Emilia Tuukkanen is a fast rising prospect on the European BJJ scene. This purple belt competitor from Finland has already won the IBJJF Europeans at blue and purple and is now setting her sights on the 2014 Worlds. BJJEE.com sat down with Emilia to find out more about her and her goals:

Hi Emilia, can you please introduce yourself to the BJJ Community of Eastern Europe? 

I’m 22-year-old girl from Lahti, Finland, and I’ve been a purple belt for over a year now. I try to work as little as possible and focus on training but unfortunately I need to get money from somewhere so I work as a substitute teacher in this great school. I train at Barreto JJ Lahti, though I’m part of Roger Gracie Academy (Spain), but there’s no RGA gym in Finland. My main titles are my IBJJF European Open golds from 2013 as blue belt and 2014 as purple. I’ve also got several finnish national medals in bjj and nogi and a gold medal from IBJJF London Opens 2012 & NOGI European Open silver.

2014 Europeans

What made you start Jiu-Jitsu?

I started to train bjj in summer 2010 and at first i didn’t even like it so much. I never thought i would be competing, but here i am, dreaming of doing bjj and getting money for it so that i wouldn’t have to work. Even crazier is that my dream of going to mundials is coming true in less than one month! That is one thing i would have never believed few years ago. My coach is Pablo Cabo in Malaga, Spain, who is a Roger Gracie black belt. At Barreto we have two black belts Raimo Posti and Marko Kallioinen.

Your boyfriend also trains right?

Yes, my main coach and teacher is my boyfriend Santeri Lilius (he got silver this year at IBJJF European Opens as brown belt) and from him i learn most of my techniques, and he’s the one i go to with questions about bjj. He has the same style as me, only better and he is brutally honest with me when i do something stupid, which i need but also really, really hate.

with boyfriend Santeri Lilius

You also teach women’s class. What are the keys to building a proper women’s team within an academy? Should women train separately from men most times?

I don’t see the point of having a girls only -class that is taught by a guy. It kinda misses the idea of women’s class. It’s important to realize that light feather girls might have some different techniques that work for them compared to ie. heavy weight guys, and those are what i try to teach in my classes. Girls have different physique than men and I want to think that as an advantage rather than weakness. Girls are flexible, fast and so much more technical than guys, because we can’t usually rely on strength and power, we need to learn techniques that work, no matter how big your sparring partner is. That being said, i don’t think girls who want to compete should train only with other girls, because sparring is always harder with people bigger than you, and if you challenge yourself like that everyday and get used to roll with people stronger than you, competing against girls your size will feel easy.

You are a very frequent competitor in Europe and have won the Europeans twice. What goes through your head when you are about to step on the mat when you compete? (How do you motivate yourself?

I’m always very nervous and scared, thinking about breaking my arm on purpose or something to get out of it. Nervousness has gotten better now, and I’ve learnt to control it more. But I can’t say I enjoy waiting for my fights, these crazy escape-plans still go through my mind. My warm-up routine is very important to me, I always do the same things while listening to music, which helps to get my mind on the fight. But when the fight starts, all the nervousness is gone and I’m just focused on the match.

You say that you are specialized in modern Jiu-Jitsu. What are your thoughts on modern Jiu-Jitsu (Mendes bros) vs Old school basic Jiu-Jitsu (Roger Gracie)?

Well, I love spider guard, de la riva, berimbolo etc. that are considered modern jiujitsu, but I think what has happened with many bjj practitiones is that they feel it has to be only one or another, and it sometimes feels like a war between these two. My opinion is that you can’t be good at the modern stuff if your basics are not great. “You have to know how to walk before you can run” is the case here. I’m not saying one style is better than other, people are different and that means techniques that fit them best are also different. Modern jiujitsu just happens to work for me, but that doesn’t mean I don’t train also full guard sweeps and submissions, basic escapes from bad situations etc.

6. How different is the training mentality between Finns, Brazilians and other Europeans? (For competitors and recreational students)

Finnish people are proud, stubborn, hard-working and quiet, and I think that’s the biggest difference to any other culture. We have this great mentality about training, we are always on time to train and want to do our best. It’s just a shame that it’s impossible to make a living out of this here.

7. What are your thoughts on ‘creontes’ in Jiu-Jitsu?

I don’t think changing a team should be such a scandal, everybody’s an individual and different teams fit different people, and maybe in the beginning you don’t know enough of the sport to make a decision for the rest of your life. It shouldn’t be treated as seriously as a divorce (I think some people make it even more serious, which is crazy). Of course you have to have respect and appreciate your coaches, but in what other sport do you pay to train and are still owned by that place? Or treated as a traitor if you feel some other place could be better for you?

You are known for your footlocks. What do you like so much about footlocks? Are they harder to pull off in the gi? Does focusing so much on them affect the rest of your game? (like your guard passing game for example).

As a purple belt I’m allowed to do only straight ankle lock, but of course when i roll with brown or black belts i try to do others as well. But I love the ankle lock and it works really well for me. I did it in my final fight in this years Europeans, it’s my go-to submission and many of my sweeps end up in a position where the ankle lock is like on a silver platter. And if the submission doesn’t happen, I use it to get on top and pass the guard.

Some people say that Scandinavia including Finland is now the place with the highlest level of BJJ in Europe. What do you think about that?

Definitely! In Finland alone there are many European Champions and Mundials medalists, and if you include Sweden, Norway and Denmark , the amount of international champions is just crazy. Of course as a girl I’m more interested in women who kick ass, and here are some real world-class chicks! In Scandinavia there’s Shanti Abelha, Ida Hansson and Janni Larsson who all are amazing black belts, and in Finland there is black belt Venla Luukkonen, brown belts Hanna Hirvonen and Päivi Aittamaa, purple belts Outi Järvilehto, Katjusa Hörman, Milla Hirvonen, Kaisa Yli-Paunu and Jonna Konivuori, who all have impressive titles and medals from international competitions. It’s crazy to be competing against these women here because most of them were my idols when I started bjj and it’s a hard situtation to be fighting a person you have looked up for years.

What is next for you and your team in 2014?

I’m now training for the Worlds that are in less than a month, and all my energy goes to that. It’s my first time in Mundials and I’m already so nervous, but at the same time I can’t wait to get there and compete! I’m also now looking for sponsors so that I could start focusing completely on bjj.

If you want to thank somebody or sponsors, feel free

Thanks Grab&Pull for awesome kimonos, Herbalife for nutrition, Selätin and Eimi Oy for support and Barreto Lahti for great place to train! I want to thank also Roger Gracie Spain and Pablo Cabo. Big thanks to my family and friends for always cheering for me.

Thank you Santeri for always being there for me. .

Thanks Emilia and all the best!

Thanks for your awesome page! There is a post on my blog in english www.emmpui.blogspot.fi and I’m going to start writing there more in english about my training and other stuff. You can also find me on instagram @empuii where I post a lot of bjj pics.

Emilia shows a nice sweep from spider guard: