Never too old to fly: Art Ribbel M67

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.marinij.com/novato/ci_12967304

Never too old to fly: Novato's Art Ribbel, 67, preps for pole vault competition at Senior Games

Dave Curtis
Posted: 07/31/2009 02:10:09 PM PDT

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Art Ribbel is one of several Marin residents participating in the... (IJ photo/Jeff Vendsel)


TRACK AND FIELD is, by and large, a young person's sport. But for some, it can be a serious pursuit - perhaps even an obsession - even after they could qualify for social security benefits.
Included in that group is Novato's Art Ribbel, who on Wednesday will participate in the 2009 Summer National Senior Games at Stanford. At age 67. In the pole vault.

"I'm going to do it as long as my body holds out," Ribbel said of his desire to remain active in his sport. "I don't see myself stopping for any other reason."

Ribbel, who tried pole vaulting as a youth only to abandon it for about 40 years after breaking his left wrist, has established himself as a star of sorts. After beginning with 8-foot vaults when he returned to the sport in

2002, he has steadily improved. In 2006, his top vault in competition was 2.75 meters (9 feet, 1 1/4 inch). That mark reached 3.20 meters (10-6) last year.
And he says he isn't satisfied yet.

"I'd really like to do 12 feet," Ribbel said. "I think I can come real close to 12 feet. É I'd love to be able to do that. If I increase my running speed, which I'm working on, I may be able to do that. But everything's going to have to be perfect for that to happen."

To reach that goal, Ribbel makes regular trips to Sonoma County for practice with the North Coast Vaulters. It is there in a Petaluma backyard that he hooks up with Rohnert Park's Bruce Hotaling, who at 65 also vaults in USA Track and Field masters competitions when he isn't

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providing free coaching to Ribbel and a number of other athletes - some of whom are 50 years younger than him.
"When we got Art, Art was starting at 8 feet," Hotaling said. "Now he's moved himself up to 10-6 and he's ready to go 11. He's really progressed incredibly."

Ribbel and Hotaling will be among the competitors next week at Stanford. Both are in the top 10 in the USATF pole vault rankings for the 65-69 age group, with Ribbel at No. 2 and Hotaling at No. 7.

But they can also expect a challenge from Joe Johnston of Apopka, Fla. At 65, Johnston is a youngster in the age group and, at times, he vaults like one. In the USATF 65-69 class, he holds the No. 1 ranking and the national record of 3.78 meters (12-4 3/4), a mark he set in June thanks in part to practice in his own backyard facility.

"Joe Johnston was and maybe still is the biggest threat to us in our age group," Ribbel said. "I've met him, I've talked to him. I've been in two meets with him. He's really a nice guy, he's a wonderful guy. He just jumps too damn high, that's all."

"From any perspective, technique is the key," Johnston said. "At this age and stage, I'm certainly not going to get any faster or any stronger. I started vaulting about 50 years ago and have a (vaulting) pit in my backyard É I built that thing in about 1990. It helps. But the whole key at this age is being healthy."

Johnston said he isn't sure how much of a factor he will be in the medal hunt as he contends with a bout of sciatica.

"I always focus more on my performance than anything else," said Johnston, who won his pole vault age group at the USATF Masters Championships in Oshkosh, Wis., on July 9 despite his condition. "But now on a good day I do about 10 feet because I can't really run. I have a feeling it will have more to do with what the others do than what I do."

Health concerns are what brought Ribbel back to pole vaulting. When he was diagnosed in 2002 with type II diabetes, he was told he could combat the condition through diet and exercise.

"The doctor told me in the beginning to lose weight," Ribbel said. "He says, 'Art, if you lose weight, and you start getting about a half an hour's worth of aerobic exercise every day, you can probably be off medication in nine months.' I started walking on a treadmill right away and I went on a diet. I was off medication in three weeks and I've been off medication ever since. I weighed over 220 pounds and I lost 60 pounds and I've managed to keep most of that off."

With the weight gone, Ribbel was able to focus on his technique - with, he points out, considerable help from Hotaling. The biggest adjustment, he says, is that the bamboo or steel poles he had worked with before are obsolete. Fiberglass poles are now standard equipment.

"I did see one fiberglass pole at a meet when I was in high school," Ribbel said. "I weighed 130 pounds and it was rated for 125. And the guy said, 'Here, try it out.' So I went down the runway and planted the pole like I always did and the pole bent and I just bailed out right away. It scared the hell out of me."

Getting used to fiberglass poles is a real challenge, said Eastern Michigan biology professor Howard Booth, who will be in the vaulting field with Ribbel at Stanford. Booth, 65, was a vaulter in high school and college but gave up the sport until about five years ago.

"I still have to relearn the proper technique," said Booth, who is one of three men ranked third in the 65-69 class with a vault of 3.05 meters this year and also has a vaulting pit in his backyard. "It is much more of a chess game than I thought it would be. You have to basically pause in the air and wait for the pole to spring back.

"Within a few months I thought I'd figure this bending thing. But you have to get your body to do what your mind sees and that isn't easy. We are right on the cusp where fiberglass was coming into the scene. From us on down, they never learned anything else."

Ribbel said he, too, is still working to master vaulting with a flexible pole.

"It's a huge adjustment," Ribbel said. "We taught ourselves to vault. I had no coaching in high school, I just did it. Here, with fiberglass pole vaulting, everything you do É I mean, even just standing there preparing to vault, there's a technique to that. There's a technique to holding the pole. There's a technique to running. There's a technique to when you bring the pole up, where the pole comes in front of you, how you hold your hands, where you put your eyes, how you take off, where this foot goes. Before you've left the ground. And I've learned all of that from Bruce.'

The other big enemy for Ribbel and his compatriots is fear - of injury and of being so high in the air.

"There's not anything you won't mess up in pole vaulting on your whole body," Hotaling said. "Your feet, your legs, your ankles, your wrist, your arms, your head. It's a dangerous sport. You've got to be a little crazy to want to do it."

Yet Ribbel presses on.

"They claim it takes seven years to make a vaulter and I believe it. It's not like going out and running where you just put one foot in front of the other. Any knucklehead that's got two feet can do that. We work on a lot of strength things that simulate the movements we do on the pole so that when your muscles are called on to do a certain movement the strength is there. But you can only learn to pole vault by pole vaulting."

SENIOR GAMES

The 2009 Summer National Senior Games begin Saturday and run through Aug. 15 at various Bay Area sites.

Medal sports: Archery, badminton, basketball, bowling, cycling, golf, horseshoes, race walking, racquetball, road race, shuffleboard, softball, swimming, table tennis, tennis, track and field, triathlon, volleyball.

Demonstration sports: Equestrian, fencing, lawn bowling, rowing, sailing, soccer, water polo.

On the Web: 2009seniorgames.org

[Vaulting prof]

Art, Joe, Nice article! We'll see you guys in a couple of days.

Howard