“The mind and life of a coach” documentary of Jyri Manninen
“I want to start my statement with full disclosure that Jyri Manninen is my good friend. But the reason I endorse him isn’t because of that - it’s because I’ve known him as a fighter since he started his career. I’ve seen how he developed since he was a white belt and I’ve seen him compete; I’ve seen him teaching and I now see his students competing and I’m really impressed by the work he’s been doing. It’s my huge pleasure to be one of his instructors and I’m very confident that anyone who chooses to train with Jyri and under his tutelage will have the best instuction available. You guys are lucky to have him!”
“At Ippon gym we have had the pleasure of several seminars with Jyri. Jyri has a very effective teaching method that makes the understanding of principles and techniques easy. In the seminars Jyri has given me personally some amazing techniques that I’ve added to my game and still use every sparring session. They say you never stop learning in BJJ and Jyri has certainly proven that to me on a number of occasions. We would have him back in a heartbeat.”
Coach Jyri Manninen
Jyri Manninen is a Finnish BJJ pioneer, successful competitor, well-liked teacher and respected coach. He is the head coach and a founding member of Buli Jiu-Jitsu in Helsinki, Finland.
He began his BJJ career in 2004 at GB Gym Helsinki, under the watchful eyes of fellow countrymen Tuomas Murdoch and Sammy Hämäläinen, both successful competitors and trainers in their own right. Jyri set his sights high even in the beginning, and placed 3 rd in his first tournament only four months after starting BJJ.
Shortly after, Jyri met Demian Maia when GB Gym became affiliated with BJJ team Brasa. Inspired by Maia’s success and extremely technical jiu jitsu, Jyri packed his rucksack and headed for Brazil to train under Maia’s instruction for 9 months. After a few years of teaching BJJ at GB Gym, he returned to Brazil again in 2009 to fine-tune his technique and conditioning in preparation for, and after, the 2010 Mundials. On his post-Mundials trip to Brazil, Jyri earned his brown belt.
As a brown belt, Jyri won national titles within GI, NOGI and ADCC rules. At the same time, priorities shifted in both professional and personal spheres from being a constant competitor to teacher and mentor.
Demian Maia promoted Jyri to black belt in March 2014 (he received all his belts starting from blue to black from Maia). Competing continued the following two years, including winning gold in the masters division at the NOGI World Championships in 2014. Further trips to both Brazil and the USA saw further prep for competitions. Jyri has worked and trained with not only Demian Maia, but also Rodrigo "Comprido" Medeiros, Felipe Costa, Robert Drysdale, Donny Wallace, Patchez Childers and Shawn Hammonds among others. Due to Demian Maia’s focus on his MMA career, Comprido maintained Jyri’s affiliation to Brasa and has helped him tremendously over the years.
In 2015, Mikko Blom (the owner of the Crest brand) offered Jyri a position as head of the BJJ program at Crest Professional Fighting Center in Helsinki. This type of opportunity was not available at his old gym, so Jyri took up Mikko’s offer, thereby making his first steps towards making Jiu-Jitsu his career.
Jyri worked hard for six years at Crest PFC to build a strong team. In 2021, he started his own academy, Buli Jiu-Jitsu, with Jon Stenholm, Antti Lehto, and Johan Kommonen.
Since 2015, after his own competitive career, Jyri has dedicated his life to bringing jiu-jitsu into the lives of others. He’s helped multiple national and European champs reach their potential while at the same time creating an atmosphere in Buli Jiu-Jitsu that is friendly, safe and welcoming for everyone - not just competitors. On top of this, he teaches 200+ hours of private classes per year, as well as seminars and workshops all over the world.
If you wish to train with Jyri either in a regular class, a private lesson just for yourself, or you’d like to bring Jyri to your academy to teach a seminar/workshop, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
IBJJF NOGI World champion -100,5kg black belt (master) 2014
IBJJF BJJ European silver medalist -94,3kg purple belt (adult) 2009
IBJJF BJJ European bronze medalist -94,3kg brown belt (adult) 2011
CBJJE BJJ Brasileiro champion -88,3kg purple belt (adult) 2010
FPJJ BJJ Circuito Paulista silver medalist -100,5kg purple belt 2010
FPJJ BJJ Circuito Paulista bronze medalist absoluto purple belt 2010
SBJJL BJJ National champion -88,3kg Elite (adult) 2011
SBJJL NOGI National champion -97,5kg Elite (adult) 2013
3x SBJJL BJJ Finnish Open champion 2005, 2007, 2012
+multiple times silver&bronze medalist in SBJJL competitions
ADCC European bronze medalist -88kg (pro) 2008
ADCC National champion -88kg (pro) 2012
3x ADCC Finnish open champion (pro) 2007, 2007 (open weight class) 2008
2x Nordic open champion -100,5kg & open weight class brown belt (adult) 2013
Scandinavian Open champion -88,3kg blue belt (adult)