ANACONDA CHOKE FROM SPRAWL

The anaconda choke from sprawl is the canonical front-headlock blood choke variant in which the attacker, having sprawled on a failed shoot from the opponent, captures the opponent's head and far arm and uses the configuration to compress the carotids by squeezing the elbows together while rolling the opponent onto their side. The technique is one of the highest-percentage no-gi submissions from a sprawled position and is the structural counterpart to the D'Arce choke (the two techniques use mirror-image grip configurations).

The mechanics begin with the attacker sprawled on a failed opponent shoot, with the opponent's head trapped under the attacker's body and the opponent's far arm extending across the attacker's torso. The attacker threads the inside arm under the opponent's neck and over the opponent's far shoulder, gripping the opposite bicep (the figure-four grip configuration). The finish comes from rolling the opponent onto their side toward the captured-arm shoulder while squeezing the elbows together, which compresses the carotids and produces a fast blood choke. The roll is essential — the choke does not finish from a flat sprawl position, only from the rolled-side configuration.

The anaconda is part of the broader front-headlock attack hierarchy that includes guillotine, D'Arce, and Peruvian neck-tie, and modern no-gi competitors typically train all four as a connected system. Notable practitioners include Marcelo Garcia, Jeff Glover, and various 10th Planet system black belts. Defensively the anaconda from sprawl is escaped by maintaining strong posture during the sprawl (don't allow the head to be trapped beneath the attacker's body), by hand-fighting the figure-four grip before it consolidates, or by rolling away from the captured-arm side to disrupt the rolling-finish mechanics.