
Sifu Della O'Sullivan


Chief Instructor and Founder of FLAG UK
​
Della O’Sullivan is a women’s self-defence expert, weapons expert
and leading UK martial artist. She studies more than one style of
martial arts but has obtained the level of ‘master’ in Wing Tsun kung
fu, and is also currently working towards a degree in criminology and
psychology.
Della has become an advocate for female empowerment
after revealing her inspirational journey through martial arts as a
survivor of violence. She supports domestic violence charities, and in
2016 she launched her Fight Like a Girl campaign in support of the
Bede House charity, where workshops were set up across London at
women-only centres to to assist other survivors and encourage more
women to see the benets of martial arts and self-defence.
She has taught hundreds of women since launching the campaign.
Della started teaching martial arts in 2007 after training for the
equivalent average hours of four years in one. She opened her first
school in Dulwich, South London, where she continues to teach,
and has led countless public demonstrations both in the UK and
abroad.
In 2011, she performed on stage to a packed audience at
the Shaolin Temple in Dengfeng, China, alongside the legendary
Shaolin monks. She has also appeared in several newspaper articles
and was featured in London’s Evening Standard, on the BBC’s One Show, Radio 4 and the ITV evening news. She has featured in
a BBC documentary about positive female role models and was the
subject of a special feature in Martial Arts Illustrated and Wing Chun
Illustrated.
As well as offering self-defence classes for various councils
and being a guest teacher for other martial art schools, charitable
organisations and universities, she also teaches regular martial arts
classes to men, women and children within her own association 'Phoenix Eye Wing Tsun Association'.
​
‘In an ideal world a woman should feel okay walking into
any martial arts gym and feel comfortable to learn, and although
there are great male and female teachers out there, it can be very
intimidating for survivors. It takes tremendous strength to do
something that you know will bring up old pain, but it’s also a
pathway to empowerment, and so I wanted to make the process
easier for others by offering a stepping stone through women-only
classes, and hopefully breaking down any preconceived negative
ideas they may have had about training.’
DELLA O’SULLIVA
She has since taught hundreds of women across the country, raised thousands of pounds for local charity supporting victims of domestic violence, and has been interviewed on national news about the campaign.
Della is the founder of the martial arts association ‘Phoenix Eye Wing Tsun Association’, which is built upon strong moral virtues connected to the Chinese Phoenix and the approach that every person who studies martial arts should have the dual goal to develop themselves internally and spiritually. Sifu Della is one of very few female association leaders in the world.