Master Jyrki Saario
Founder & Honorary Leader
Created Defendo. Teaching professionals since 1983.
About · Our history & why we train
The technique is
the visible part.
The real training builds the person behind it.
01 — Mission
Why the academy
exists.
Professional self-defence and combatives education, to one international standard — developing people who can protect themselves and others, and the instructors who teach them.
Saario Academy is an international training organisation registered in Sweden. Its mission, in its own words: to provide “high-quality and safe training”, to “educate competent instructors” with a strong focus on methodology and safety, and to “build an international community based on trust and professionalism”.
02 — The founder
The techniques don’t take long. Building the ability to perform under pressure does.
Real learning doesn’t happen when everything goes right. It happens when it doesn’t — when you come back after a bad session, and practise again, and again, until you no longer have to think about what to do. You simply act.
That’s what Defendo means to me. Staying calm under pressure. Making good decisions when others freeze. Getting back up after failure and moving forward.
That’s why I teach. That’s why I founded Saario Academy.
Jyrki SaarioFounder
The work nobody sees
03 — Lineage
Built over a lifetime of teaching.
Jyrki Saario created Defendo and built the academy over a lifetime of teaching — from Gothenburg’s first professional martial arts club in 1983, through an instructor certificate from Imi Lichtenfeld himself, to Scandinavian Defendo and the Defendo Alliance in 2005.
In 2024 he passed the leadership of Saario Academy to István Nagy, who carries the system forward.
1983
First professional martial arts club — Gothenburg.
1989
First Iron Man Thai-Kick Boxing club.
1994
Meets Grandmaster Imi Lichtenfeld in Israel.
1995
Instructor certificate from Lichtenfeld.
1996
Finnish Krav Maga Federation — first instructor course in Northern Europe.
2004
The grappling system.
2005
Scandinavian Defendo — the Defendo Alliance is founded.
2024
Leadership passes to István Nagy.
Hand to hand
The system is passed on the same way it is taught.
One founder’s work, carried forward — person to person, hall to hall, to one standard.
04 — The people
The people who carry the system.
Leadership, international coordinators, and program leads.
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István Nagy
Leader of Saario Academy
The current Leader of Saario Academy, carrying the system forward since 2024.
International coordinators
Roster slot
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Program leads
Roster slot
One lead per program family, per member country.
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05 — Principles
What the academy stands on.
i
Develop people, not competitors
The fight is about being consistent.
ii
Belong to something
Train with a group that has your back.
iii
Draw power from tradition
But live here and now.
iv
A real academy
Real programs, real standards, real instructors.
Written into the academy’s own regulation, its core values are “honour, loyalty, respect, discipline, and responsibility.”
06 — The standard
One Academy, one standard.
Every program is taught to the same standard, and every certificate is recognised across all member countries.
The standard is what the name means.
07 — Heritage
Nordic roots.
The system has Nordic roots — Finnish, shaped by a tradition of resilience and plain, natural effectiveness.
That’s the inheritance: not aggression, but the calm and resolve to meet whatever reality brings.
08 — Voices
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Signed · Approved
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Signed · Approved
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