Aaron Benzrihem · Combo

Basics To Advanced: Open Guard Engagement by Aaron Benzrihem reviews

Basics To Advanced: Open Guard Engagement by Aaron Benzrihem has 24 customer reviews in this archive, averaging 4.83 out of 5. 88% are five-star and 0 are one or two stars. Reviews run from April 3, 2021 to March 23, 2026. All of them are published below in full, unedited.

Who reviewed Basics To Advanced: Open Guard Engagement by Aaron Benzrihem

9 of these reviewers gave their belt rank when they submitted the review. BJJ Fanatics asks for rank, age and years training at the point of review, so this breakdown is self-reported by the customer.

Where to buy it

Basics To Advanced: Open Guard Engagement by Aaron Benzrihem is currently listed on the BJJ Fanatics storefront at $79.00 USD. View Basics To Advanced: Open Guard Engagement by Aaron Benzrihem on BJJ Fanatics

The reviews

• Basic to advance open guard

  Helped me understand the concepts to actually implement the open guard moves I learn in class changed my open guard and really is helping me come a long faster now. One of my favorite instructionals !

  Daniel R.March 23, 2026United StatesVerified buyerBlue belt1-3 yrs training

• Basic to advance open guard

  Helped me understand the concepts to actually implement the open guard moves I learn in class changed my open guard and really is helping me come a long faster now. One of my favorite instructionals !

  Daniel R.March 23, 2026United StatesVerified buyerBlue belt1-3 yrs training

• Open Guard Engagement

  He’s so on point and conceptual. I like what he said about having a path. It helps you to have a quick game plan.

  Gio R.October 15, 2025United StatesVerified buyerWhite belt1-3 yrs training

• BASIC TO ADVANCED: OPEN GUARD ENGAGEMENT - AARON BENZRIHEM

  EXCELLENT VIDEO!!! Aaron's video gives you a conceptual gameplan on how to start start your roll(s) from a seated guard position. What I lacked, like many BJJ'ers lacked, is INITIAL DIRECTION. Aaron's video gives you that.

  Raymond B.October 13, 2025CanadaVerified buyerBlue belt4-6 yrs training

• Good contents

  Amazing experience

  Yang J.May 28, 2025South KoreaVerified buyer7-9 yrs training

• Good

  Great insights to open guard engagements

  ShongThiam L.April 15, 2025United StatesVerified buyerPurple belt4-6 yrs training

• Recommended

  Excellent concepts, well presented and easy to implement. It will improve your guard game.

  Brian B.March 29, 2025United StatesVerified buyerPurple belt7-9 yrs training

• Aaron benzrihem open guard

  I really needed a set of goals which this helped.

  Keith M.December 30, 2024CanadaVerified buyerBlue belt16 yrs training

• Concept jujitsu

  My old way was stagnant at times. This will improve things!

  Keith M.December 21, 2024CanadaVerified buyerBlue belt16 yrs training

• Very Helpful.

  Exactly the instructional I was looking for. As a white belt and beginning to roll more and more often, I was having trouble understanding what to do and the objectives from the transitional points between positions. This helped me to understand how to engage and get into various guards and positions that I like to play. Also gave great strategies for what to do depending on the reactions of your opponent.

  Brian C.June 16, 2024United StatesVerified buyerWhite belt1-3 yrs training

• Where to start?

  I didn’t know where to start. This instructional really helped think about initial engagements.

  Andy S.December 29, 2023USVerified buyer

• Great tutorial about a neglected topic

  Great tutorial about a neglected topic in the guard fundamentals. Useful tips, concepts and strategies for maintaining connection while playing guard

  Response from BJJ Fanatics:hugging:

  Mario R.October 7, 2023USVerified buyer

• Amazing!

  Aaron is such a great instructor! Clear concepts and ready-to-use techniques. A must-have.

  Rodrigo A.August 17, 2023BRVerified buyer

• Great concept

  to start exploring the open guard

  Response from BJJ Fanatics:hugging::call_me_hand::skin-tone-2:

  DanteMay 21, 2023ITVerified buyer

• Great

  A good instructional that gave me a lot of ideas on how to start my sparring rounds.

  Response from BJJ Fanatics:hugging::call_me_hand::skin-tone-2:

  ChristianNovember 23, 2022USVerified buyer

• Basics To Advanced: Open Guard Engagement

  Great concepts indeed. Simple and easy to follow if you're looking and open to new ideas.

  Response from BJJ Fanatics:hugging::+1::skin-tone-2:

  Arnold T.June 17, 2022CAVerified buyer

• Are you are looking for guidance on how to intelligently start your roll? (Long review)

  This instructional teaches a conceptual approach to attacking from the open guard for both GI and No-GI. Aaron Benzrihem clearly states that this is not a technique based instructional but is conceptual in its focus. The instructional is organised around side engagement attacks (i.e., you move to your side after gaining your grips to control one side of your opponent’s body moving to, for example an open guard), overhead engagement attacks (i.e., after you gain grips, you initially pull your opponent over you to engage) and simple attacks for situations where your opponent is in either in combat base, kneeling or standing and is hesitant to engage. The primary purpose of this instructional is to help you to have confidence to play guard, so that when you start your roll you can confidently move to an open guard. Aaron Benzrihem advises on initial engagement not to let your opponent get grips on you; for you to achieve good posture; and the need for you to have an immediate goal at the start of the roll. He discusses the importance of focusing on one side of your opponent’s body (i.e., to get good control of that side of your opponent’s body) and identifies a range of grips that will allow you to achieve this. He teaches a pathway, which is to preferably achieve side engagement or if this is not possible to use top engagement. Side engagement is explained and examples such as collar and sleeve guard, a lasso, directly into a back take, knee-shield, half butterfly or side closed guard. In summary, the approach taught in the instructional is: step one hand fight, step two control one side of the body and step three use side engagement, if possible. He then explains overhead engagement. This can happen when you have not been successful in getting your desired grips to allow you to control one side of the opponent’s body. For overhead engagement the aim is to get grips that allow you to pull your opponent over you (i.e., you initially fall to your back pulling your opponent towards you and then move to a position e.g., single leg X, or move directly to an open guard). He demonstrates examples of the initial grips, which are double lapel grips, double unders and gripping both elbows. Simple attacks are explained and demonstrated for situations where the opponent will not let you engage and for example they back away. Aaron Benzrihem demonstrates several simple examples to sweep your opponent, using the ankle pick or the idiot sweep. He notes that it is the opponent’s mistake not to engage. For me Volume 2 was useful for my learning, as Aaron Benzrihem provides and demonstrates a range of examples of engagement with the opponent either on their knees, in combat base or standing. This includes for side engagement attacks: the collar and sleeve, the two on one to control a single arm of the opponent and an arm-drag; for overhead engagement attacks: the double lapels and double unders; and a series of simple attacks including pushing the opponent using neck pressure, an ankle pick combined with a shoulder push, and pants grab combined with a shoulder shove. There are also a series of chapters specifically addressing a standing opponent with many of the same grips used for an opponent on their knees or in combat base (e.g., collar and sleeve, two on one, etc) and the opponent is particularly vulnerable to simple attacks (e.g., idiot sweep and ankle picks). Aaron Benzrihem notes that the path remains the same regardless of whether the opponent is on their knees / combat base or standing. The final chapter deals with the differences between GI and No-GI in the application of Aaron Benzrihem’s conceptual approach to engaging with the open guard. The instructional has been filmed with a fixed camera. The quality of the video is good, as is the range and there are no issues with the microphone. The available previews are consistent with the whole instructional. In summary, this is an interesting and useful instructional. To my knowledge there are very few instructionals that focus on how to start your roll. I have watched this instructional several times and when I accepted that it is a conceptual instructional, not a techniques-focused instructional I have appreciated it more. At first, I wanted more information on the techniques, but that’s not the purpose of the instructional and to be fair Aaron Benzrihem has several open guard instructionals. It is a relatively short instructional with a total runtime of 49 minutes, that said for me, I am glad that I purchased it. Remember that the primary purpose of this instructional is to help you to have confidence to play guard.

  Peter H.May 11, 2022AUVerified buyer

• So far so good I’m

  So far so good I’m loving the details explained in these positions

  Response from BJJ Fanatics:hugging::call_me_hand::skin-tone-2:

  JeseniaMay 9, 2022USVerified buyer

• Must Buy for WB

  Honestly believe this is a must buy for WB. Aaron takes a much different approach here and approaches the entire DVD from a theoretical perspective. That is something I desperately needed in my game. I was too into trying to follow DVD's as step by step and when confronted with something not on the DVD, my brain would just short circuit and I'd be stuck. This DVD helped me push my mind into more generalities and concepts. Highly recommend.

  Response from BJJ Fanatics:hugging::+1::skin-tone-2:

  Erick E.December 29, 2021USVerified buyer

• The missing link

  This instructional addresses the missing link that rarely gets explicitly thought in guard play. It’s concise and to the point and I really like the simple formula and clear instruction. This will help a lot of people and made me reconsider my approach. I really wish there was a part that addressed specific grip fighting tactics in addition to overall grip engagement strategy.

  Response from BJJ Fanatics:hugging:

  LbradicAugust 7, 2021USVerified buyer

• Great Content

  Like many bjj practitioners, I struggle with how to engage from an open guard scenario. This instructional gives great ideas for how to engage and get to positions you want to work. It really helped me with pulling guard and getting the most out of my live training.

  Response from BJJ Fanatics:hugging:

  Robbie R.July 26, 2021USVerified buyer

• He is great!

  He is a reliable professor and explains easily to anyone. I recommend buying Aaron Benzrihem's lecture.

  Response from BJJ Fanatics:hugging::+1::skin-tone-2:

  Lee B.April 24, 2021KRVerified buyer

• Only 2 DVD of concepts

  Nice presentation yet basic knowledge and only 2 dvds. Might be good for a White belt .

  andy b.April 8, 2021USVerified buyer

• Awesome

  What a great DVD definitely a eye opener and a game changer, great concepts ,now I’m not worried to engage from the bottom , now I can get to my favourite submissions .

  Response from BJJ Fanatics:hugging::+1::skin-tone-2:

  AndreApril 3, 2021AUVerified buyer

More reviewed titles from Aaron Benzrihem

Every number on this page is computed from the 24 reviews above at build time, out of 87,673 in the full archive. See the methodology for how the corpus is collected and what is excluded.