Deepak Rao

Deepak Rao is an Indian military trainer and author. He has helped train the Indian Army, Navy, and Air Force, as well as the police forces of major cities and states. For his service in modernization of close quarter battle training, he was awarded commission as Honorary Major of the Indian Territorial Army in 2011. He acts as one of the brand ambassadors for the Indian Army. Rao has been a trainer for the Indian Army since 1994. He specializes in close-quarters combat, and along with his wife, Seema Rao, invented a new form of reflex shooting, named the Rao System of Reflex Fire, for the Indian Army. He also founded the Advanced Commando Combat System for close-quarters combat. According to Rao's instructor Richard Bustillo, an original student of Bruce Lee, Rao is one of the few instructors in India who teach Bruce Lee's art of Jeet Kune Do correctly. In 2024, Rao was asked by Chief of the Army Staff General Manoj Pande to visit the Army Institute of Physical Training to improve the Indian Army Martial Arts Routine by adding new termination skills from his method called Army Battle Combatives. Rao has outlined this method in his book "Strike to Kill". In 2021, Rao delivered a TEDx talk titled "Zen and Mindfulness," where he discussed the role of Zen principles in enhancing mental balance, awareness, and inner clarity.