How do you get "sticky" in BJJ

[Calibur]

Great post. Very nice responses. But here is the issue:

I have experienced stickiness from the top where pressure is my friend and not the other guys. Some people can be sticky from the bottom to the point where even to lift your arm you are lifting them up.

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Plenty of ways this happens. Main way I can think about it is the person on bottom removes there connection to the floor so when you lift, they go with you.

Frinstance, they do a normal crossside armbar, if the back of their head touches the mat, they have more a connection to the mat and less to you, so if you posture and lift you are only pulling on their legs and you eventually get free.

Now if your opponent does the armbar and tucks his ching (and maybe rolls his shoulders forward) than the connection with the floor is lost and it is more on the opponent so when you lift your trap arm, you take your opponents entire body with him.

That's one way.

With the legs you can turn one leg to an angle with more surface area and keep switching to knock the opponent of balance. That's a little harder to explain. It's better if you see it/feel it.

 

[redaxe]

When I have side control, a lot of the time I am literally just laying on the guy, not exerting any effort at all. Just dead weight, like a lead blanket on top of him. That is how to "be heavy" on top.

 

[GuardOfDoom]

I'm not sure if anyone would call me glue, but my bottom game is pretty tight and I use my legs really well to tie up my opponent's legs. They can move their legs around, but my foot is always connected to their calf/thigh so that they can't get clearance.

What Calibur said in his first post is still relevant. I'm not trying to push against their leg. I'm merely keeping it 'connected'. It's a common concept in any grappling art, but it was actually really emphasized to me in aikido. This connection helps me feel where you are trying to move, and I can react faster, allowing me to stay connected.

In the case of getting lifted up while attempting an armbar, taking their back while their are posted, or other things like that, I think it's important that I'm hooking onto them, or 'climbing' them. IOWs, I want them bearing my weight. If they are in your closed guard and you can break their posture down, their hips/thighs make great places to grab a foot hold and lift yourself up. You can do this while keeping the space tight.

Or in the case of the armbar, I'm curling down with my legs so that I'm keeping things down. I'm trying to keep myself as a solid unit so that they have to lift my weight and theirs.