AARON ROGERS
OWNER & HEAD COACH
Aaron has been training in a variety of martial arts for over 30 years, and has been teaching for over 12 years. He is a Brazilian JiuJitsu Black Belt under Professor Patrick Martin from Gracie Barra Derby and actively competes.
To date, he has medalled at every competition he has entered, most recently securing Silver at the 2024 Oxfordshire Open at Black Belt and Silver at the 2023 British Open at Brown Belt. He also won Gold at the English Open at Brown Belt and Silver at the NoGi British Open at Brown Belt in 2021.
In addition to this, he is a 3rd degree Black Belt in Kickboxing. Aaron has also won 2 Southern Area titles in Boxing and has fought professionally in MMA.
Aaron teaches all sessions for adults and children.
JACK ROGERS
ASSISTANT YOUTH GI & ADULT BEGINNER NOGI COACH
Jack is a 16 year old blue belt and has been training some kind of martial arts on and off since the age of 3.
Jack moved his focus back to BJJ permanently in May 2021 and has moved up to our adults classes now. He is an active competitor, most recently becoming the Junior Gi National Champion in March 2024, and now also assists his dad within the Youth classes – lending an extra pair of eyes and hands to our youngest students. In March, he also started assisting in our Beginner’s NoGi sessions.
SHAR ROGERS
OWNER & ACADEMY MANAGER
Shar co-owns RJJA and oversees the day to day running of the dojo and gym. She deals with all enquiries, client relations, product orders, general admin and all Rogers JiuJitsu Academy & Tigers Lair Gym social media platforms.
Shar regularly organises seminars, social events and extracurricular activities and can be found at reception 2 nights a week.
DARREN MELSOME
ASSISTANT BJJ COACH
Darren started training Mixed Martial Arts with us in November 2011 and has been Aaron’s main training partner ever since.
He has progressed through the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu ranks from white belt and achieved his Brown Belt under Aaron Rogers & Patrick Martin in July 2022.
Darren has fought in MMA and Boxing, and competes as much as injury allows in BJJ. He has competed and medalled at each rank and hopes to be more active on the comp scene in 2024.
Darren covers all classes during our two week’s annual leave and assists with the Youth Nogi & Adult Beginner classes on a Friday.
GEORGE ROGERS
ASSISTANT YOUTH COACH
George started BJJ in May 2022 and has had quite the transformation. He did his first competition in March 2023 and has competed consistently since then, progressing each time and coming along in confidence.
He was awarded his Grey & White belt in December 2023. After a huge growth spurt, George has outgrown our kids classes but now comes in twice a week to take them through the warm ups and lend an extra pair of hands to Aaron. He’s got his own spot on the website because he kept badgering me that Jack had one and he didn’t!
KYLE MARCUS
ASSISTANT YOUTH GI COACH
Kyle has been training with us a few years now and is a blue belt. Kyle travels from Chichester to train with us and comes in earlier each week to help Aaron & George with the youth gi class.
He’s a very friendly character who prefers training gi over nogi and enjoys assisting within the classes and seeing the kids progress.
He’s a valuable extra pair of hands especially when the sessions can be busy.
