle is complete when four facts are true at the same time. Every drill in this book checks these four, in this order.

The call system. In all drilling in this book, the rider calls "wrapped" at fact one, "caught" at fact two, and "joined" at fact three. The partner and the coach hear the build. A roll before "joined" is a failed rep, logged as such, however the landing looked.