The Four-Count Chain Playbook

Mat Manual companion guide to "The Kick Lands Last on Purpose." Print it. The article explains why the kick lands last: jab occupies, cross turns, hook takes the guard wide, and the rear roundhouse arrives through the opened line. This book builds that four-count chain beat by beat, with both finishes, the ladders to five and six strikes, and the three defensive answers that beat it.

Name: ______________________________ Gym: ______________________________ Grade: ______________ Start date: ______________ Lead side (circle): Left / Right Current week (Part 11): ______________

BEFORE ANYTHING: PARTNER SAFETY AND AGREEMENTS ☐ All partner work in this book runs at agreed speed and agreed contact, stated out loud before each drill. Either partner can lower the speed or the contact at any time with one word, and the drill obeys instantly. ☐ Kicks in partner work land on pads, a held guard, or the agreed body and leg targets at controlled contact. Head-height kicks are not trained on a partner in this book. Students whose gyms train them do so under their own rules, outside these cards. ☐ The hook is thrown short and controlled. It takes the guard wide; it is not a power shot in partner work, and a hook that cannot be controlled voids the rep. ☐ Checking drills (Part 7 and Part 14) put shin against a kick on purpose. They run at half speed and light contact until both partners have passed the card at that level. Shin pain is a stop signal, not a conditioning goal in this book. ☐ Clinch-entry drills on the cross (Card R2 and Part 14) are reach-and-touch only in this book. No tie is taken at speed, and no knee follows a live entry in the first cycle. ☐ Stop on any pain, dizziness, or loss of control, from either partner, with no argument and no finishing the set first. Log what happened in the session log (Part 16).

Part 1: The Chain at a Glance

One chain, four beats, each with its own job. If a rep does not show all four jobs, it was four strikes, not a chain.

Chain law: the kick is spent only on the opening the hands built. The three honest reasons to stop the chain early, a check already up, a clinch entry arriving, or a teep on your entry, are drilled in Part 7 and count as good reps, not failures.