Martial artists perform at Mount Rushmore on July 6
Riley Nelson
New Hartford
The American Martial Arts Association's Eagle Martial Arts Ambassadors, a select group of black belt instructors and students led by Grandmaster and founder Clifford C. Crandall Jr., will be showcasing their skills this weekend at Mount Rushmore Amphitheater in Keystone, South Dakota.
The group will take to the stage at 5pm on Saturday, July 6th as part of their US tour. Following the performance, the team will explore and train in some of America's most famous national parks in South Dakota and Wyoming, part of an ongoing effort to share their martial arts traditions and experiences with students and communities around the world, which will be televised across the region.
Crandall, 76, is a former teacher and superintendent who retired in 1984 and has been practicing martial arts full time since. As an internationally recognized instructor, he has trained and taught in approximately two dozen countries, completed more than 1,000 parachute jumps, and currently hosts “Still Alive and Kicking,” a free video series introducing a variety of fitness and health activities for seniors.
In November, after months of training, Crandall competed in his first bodybuilding competition and won his division. He told the Freeman's Journal at the time that his goal was to show older people that they could exercise effectively and build muscle for competition, regardless of their age.
“This is an old-fashioned martial arts demonstration, not the martial arts entertainment that most people see on TV,” Crandall said. “You won't be breaking boards or doing somersaults. You'll be performing hand-to-hand tricks and falling to the concrete floor. Martial arts traditions have developed over centuries to help men and women better cope with the stresses of everyday life.”
Crandall has been training American Eagle-style martial arts around the world for nearly 30 years, but this is the first time the style has held a major public performance in the United States. He attributes its success to America's open values and melting pot of people. After years of training under renowned martial arts masters in China, Japan and Korea, Crandall developed American Eagle by incorporating the best elements of many other styles. It's also a way to keep alive the great masters who taught him, he says.
“It's taken us a long time to get to the point where we can say this is the oldest, most fully documented American-style traditional martial art. We're doing this tour over Independence Day weekend because we want to show the American people that we are now a country with an established traditional martial art.”
Crandall noted that martial arts traditions are based on a blend of physical ability and mental focus that benefits the community, emphasizing that each part of the formula is necessary. The AMAI touring team includes 21 black belts, ranging in age from 20 to 70; several of them have suffered heart attacks, cancer and other illnesses. As with his other projects, Crandall hopes to demonstrate that it's never too late to find an effective fitness activity.
“It's been a lot of fun coaching and training this group,” he concluded. “We're all really looking forward to showing the nation what we're made of.”
