Cradle Defense Cards

Mat Manual companion guide to "Cradled: Getting Out Before Your Shoulders Arrive." Print it. The article teaches the race in three stages: early, middle, and late, each with its own answer. This book prints the defence by stage: hand-fight cards for both cradle versions, hip-escape progressions against a locked cradle, the late bridge-and-roll and sit-through answers with their safety notes, a resistance ladder, and a defence log that records the stage your escapes are dying at, because the stage is the diagnosis.

Name: ______________________________ Gym: ______________________________ Coach: ______________________________

BEFORE ANYTHING: THE RULES OF CRADLE DEFENCE IN THIS BOOK ☐ The defence is fought at every stage. Going quiet inside the cradle is the one response this book never drills. ☐ Arms stay bent and home in the hand fight. Straight arms pushed into the lock are arms donated to the fold. ☐ Bridges travel across the shoulders, never through the crown of the head or the side of the neck. A bridge that loads the neck stops the set. ☐ The cradling partner applies drilling force: the lock is honest, the fold is driven at drilling speed, and shoulders are counted down, never slammed down. ☐ Any neck complaint stops cradle work for that student that day and is written in Part 24. ☐ Late-stage answers are drilled only after the early and middle cards pass. The cheap defences are learned first because they are the ones matches offer most.

Part 1: The Race at a Glance