Shot Defense Playbook: Sprawl Standards, Whizzer Depth, and the Layers Behind Them

Mat Manual companion guide to "How to Sprawl and Whizzer." Print it. The article explains the first line of shot defense. This book drills it until it is reflex: the sprawl as checkpoints, the whizzer held to a depth standard with partner tests, the layers behind them as fallback drills, and rounds scored by the layer your defense actually reaches.

Name: ______________________________ Gym: ______________________________ Coach: ______________________________

SAFETY, BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE ☐ A sprawl drops hip weight onto the shooter's head, shoulders, and upper back, never a knee dropped onto a spine, a neck, or the back of a head. A defender whose sprawl lands as a strike is reset to solo work. ☐ Shooters keep the neck long and the back flat in every drill. Any neck pain, tingling, or arm weakness stops the session for that student and is told to the coach the same day. ☐ The whizzer is a control, never a crank. Lateral shoulder pressure to force a tap is not shot defense and ends the set. ☐ Live shots run at the stage signed in Part 23 for the pair. Defense drilled against shots faster than the signed stage teaches flinching, not layers. ☐ Headgear and mouthguards follow the room's standing rule for live wrestling. This book does not soften it.

Part 1: The Layer Map

Shot defense in this book is five layers deep. Every drill names its layer, every round is scored by the deepest layer the defense reached and held.

Scoring language used all through the book. A defense "holds at layer N" when the shot dies there and the defender ends on top or back on the feet by choice. A defense "leaks to layer N" when the shot passes the earlier layers and is stopped at N. Leaks are data, not shame: the log in Part 22 is built from them.