

Scott Bird
Founder and Owner of RDS
From a very young age Scott was fascinated by martial arts and influenced by the likes of Bruce lee, Jackie Chan and Gordon Liu. At the age of 7 he started having the odd lesson here and there from his uncle who was a 2nd Dan in Shukokai Karate under Shihan Eddie Daniels but it was at the age of 11 when Scott found a local Shotokan Karate club and started his training full time under 6th Dan Slater Williams.
Scott found himself hooked on martial arts and was training 7 days a week with competitions/ courses on most weekends. Scott passed the grades of 1st Dan in 1997 and 2nd Dan in 1999, represented England on two occasions and was successful in numerous tournaments but his aim was to eventually travel to the east and further his training in the birthplace of martial arts.
Some of Scott's instructors over the years included the late and great Steve Cattle, Dirk Heene, Slater Williams, Eddie Daniels, Julian Mead, Ronnie Christopher and Ken Hassel. It was also a great honor for him to train under great master and student of Gichin Funakoshi, Taiji Kase and his great student Hiroshi Shirai in Holland, 1996.
In 2003 Scott travelled to North China where he studied Shaolin, Sanda, Qigong and Yang Style Taiji for just over one year with the intentions of returning to Europe and carrying on with his Japanese martial arts but he ended up staying in China for over a decade!
During 2005, Scott lived in Yantai, Shandong PR the birthplace of Northern Preying Mantis Kung Fu. While living there as well as keeping up with his own training Scott also did 3 months of Plumb Blossom Preying Mantis under Master Lin Hong Yi.
In 2007 after opening RDS Scott began practicing the internal martial arts under 4th Generation Sun Style Master Deng Fu Ming and in 2010 became a 4th generation disciple under 3rd Gen Master Huo Pei Lin.
Scott awakes every morning at 4am to chant Sanskrit Mantras followed by Pranayama & Qigong practice. His main area of practice these days is Tai Chi and Xingyi but he still enjoys Boxing and Sanda training.
Scott holds advanced level teaching qualifications in Sun Style Xingyi, Bagua, and Taiji and is very much capable of teaching any of the styles taught at RDS. In 2003 before traveling to China Scott qualified as a level 2 fitness instructor and level 3 PT with Focus Training and National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) and in more recent years obtained an associates degree in Sports Nutrition!