Chief Instructor and Founder of FLAG UK

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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'.

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‘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