The Good Fight
Through the ‘gentle art’ of jiu-jitsu, Reorg charity has helped hundreds of veterans, military personnel and emergency services workers find purpose, brotherhood and unparalleled fitness, both physical and mental. As MH discovered, the lessons learned on the mat can be life-changing – or even life-saving
The pineapple symbolises life, the skull underneath it death, which is just another part of life.
Reorg is a charity that supports the wellbeing of its beneficiaries through martial arts and functional fitness classes. But with rails of pineapple-skull apparel, Reorg’s south-west London HQ could be that of a streetwear brand, were it not for the mats and workout equipment that dominate the space. The Reorg team breaks up the workday by ‘rolling’ – Brazilian jiu-jitsu speak for sparring – which must make for interesting organisational dynamics.
‘It’s all fun,’ says Reorg chairman Trent Scanlen, a rugged ex-rugby-playing Aussie, who is involved in the running of several operations, including his nearby gym, Elevate Martial Arts & Strength. He jokes that he’s Reorg’s ‘fifth Beatle’ – or should that be Ringo? – because people tend to be more interested in founder and frontman Sam Sheriff, a former Royal Marine who is also here to greet me today, or the other two trustees, notable not just by their absence on my visit.
One of them, Mark Ormrod, is also a former Marine, the first triple amputee to survive on the battlefield. The winner of 11 Invictus Games medals, he has raised more than £600,000 for Reorg by running a 5K on prosthetic legs, cycling 99.9 miles (as in the emergency services number 999) on a hand bike and swimming 1km with one arm. An award-winning author and an MBE, he’s also a jiu-jitsu purple belt. Which, to a white belt like me, makes him a ninja.
The other, Tom Hardy, is a Hollywood superstar and blue belt – one below purple and above white – who made headlines last August by winning two gold medals at the 2022 Reorg Open championship in Wolverhampton. A poster for one of Reorg’s fundraising 24-hour ‘Rollathons’ features the charity’s ‘fab four’ placed one behind the other in a human choke-tipede.
Part of the reason why jiu-jitsu forges strong bonds, says Sheriff, is that you have to trust your training partner to let go when you tap – because you’re not trying to hurt them. A ground-based, striking-free grappling system, jiu-jitsu is all about control, of your opponent and yourself. While it might seem counter-intuitive for a team-building exercise, never mind a friendly environment for, say, a veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, jiu-jitsu has some powerful wellbeing juju.
Whil
