Martial Arts School - Taining Rising Dragon

About the owner

My name is Scott Bird and I was born in 1982, Birmingham England. From a young age I became interested in Martial Arts and it wasn’t long before I started my training in Shotokan Karate at the age of 11. After 6 years of training I achieved the grade of 2nd Dan black belt and was successful in numerous Kumite & Kata tournaments including the

nationals and international matches in Europe.

1999 – Lived in Portugal for 2 years and taught Karate privately.

2001 – Returned to England and had a short spell in the British army.

2003 – I found a shaolin Academy on the internet and within 1 month I was in North China learning Shaolin Kung fu. Although I stayed at the Siping Academy for just over 1 year many westerners cut their time short because of the bad management and lack of communication. After my time was nearly up I thought it would be nice to open my own Martial Arts School in China and put things right where many other Chinese owned schools go wrong.

So I and one of the masters from Siping got together and decided to open our own Martial Arts Academy in a city called Yantai, Shandong Province.

After several months of working with “Master” Su I soon realised our views were different on how to run a Martial Arts School for westerners. When I left the Yantai Shaolin Academy I carried on living in China trying different businesses and training by myself.

2006 – I married my girl friend who is Chinese and went on holiday to a place called Taining which is a UNESCO global geo park. After staying in Taining for a few days I thought it would be an amazing location to set up a Martial Arts School. My Father in law used to be top government in Taining so I was introduced to the Mayor and other top government who was all very supportive in me opening a Gong Fu School.

I spent over 1 year building and renovating my school and 3 months travelling around China interviewing and searching for good masters.

Now I own the only western owned Martial Arts school in China which can accommodate nearly 100 students and it is always being improved.

To own and run a Martial Arts School is a dream for me but another reason I wanted to open a school is for westerners to be able to come to China and get the training they want and not worry about being ripped off.

Here are a few reasons why you should choose the Rising Dragon Martial Arts School over others:

You have 24hr support from another westerner who knows China like the back of his hand
Taining is not only beautiful but SAFE too
A broad selection of styles to choose from, some of them being very rare
Learn real Gong Fu (not watered down stuff) from some of the best masters in China
Good training facilities. (Modern & Traditional)
Reside in a global geo park voted one of the top 3 destinations in China

Thank you for taking the time to view my website, I hope to see you soon!

Yours Sincerely, Scott Bird

P.S. If you have any questions at all feel free to ask and I will try my best to answer them as soon as possible.

What you can expect to learn and achieve by attending the RDMA’s school

Short term stay, 1 – 3 months:

Increased health & fitness
Basics in which ever style you choose
At least 2 fist forms
Basic hard Qigong (optional)
Basic Mandarin (optional)

Although you can learn a lot in 1 or 2 months you are barely touching the surface of the basics in which ever style you choose to learn. Sometimes it can take weeks just to learn the stances and be able to do them correctly. You may be able to pick the movements up but your real aim should be to perform the movements correctly especially in styles like XingYi & Taiji Quan where it is vital to have the correct body alignment in order to benefit from it. If you would like to perform hard Qi gong in 1 – 3 months it is possible to do some of the basic ones in that time but you will still have to train very hard to get your body ready. After a few months training you will know if Chinese martial arts is for you or not and decide whether you would like to continue your training or come back in the future to improve yourself.

(One of the very first students here practiced Shaolin & hard qigong for just over 1 month, John King had little martial arts background and broke an iron bar over his head on his last day of training).

Medium term stay, 4 – 8 months:

Good level of Fitness
Good level of basics
4 – 9 forms (some of them being weapons)
Medium hard qigong (optional)
Basic Mandarin
Decent knowledge of the style you have studied
Increased power and speed

Without a doubt your fitness will increase by coming here but if you already have a good level of fitness before you arrive then you can expect to improve & learn a lot quicker than if you were un-fit starting your training. By now your basics should be pretty sharp and a good example to others and new students arriving. The forms you are now learning will get more difficult and your Master will expect more from you.

Medium to long term stay, 9 – 12 months

100% Fitness
Very healthy
Good basics
Good sharp forms
Good speed and power
Basic Mandarin
Good knowledge & understanding of what you have learned
Self confidence

By this time you have learnt a decent amount of forms but it is not about how many forms you learn it is about how well you can perform them and understand them. It is a waste of time knowing a form if you can’t break it down and use it for actual combat so unless you understand and perform the Taolu correct your master will not advance you. Because you have been training for quite some time now so there should not be any mistakes from you and you should be shining amongst other students around you. At this stage if you have been studying Xanda you will be at a good level with good kicking and punching skills.

Long term stay, over 1 year

As long as you have always put 100% efforts into your training after this length of time you can represent the RDMA’s School & your country and enter some competitions around China. You will be at an all round good level and someone to look up to. If you have practiced qigong for this length of time every day and also done body conditioning you will be able to perform most of the hard qigong.

All of the above is a rough guide. Because everyone learns at their own pace and some people attends with previous MA’s training it is impossible to tell you exactly what you can and can’t learn during your stay.

If you are coming here to further your training then you won’t start from the begging but your master will assess what you know and correct you if need be.

Everybody learns at different paces and is at different fitness levels. If someone has trained already for several years and you are just starting then you can’t expect to learn and perform the same as him/her.

Some students will find the training more difficult than others but all we ask from you is to always put 100% effort in and give it your best.

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