David Rogers

 

Owner and chief instructor of Rising Crane.

David Rogers has trained in Chinese martial arts since 1984. He is a disciple of Master Deng Jan Gong, one of the most famous Kung Fu masters in Southern China.  

Fluent in Cantonese, he regularly returns to further his studies in ‘Hap Kune’, ‘Taiji’, and ‘Hung Kune’.

In 1995, he opened the ‘Rising Crane Centre’ where he teaches Kung Fu, Taiji  (also spelled ‘Tai Chi’) and ran a clinic of traditional Chinese acupuncture.

He has taught martial arts around the world including Europe, Asia, America and the Middle East. He is a graduate of the College of Integrated Chinese Medicine, was a member of the ‘British Acupuncture Council’ and served as the technical director for traditional kung fu to the ‘British Council for Chinese Martial Arts’ for seven years.

From 2005 to 2015, he trained ‘no gi’ Brazilian Jiujitsu with four times world champion, Braulio Estima, and  incorporated the  ‘ground fighting’ aspect into his curriculum, as this is an important aspect of self defence not emphasised in Chinese Martial Arts. He has studied Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) in America, Hawaii and Thailand and believes that the evolution of combat sports represent a valuable method for martial artists to legitimately (and ethically) test their skills, and debunk many of the myths prevalent in some classical martial arts.

David has coached NINE national and international champions in Kung Fu, Tai Chi and Mixed Martial Arts, and has had students win competitions in Europe, Hong Kong and China.

In addition to teaching traditional martial arts, he developed three completely new programs for his school:

‘Siege MMA’ represents the distillation of the most functional and effective way of combining striking, takedowns and ground fighting. You can read more about it on THIS LINK.

‘Fighting Fit’ is the application of sports science to MMA techniques. In a single class- kickboxing, ground movements and kettlebells for the perfect blend of strength, endurance and fitness. Others have tried copy the program, but the key is the protocols of intensity, rest, explosiveness and breath training, that will help you to achieve fat loss, strength and power/endurance.

‘Siege Junior MMA’ was the first class to combine integrated striking and grappling to age specific learning. While at a conference in the USA, he was impressed by Melody Schuman, who applied the concepts of child development and age specific learning to her Taekwondo school. These were completely new ideas to him, and over the next four years, he worked out completely new programs for teaching children the sport of MMA- from the age of five years old, up to teenagers.

His sincere wish is to help his students reach their highest potential by teaching to the same exacting standards as he learned in China, while incorporating modern, scientific principles of coaching and physical training.

In 2020, after 25 years of running a full time school, David closed the centre to take a sabbatical in order to travel to China for an extended study trip, and to teach workshops in several countries. The universe, however, had other ideas, as the outbreak of Covid-19 happened immediately after!

David realised the next move was to be teaching online, and spent the lockdown building his online academy, and teaching free lessons via Youtube, to help people during the pandemic.

He is now committed to helping his online students and to continue to teach online from China, or wherever his travels will take him.

 

 

If you are interested in the history and lineage of our style Click Here

If you are interested in articles and interviews by David Rogers Click Here

If you are interested in having Acupuncture or another therapy Click Here