YOUR MOVE Youth Campaign

After 6 years of extremely active training I received my 1. dan black belt in karate in year 2000. With the help of friends I founded the Finnish Parkour Association in 2003. Our vision was to share information about the sport for the Finnish public. In addition, for the ones who wanted to train the sport we wanted to offer teaching and training possibilities, thus I became one of the first teachers in parkour in Finland. These days many of my old students have surpassed me skill wise, but I'm very happy about it as now many of them have become parkour teachers themselves. In my opinion, putting the good forward is the best that everyone can do ;D My path with the Finnish Parkour Association ended in the beginning of 2006.

Later that year, in the summer, I received my Master's degree from the Helsinki School of Economics. Instead of having a more common career path I decided to become a stuntman. I can never thank my mentor H-P Virkki enough for giving me all the support in my career as well as in my personal life. Although, it might appear that things have gone really well for me, there have been times when I have really thought of giving up my dreams and going back to a more stable life-style.

I guess life just wanted to play tricks with me because during these times of insecurity I was blessed with good fortune. I got the role of Noa Okada in the most popular Finnish TV drama, Salatut Elämät (Eng: Concealed Lives). Since September 2009 my character has been seen on nearly 1 million Finns' television sets. Some people even recognize me in the local grocery store. So far, all experiences have been positive and I am very thankful for that!

Sports, health and well-being has played and important role for me since childhood. I am happy that I have been given an opportunity to share my knowledge and life experience to the Finnish youth through the Nuori Suomi (Young Finland Association), a respected non-profit organization that is partly financed by the Ministry of Education. I am involved with the Your Move youth campaign that aims to improve the sporting activities in schools. Instead of adults making all the decisions and actions, Your Move campaign activates youngsters themselves to do as much as possible by themselves.

My role as a Superfan of the campaign is to inspire youth for taking action. In general Superfan is a person who is known and respected among the youth; usually they are somehow related in sports or in the entertainment industry. I am looking forward to attend various events arranged by the youngsters themselves!

My first task was to help Nuori Suomi with the Suomen Urheilugaala 2010 event (Best Athlete Awards) that took place on 11th January 2010. The main organizer of the event was Finnish Sports Federation. For Nuori Suomi the event was a great way to inform top athletes and their various associates about the Your Move youth campaign. By giving Nuori Suomi access to my personal contact network they got Will Funk For Food (WFFF) locking crew and mr. Elmeri Rantalainen to perform in the event. Both of them are known for the Finnish public from the Finland's Got Talent TV show. In addition I helped recruiting three talented parkour boys, Riku and Werner Gröhn and Winston Spennert, for the same event. Riku had already worked with Nuori Suomi before so everything worked smoothly!

In overall, attending the event itself was a blast! All the hard work everyone had done paid off as most of the over 1000 invited guests came, there were thousands of people in the audience, and probably a few hundred thousand Finns watched the show from the TV! I am really honored to been given a chance to work in these kinds of massive 'good feeling' events :D

See the pictures below what happened in the event (from our point of view):



Will Funk For Food (WFFF) performing at the day event.




WFFF boys and the Nuori Suomi people working on the Your Move campaign.




Your Move team at the Urheilugaala's evening event at the Hartwall Areena. I was the photographer ;D




From the left: Superfan Motoriikka Miikka (Winner of the Finland's Got Talent show), Laura Lepistö (European World Champion 2009 in figure skating), Superfan Elmeri Rantalainen and me.




Your Move Expo Area.




Elmeri signing autographs.




Parkour boys Winston and Werner performing at the entrance of Hartwall Areena. Picture taken by the 3rd parkour boy, Riku.




Elmeri performing on the main stage.




Motoriikka Miikka performing on the main stage.

Mid-Body Control from the Mid-Finland Perspective

I'm glad that in my line of work I also get to travel around and see the world. Last summer I was in Hamar, Norway for couple of weeks training Theatrical Fencing in a workshop organized by the Nordic Stage Fight Society.


Me and the actor Elmer Bäck performing our Broadsword scene.

The beginning of this year I found myself in Kuopio, a city with ca. 90 000 inhabitants located in Middle-Finland. Kuopio is known for its ski jumping activities among many other things! One of these are its well organized martial arts activities, hence Kuopio has many practitioners training various Eastern and Western styles!

I had the chance to come teach Acrobatic Body Control (ABC) for the Tenchikan aikido club. We agreed that the first time would be an introduction class, and only after that we would talk about the future trainings. After all, I can never tell beforehand whether ABC is good for them or not, so better try it out first! :D

I was happy to see that 22 brave adults came for my ABC class! Even one aikido gentleman from Helsinki who happened to be at that point in Kuopio decided to pay a visit to my class. Few weeks earlier I had taught his son when I had an ABC class for Akari aikido club's kids' group. What a nice coincidence, although I'm these days rarely surprised anymore how small this world can be, especially Finland :D

Sami Poutiainen, my contact person from Tenchikan Aikido club had done his work well, as most of the practitioners knew beforehand who I was. Yet, there were still few persons who didn't have any idea who I was which gave me a good excuse to give them a 3 minute presentation about who I was and why I was there :D I also mentioned my mentor H-P Virkki, as with his 25 years of experience in aikido training, he is well known and respected among the aikido people. After the class I was even asked to give H-P regards from Tenchikan aikido club! Well, I can only be grateful for H-P's personal achievements as the world looks so much more welcoming when standing on a giant's shoulders ;D

After the introduction speech I started the class with a warm-up routine. In addition of making people move their body to warm their muscles, I also ask them to make vocal sounds. This ensures that they are breathing consciously, and in addition it activates the body from within. And if people are not used to making vocal sounds during a warm-up it also has the effect of activating (or mixing) ones mind.



I believe that learning acrobatic techniques requires 80% of the mind's capacity and only 20% of the body, therefore freeing ones mind is essential in learning advanced body control. Please note, that this 80/20 rule is just a theoretical relation. Mastering acrobatic techniques still requires high-level physical skills. But like in any other physical discipline, a true Master is not known only for his/her physical skills.

Although ABC has the word acrobatic in it, its main focus is still in Body Control. And in my philosophy a normally functioning body CAN be controlled well at ANY age but how to get to that 'good body control level' varies between everyone. The feeling of having a 'good body control level' can still exist for two different persons at the same time, even though the other one can do a somersault and the other one can just walk in an ergonomic way. After all, there are many ways to get to a top of a mountain. Enjoying and learning from the climb (process) is the most rewarding experience at the end of the day :D

ABC focuses right from the beginning in developing the mid-body. Instead of just training the muscles e.g. doing lots of sit-ups, I use movement techniques that as a side-product strengthen the muscles surrounding the mid-body. In the introduction class I used walking techniques, two-legged bouncing techniques and movement techniques that required both arms and legs put on the ground. As I said in the beginning, ABC is difficult to explain. Even seeing someone doing it won't give much. Only trying it out yourself can you truly tell what it really is about ;D

Many of the techniques put some stress to the muscles around the hip bone, therefore I also emphasize the importance of stretching. Due to time issues I try to stretch mainly the muscles that are involved in the movement. Back muscles are used nearly in any kind of movement, therefore I always stretch them respectively.




1,5 hours went by fairly quickly. I enjoyed teaching the class, as I felt that all of the attendees had the right attitude for it. Attitude to constantly learn something new is what keeps people going forward (sometimes by first taking few steps backwards). And when I feel people really want to learn for the right reasons, I really want to give them as much as I think they can possible learn in such a short time.

I thank all the attendees for the warm welcome and for the great learning spirit! Hopefully, I'll be seeing the Kuopio's Tenchikan aikidokas again!

MIRACULOUS NEW YEAR 2010!!!

It has been an amazing year 2009! I want to thank everyone for the wonderful moments that I have had the privilege to experience! I truly hope that my presence has also given something for the better of the moment :D

Below are some of my career highlights for the past year 2009:

- Salatut Elämät / Concealed Lives TV Drama
> Noa Okada vs Miro
> Noa Okada vs Miro on the dancefloor

- Seppälä TV-commercial working as a choreographer

- Launching of Tung Bui Shop

- In addition I've acted in two TV-series that might be shown on the Finnish television next year.

- Acrobatic Body Control (ABC) classes have gone well, and the year 2010 might bring new opportunities! Looking forward for this!

In general together with my mentor H-P Virkki we've been working together for almost 4 years now. 2010 should be brighter, but it will only come if we're willing to work as hard as before! Nevertheless, I believe that we will always keep up the good work!

Thank you for reading my blog! See you again in the next year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!!!

Working with Talents

The benefit of being a professional - in my case a stuntman - means that I many times get to work with talented people. And when everyone is really good in their own field, it means that there's lot to learn for everyone. Sharing is caring as some might say :) My professional CV can be seen from website WWW.TUNGBUI.COM.

Lately I've been working together with a young talent. His name is Elmeri Rantalainen, and he became known from the Finland's Got Talent TV program. His focus is in Extreme Martial Arts (XMA), which is a hybrid style that uses Martial Arts as a basis for a show performance. See Elmeri's performance on the Talent Show's finals from here.

Elmeri is only 19-years old, and at the moment he is studying to become a sports teacher. In addition to his excellent skills in XMA, he is also quite a rare personality as he seems to know pretty well what he wants in life, and how he's planning to achieve it. And one important thing in his life plans is that he knows it's not going to be an easy job for him. In my opinion it makes one very humble, if he knows that it's not easy to make dreams come true, yet still thriving to do a hell of a lot of work to achieve it. If it's hard, it's worth it as Les Brown would say.

I hope Elmeri will never stop believing in himself and in his dreams. As I've said to him, it's the personality of a person that will take him to the furthest. But skills are also a necessity in the journey, especially if one wants to be as self-sufficient as possible. Having both awesome skills and a good personality makes a person very wanted partner to work with. This is good if you get to work with people who also have something to give to you. But many times people want to work with talents just to get something from them. Wisdom is about identifying the right from wrong, even if the wrong feels very much like the right.


Me and Elmeri after our 1st trainings together on 18th December 2009. Photo by Laura Koskinen.



Some wannabe-fancy picture that we just HAD to take ;) Photo by Laura Koskinen

Teaching Children vs Teaching Adults

I begun my sports teaching career in 1996, when I got my green belt in Finland's Kokondo (Seirenkai, nowadays) karate. My first assignment was to be the assistant teacher for the children's beginners' class. I didn't know I was up for it but eventually I kinda started to enjoy it. When I got my 1. dan in 2000, I officially became a Sensei, and taught a group of karatekas from yellow to black belts. I continued teaching various groups in our dojo all the way until I ended my training at Kokondo in 2001. Every now and then I go back there to train with my old friends. Brings back good old memories :D

For the last two years I've had this habit to teach Acrobatic Body Control (ABC) for two different children's group at the end of the calendar year. The other group is the Finn-Aiki aikido club and the other is Akari aikido club. See pictures below.



13.12.09 Teaching ABC for Finn-Aiki aikido club's children. Photo by Pekka Sipilä (2009)



14.12.09 Teaching ABC for Akari aikido club's children. Photo by Kyösti (2009).


The children in both of the groups were somewhere between 7 to 14 year olds. As many of them were so young my initial attitude towards teaching children is fundamentally different compared to adults. Below I have listed my main ideology of how I approach a children's group as a sports teacher:

Children get bored after 45 seconds when I've introduced a technique that they should try out. Therefore, I have to be able to bring something new or deeper information after 40 seconds in order to keep their attention towards me.

I am nice if the children are nice towards me. If they are nice to me and they ask me to show some special move, I might do that if I feel that they've been hard working enough to deserve it. This way, the children learn to think that they get a prize if they perform well or follow my instructions as well as possible.

Usually, I start as a nice teacher but if they think that kindness is weakness and try to abuse my kindness, then I quickly turn the table around and become more strict teacher. Especially in Martial Arts, the Sensei has the highest authority, and in my opinion it should be understood fairly early in ones training; Even at fairly young age.

I emphasize to the children many times, that I have been training for many years in order to obtain my skills I have these days. Therefore, if they don't succeed immediately they shouldn't feel depressed because of that. I try to make them understand that training in general - especially in Martial Arts - can be a life-long path of constant development. Note! When the physical improvement starts to slowdown at a higher age, it usually is compensated with a faster rate of development regarding the mind and soul level awareness. This I usually communicate more to adults. For both groups the message is that everyone has the potential for constant development if one can think him/herself as a combination of body, mind and the soul.

Children's classes aim more for fun than for technical improvements. If they improve technique wise then that is just a bonus. If the class has older child students, then I might try to improve their technique as well. In the end, the balance between fun and technical advancement is based on the skill level of the children. Usually, the older children are able to grasp more detailed technical training. With the adults I usually try to find the balance between technical details and repetition. If the adult students learn fast, then more technical details and less repetition per movement. This way, in one class I can teach more various ABC techniques. Again, balance is what I always try to achieve in all my classes. Therefore, I don't plan the class ahead on a piece of paper. I allow everything to affect everything, even the substance of my each class. For the adults class fun is usually a feel-good bonus ;)

Conclusion

I believe that it's more worthwhile for me to teach motivated and physically capable adults. Their body and mind are more receptive for what I want to give them as a teacher. Therefore, at the moment I teach mainly professional actors and performers. In addition (genuine) Martial Artists are excellent students. Usually they hold at least a rank of 1. dan in some of the Asian style Martial Arts.


16.12.09 Teaching ABC for a group of actors, athletes or otherwise physically motivated persons (note the Dummy in the middle!) :D

Regarding children, I feel that I learn more from them than they from me. Therefore, I usually teach a children's class 1-3 times per group per year. I'm interested to know how children are nowadays, and I feel that being exposed to them 1-3 times as a teacher is sufficient. Maybe in the future it might be interesting to teach the same group of children for a year, eg. once a month, in order to be able to see their progress, and find out whether my skills as a teacher have significant positive impact on their learning.

Training among Great Men

Mr. Auvo Niiniketo and me at Hokutoryu Jujutsu Martial Arts Club's home dojo in Kaapelitehdas, Helsinki 12.12.09. Photo by Matias.


I am honored that I have had the chance to teach Acrobatic Body Control (ABC) for the practitioners in Hokutoryu Ju-jutsu Martial Arts Club. It is the biggest in Finland, and the most wide-spread Finnish Martial Arts style globally. In addition to Finland's over 6000 (2004) practitioners it has international branches eg. in Iran, Ukraine, The Baltics, Poland, Israel, Columbia, Russia, and in Equadorissa. Hokutoryu Ju-jutsu self-defence techniques have also been taught to the military, police and security professionals.

All this began in 1977 when Mr. Auvo Niiniketo held his first ju-jutsu classes after retiring his boxing career and started to train ju-jutsu in Stockholm, Sweden. Mr. Niiniketo received his 1. dan black belt in 1979. In November 2007 he received the rank of 9. dan from Mr. Richard Morris (10. dan). Since then, in ju-jutsu, his title has been Soke (Eng. Headmaster or Grand Master).

I met Mr. Niiniketo in person in 2006 when I was teaching a private student in ABC in Hokutoryu's home dojo in Kaapelitehdas, Helsinki. Mr. Niiniketo wanted to expand the physical abilities of his club's senseis, and we decided together that I could teach them the Basics of Acrobatics once a week in a workshop that lasted for 10 weeks. As I was a student of Mr. Pekka Oey, one of the most known karatekas in Finland, and the founder of the Finnish Kokondo Karate Club (now Seirenkai) where I began my martial arts training, Mr. Niiniketo could trust me right from the beginning. All the top martial artists in Finland happen to be friends together in one way or another :) Just to mention, Mr. Pekka Oey holds the Guinness World Record in breaking 5 blocks of ice in a single karate strike. See the video on YouTube.

My Basics of Acrobatics classes were appreciated by the students, and I was asked few times to go back there to teach more. Finally, I could make a come back after 3 years. This time my style had developed from the Basics of Acrobatics to Acrobatic Body Control. We had the last class on Sunday 12.12.09 and below is a picture of the happy students (and happy teacher). Photo was taken by Toni, who was also one of the students :)

Teaching Acrobatic Body Control

Acrobatic Body Control (ABC) is a discipline of combined movement that I've developed. It's not really anything new, as it just combines my skills in acrobatics, martial arts, parkour and in various dancing styles. It's main focus is in the development of person's body control using movement (not eg. static muscle training). So far I've founded acrobatics to be one of the most challenging discipline of movement, therefore I use it as a measuring sport. If a person can do acrobatic techniques well I believe that his body control skills are above normal. I develop a person's body control skills so that eventually he could be able to do acrobatics in an ecological and natural way. ABC is based on my philosophy of movement that I call Body Dynamics.

This week I have already held three different classes. Tuesday's morning class is at 7.15 - 8.15am, which means that I wake up already at 5.00am. Fortunately, when we start the class people usually wake up pretty well :) On the same day I had shootings for a TV series. I was a member of a criminal underworld, and in my scene I had a minor fight scene with the lead actor. It was fun! :D Hopefully the scene works on television!

Wednesday evening I held another class, this time at 20.30 - 21.30. Below is a picture of the small group of people from Finn-Aiki aikido club. Even though, I'm a 1. dan black belt karateka, and I teach for martial arts clubs, we don't wear a budo outfit in the ABC classes. This is because, I see ABC only as a supportive discipline for the main sport people are training. And as it is about body control, not martial arts, sports trousers and a t-shirt is more than perfect training clothing :)



Thursday morning I had another ABC class. This class is mainly intended for professional actors and performers. I also welcome my old students there to whom I've taught acrobatics some time before :) See the picture below for the attendees (from left: Aarni, Jarkko, Maria and Tiina).