Butterfly / Banana Split

1. Leg ride your opponent. From the top position, slip your right leg inside of his right thigh, or left leg inside of his left thigh. Then hook your toes around his ankle or calf. This hooked leg will anchor you in position, and create one side of the banana split.

2. Reach across and lock both arms under your opponent's free leg, so that your hands lock on the inside of his leg just above the knee. While leg riding you will not be square with your opponent, but offset, so that you can attack any part of the side of his body opposite your hooked leg.

3. Rock backward, pulling the leg you grabbed toward you. This will turn your opponent on his back, while each of his legs are restrained, one by your hooked leg from the leg ride, and one from your arms.

4. Use your arms and hooked leg to separate your opponents legs as far apart as possible. This will cause him to go flatter so you can score back points.

5. If it is apparent that you will not be able to pin your opponent with the banana split, roll forward back into your leg riding position after you've scored your back points.

Cradle

1. Assume the top position, with your partner flat on his stomach. Your hips should be behind your partners hips, and your hands should be in a position to reach around your partner's waist.

2. Plant one of your hands behind the corresponding knee of your partner: left hand behind left knee, or right hand behind right knee.

3. With your other arm, apply pressure across your partner's face with the forearm, and lift their head, moving it toward the knee that is pinned in position. It can take several lifting motions to inch an opponent's head close enough to their knee to lock up the cradle when they are giving full resistance.

4. When your partner's head is close enough to their knee, slip the arm behind the knee under their leg, and and clasp your hands. One arm will be around the knee, and one around the head. How far you must move the head to the knee is determined by the wingspan of the wrestler using the cradle. A wrestler with long arms will be able to clasp their hands without moving their opponent's head as far, and will generally find the cradle more effective. Use a finger-on-finger grip instead of a hand-on-hand grip. If you can reach far enough, a grip where each hand grasps the wrist of the opposite arm can be effective, and will result in a tighter cradle.

5. When you have locked your grip, rock backward, so that your partner's back is to the ground, and you are off to the side, with your grip still locked. Putting pressure on your opponent's side with your knee and extending your arms outward, while keeping them clasped, will tighten the cradle.

Elbow pass

1. Begin an elbow pass in wrestling from a "fifty-fifty" position where both you and your opponent are facing each other, bent at the waist, with his arms looped over your shoulders and yours looped over his.

2. Duck down and dislodge your opponent's "collar-tie" as you perform an elbow pass in wrestling. Your opponent will attempt to correct his stance.

3. Keep yourself low and attack with a "high crotch" attack by shooting one of your arms between your opponent's legs. You opponent will perform a sprawl where he attempts to control you by leaning on top of you and spreading his legs while attempting to grasp your arms.

4. Grab your opponent's left leg as you do an elbow pass in wrestling, and begin to straighten your torso as you lift his leg.

5. Raise yourself up off your knees as you do an elbow pass in wrestling until you are crouching with your opponent still above you.

6. Continue holding your opponent's leg as you twist and throw him to the mat. Pin him down with an arm turk (keeping pressure on his arm and shoulder so they touch the ground when you finish doing an elbow pass in wrestling.

Far-side Cradle

1. Because the far-side cradle is a versatile technique, there are several ways from which you can start it. For beginning wrestlers, though, it is best to learn the move when the opponent is broken down flat. Cradling your opponent when he is already broken down lessens the chance of making a mistake and getting reversed. So, use whatever breakdown you like — just get him flat.

Once your opponent is broken flat, straddle one of his legs (the leg on the opposite side of his body from the arm you want to secure in the cradle). For example, if you want to secure his (far) left arm and cradle the left side of his body, straddle his right leg. Don’t forget to keep pressure on the center of his back with your chest to keep him from basing up.

2. To gain control of your opponent’s upper body, you will need to crossface him and secure his far arm.

1. Press the boney part of the inside of your wrist (near the thumb) across your opponent’s face, towards the far arm that you want to control. This isn’t a punch, so you can’t “windup” or pull your arm back to increase the force. However, you may give your opponent a stiff crossface by applying a steady, inward pressure as you move your hand across his face and towards the arm.

2. Grip his arm, high on the triceps, with your thumb pointing up. Pull his arm in towards you to secure his upper body.

3. Stay on your toes and circle to the same side of his body as the leg you were straddling. For example, if you were straddling his right leg, circle to his right side to make your bodies perpendicular to each other. Make sure to keep your weight on his back with your chest as you do this.

While off of his body, post your free hand on the mat in between your opponent’s legs, next to the same-side leg as the arm you are controlling. For example, if you used your right arm for the crossface and are positioned on the right side of your opponent’s body, post your hand on the mat in between his legs and next to his left knee. The placement of your hand will make it easier to gather your opponent’s head and leg together.

4. To begin collecting your opponent’s head and leg together, or “crunching” the cradle, you must first put your legs in position to provide the strength and leverage you need to get your hands locked.

Place your knee (that is furthest from your opponent’s head) next to his hip, and step up with the leg nearest to his head. For example, if you are positioned on the right side of your opponent’s body, place your left knee next to his right hip and step up with your right leg.

As you step up with your near leg, lift your opponent’s body up and off of the mat. Keep your hand on the mat next to his knee to prevent him from escaping. At this point, you can begin pressing your opponent’s head to his knee. The most common mistake beginning wrestlers make with the far-side cradle is trying to move their opponent’s knee towards their opponent’s head in order to get their hands locked. Your opponent’s legs are stronger than his upper body in this position, so use superior leverage to walk his head to his knee.

Use the leg you stepped up with to drive as you force your opponent’s head towards his knee. Remember that as you do this, your opponent will be trying to turn towards you to prevent you from locking your hands. Keep lifting his upper body off of the mat and driving into him. This will be constant up-and-down motion, allowing you to progressively working your opponent’s upper body to his lower body. Eventually, you will be able to lock your hands.

5. Once you get your hands locked, you can begin to take your opponent to his back. But, first you must reposition your legs:

1. Move the knee that you have closest to your opponent’s head to the mat next to his lower back. (This will be the knee of the leg you stepped up with to help you drive.)

2. Step up with your far leg. Imagine that you are on the face of a clock and step toward two o’clock.

6. Push off of the leg you stepped up with and pull your opponent over the knee you placed in his lower back. If done correctly, you will pull him to his back and your knee will be underneath his lower back.

There are several different ways to keep your opponent secure in this position, but the most basic and effective way to do this is to place your near-knee in his hip. (This will be the same knee you took him over.) From here, keep your lock tight and pinch your elbows. Also, pull your lock towards you as you use your near-knee to push his hip.

Bow and Arrow Cradle

 1. Put pressure down onto the defender's upper-body and post your hand on their head, stuffing their face down and into the mat.

2. Spin out to one side, staying off your knees, staying on your toes, and putting weight and pressure fully onto the opponent. They should be unable to do much about this except to just lay there. They may try to pull their legs up towards their chests to try to get back to their base position, but that will only help you pull off this pinning combination. You should be perpendicular to them at this point.

3. While resting all your weight on your opponent, and keeping your hand posted on their head, reach out with your free hand and grab/hook the ankle of your opponent's near leg with that hand.

4. Put your head into their side. This requires that you take your weight off of their back. Keep pressure down on their head with your hand, and keep hold of their near ankle with the other hand. This motion of placing your head into their side should be a quick one. NOTE: If your opponent bases up (gets back to being on their hands and knees as opposed to being flat on their stomach) put the head into their hip. However, if they are still flat, drive your head into their ribs (this tends to cause the opponent discomfort). Where you put your head determines what leverage you have and on what axis they will be bent in half.

5. Drive your head into their side (either the ribs or the hip, depending on their position), and pull on their head and their ankle. This is like fitting an arrow to a bow. Picture yourself as the arrow, and your opponent as the bowstring.

6. As you drive, and their leg starts to bend toward their head, monitor how close your hands come to each other. Once you feel you can lock your hands, slide the hand that is gripping their ankle down to their knee-joint and then lock your hands. Your elbow joint should be in their knee joint while your other elbow joint should be at the back of their head.

7. Once your opponent is on their side, Lock hands and squeeze.

8. Finally, drive your opponent to their back, staying on top of them with your weight over their chest to force their shoulders to the mat.