Jiu-jitsu champ doesn’t let life pin him
July 19, 2003
By Adam Van Brimmer
912.652.0347
vbrimmer@savannahnow.com
Fletcher Moore gets position on Joe Fuller during a Jiu-Jitsu exhibition on River Street. Moore will be compeating in the World Jiu-Jitsu championships this month in Brazil. -Richard Burkhart/Savannah
Fletcher Moore is flat on his back, looking up at a bully. The bigger, stronger boy straddling his torso makes Fletcher, at 5-foot-8 and 135 pounds, look as meek as Harry Potter. But Fletcher doesn’t appear alarmed, even as his assailant reaches for his neck. Calmly, Fletcher grabs the bully’s arm. In one motion, he bucks his hips, twists the other boy’s arm backward and rolls him over. Their roles suddenly reversed, the bully taps Fletcher on the hip. Fletcher lets go and helps the boy up. The fourth-degree blue belt in the martial art of jiu-jitsu has just won another sparring match. The 19-year-old is preparing for the annual jiu-jitsu World Championship, which begins Friday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Intimidating men from around the globe will compete in the event, as many as 180 in his division and weight class alone. But Fletcher isn’t scared or nervous. He’s fought his way through both feelings before. Life, tougher than any schoolyard bully, picked on Fletcher before.
Hard knocks early
He got his emotional first black eye at age 8. His father, Harvey, an Army Ranger, died in a training accident. The helicopter carrying his squad crashed into Utah’s Great Salt Lake, killing all aboard. To Fletcher, his father was a real-life action hero. He did the things movie stars played at. With his biggest authority figure gone, a boy already described by his mother as a “wild child since birth” became one of Savannah’s biggest troublemakers. “He’d always been a discipline problem,” his mother, Sheri Moore, said. “His father would go away for training or a mission, and Fletcher would get into trouble. Then his father died it was very tough on him.” Fletcher fought back against the tragedy for the next six years. Four schools kicked him out in the process, his teachers unable to control him in the classroom. He wasn’t a bully or even a hell-raiser. He was a kid who always had to be the center of attention, even during an arithmetic or reading lesson. But at age 14, he got his second black eye. This one changed his life.
His mother suffered a life-threatening brain injury. The trauma left her temporarily incapacitated, unable to care for herself, let alone her son. Fletcher was sent to Virginia to live with an uncle. By the time mother and son reunited a little over a year later, Fletcher’s trouble-making days were over. “I almost lost her, and I didn’t see the point in making trouble anymore,” he said. “I learned a lot about myself at that time. I wasn’t getting anything out of acting the way I was.”
Discipline and peace
The “new” Fletcher had a new interest: martial arts. His uncle, James Sudderth, introduced him to jiu-jitsu, a grappling form of self-defense combining elements of Greco-Roman wrestling and judo. Uncle James was a jiu-jitsu practitioner himself. He learned the art while in the Army as a member of the elite Delta Force team. His teacher was Royce Gracie, a civilian contracted by the military as an instructor. Gracie was also an Ultimate Fighting Champion, competing in the no-holds-barred tournaments often shown on pay-per-view television. Fletcher watched one of Gracie’s UFC bouts with his uncle. After the fight, Fletcher begged Uncle James to show him some moves. James owned some of Gracie’s instructional videos and loaned them to Fletcher. The physical and emotional discipline of jiu-jitsu was perfect for the reforming troublemaker. “I was really intrigued by it,” Fletcher said. “The energy of the fight is really personal. It was a great outlet for me.”
His mother’s steady recovery encouraged him, too. Sheri spent several weeks in the hospital and then moved in with her mother in Lake City, Fla., where she worked to regain her motor skills. Once she was able to care for Fletcher again, he left his uncle and joined her in Florida. “I was really amazed in the changes in him,” Sheri said. “For 14 years, I’d been trying to get him to straighten up. Then we moved back to Savannah and he met a great mentor in Garth.” Garth Spendiff has become more than a mentor to Fletcher over the last three years. A professor of exercise physiology at Georgia Southern University, Garth started a jiu-jitsu club at Benedictine in the summer of 2000. Fletcher, who still had his uncle’s jiu-jitsu videos, quickly became the club’s star – even though other club members outweighed him by 75 pounds or more. “He was very quiet and very weak when I met him, but this sport is not based on strength and power, but leverage and technique,” Garth said.
More than a mentor
Garth learned jiu-jitsu had little to do with muscle during his first class. He was a GSU grad student back then, attending a martial arts convention in Charleston. He sat in on a jiu-jitsu demonstration by Relson Gracie – Royce’s brother. Gracie had a 15-year-old student with him and asked Garth if he’d volunteer to be a part of the demonstration. “That 15-year-old boy twisted me up like a pretzel,” said Garth, who took up the sport soon after, and last year won the heavyweight division at the Pan American Championships. “That changed my whole idea of what martial arts is.” Just as the sport changed Garth, he has used it as a means to change – and reach – Fletcher. Sheri calls him Fletcher’s surrogate father. If Fletcher misses a training session, Garth calls to find out why. If Fletcher reverts to his old trouble-making ways, he can expect another call from Garth.
“Every night I pray and thank God for sending Garth to Fletcher,” Sheri said. “He’s been such a blessing.” The two have become inseparable in recent weeks as Fletcher prepares for the championship. Fletcher travels to Statesboro with Garth every morning at 6:15 to help teach self-defense classes. Between the three classes, he trains – as much as 38 hours a week. Fletcher starts college at GSU next month, and plans to major in psychology. He’ll also continue to study jiu-jitsu with the goal of one day becoming a black belt. After college, he’d like to join the Secret Service or start his own jiu-jitsu academy. All of which will take a certain amount of fight and determination. No problem for someone who’s used to fighting – and winning – on his own terms.
Get involved
Garth Spendiff is teaching jiu-jitsu at the Habersham YMCA. The classes are open to men and women 13 years or older and are held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Fees are $45 a month for military, police and fire department employees as well as YMCA members. Non-YMCA members can take the classes for $65 a month. For more information, inquire at the Habersham YMCA’s front desk.
What is jiu-jitsu?
Jiu-jitsu is a grappling martial art resembling both Olympic wrestling and judo. Jiu-jitsu utilizes leverage and momentum rather than strength and power.
Origins
Jiu-jitsu was developed in Japan. The martial art has been modified into a combat form over the last 80 years by Brazilians Carlos and Helio Gracie and their descendents. Through street-fighting and no-holds-barred contests, the Gracies removed ineffective techniques from the Japanese form and modified traditional techniques to develop Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
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