Martial Artists To Perform at Mount Rushmore on July 6

By WRILEY NELSON
NEW HARTFORD

The American Martial Arts Institute’s Eagle Martial Arts Ambassadors, a select group of black belt instructors and students led by Grandmaster and founder Clifford C. Crandall Jr., will demonstrate their skills at the Mount Rushmore amphitheater in Keystone, South Dakota this weekend.

The group takes the stage at 5 p.m. on Saturday, July 6 as part of their American Tour. Following the performance, the team will explore and train in several of the most notable U.S. National Parks across South Dakota and Wyoming. It is part of their ongoing efforts to share their martial arts traditions and experience with students and communities around the world, and will be televised across the region.

Crandall, 76, is a former schoolteacher and superintendent who has practiced the martial arts full time since his retirement in 1984. An internationally recognized instructor, he has trained and taught in nearly two dozen countries. Crandall has also completed more than 1,000 parachute jumps and now hosts “Still Alive and Kicking,” a free video series that demonstrates a wide variety of fitness and health activities for seniors.

In November, Crandall competed in his first competitive bodybuilding competition after months of training and took first place in his division. At the time, he told “The Freeman’s Journal” about his aim to show older adults that they can exercise effectively—even gain muscle competitively—at any age.

“This will be an old-style martial arts demonstration, not the martial arts entertainment that many people see on TV,” Crandall said. “We aren’t breaking boards and flipping around. We’re demonstrating empty-handed techniques and falling on a concrete floor. Martial arts traditions developed over centuries to help men and women better handle the stresses of daily life.”

Although Crandall has demonstrated his American Eagle Style of martial arts around the world for nearly 30 years, this is the school’s first major public performance in the U.S. He attributes its success to the American values of openness and the melting pot. After many years of training under leading Chinese, Japanese and Korean martial arts masters, Crandall developed American Eagle by adapting the best elements of many other styles. He says it is, in part, a way to keep the great masters who taught him alive.

“It took us this long to get comfortable with saying that this is the oldest traditional, fully-documented American style of martial arts. We’re going on this tour on Independence Day weekend because we want to show our fellow Americans that this country has arrived as a place of established, traditional martial arts.”

Crandall noted that martial arts traditions are based on physical ability and mental focus united to benefit the community; each part of this formula, he emphasized, is necessary. The AMAI tour team includes 21 black belts ranging in age from 20 to 70. Several have had heart attacks, cancer, or other conditions. In keeping with his other projects, Crandall hopes to demonstrate that it’s never too late to find a fitness activity that works.

“It has been an absolute pleasure coaching and training this group,” he concluded, “We’re all very excited to show the country what we can do.”