Clinch Chain Playbook

Mat Manual companion guide to "The Clinch Is a Chain, Not a Grip." Print it. The article explains the grabbing side as six links: entry off the cross or a caught kick, double collar tie, straight knee, turn, second knee, and an exit chosen in advance, all timed to the referee's break. This book builds each link apart, runs the chain on short clocks, and drills the grabbed side's chain, frame, hip-in, swim inside, and exit on the turn, in the same sessions.

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 release the tie or lower the work at any time with one word or a double tap, and the drill obeys instantly. ☐ Neck control, stated plainly: the tie steers with forearms and body position. Nobody cranks, hauls, or hangs on a partner's neck in any card in this book, at any level. A rep that pulls the neck instead of steering the position voids the set and the safety block is re-read aloud before work resumes. ☐ Knees in clinch work land on pads or a held shield. Knees to a partner's body run touch-contact only, in the cards that say so, and never at speed in the first cycle. ☐ The turn is walked, not thrown. Partners are steered off balance with feet and forearms, never dragged by the head, never dumped to the floor in this book. Exits by throw-off are pushes to range, not throws. ☐ Clinch rounds run on short clocks with a called break, and both partners separate on the call without a parting strike unless the card is the exit card and the strike is the agreed pad strike. ☐ Stop on any pain, neck discomfort of any kind, 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

Six links, one clock. If a rep ends in a static hold, the chain did not happen, whatever the grip was doing.

Chain law: the exit is named before the second knee is thrown. A chain that reaches link five without a named exit restarts in the log as a hold, because standing in the grip deciding is the static clinch the referee breaks.