Ari T Hart - Proud of its place in the Museum of Modern Arts
De Volaren is a club consisting of ex-internationals and national coaches who have played and/or coached at a high level in the national teams of indoor, beach volleyball or sitting volleyball.
On their website Geert Wijnhoven wrote an articel about
Ari T Hart.
I translated this articel from Dutch to English and make it
available.
Source: Text & Pics by Geert Wijnhoven, www.volaren.nl, 2015
"Ari ’t Hart – Trots op plek in Museum of Modern Arts"
Ari ’t Hart – Trots op plek in Museum of Modern Arts
Ari 't Hart (Born 20 October 1934 in Delft)
Married to Astrid.
Education: Leidse Instrumentmakers School
Has been working for himself since 1980, as an artist and inventor. Number one in the world when it comes to designing special reels (fly fishing reels)
Volleyball from 1950 to 1962, Trainer from 1960 to 1980
CAREER
Played at: CSVD, Delft | DES, Rijswijk | National Team of Dutch Marines in New Guinea
Trainer at: Punch, Delft | Hague '68, The Hague | RAC, Enschede | Vredenstein, Enschede |
Orion, Doetinchem | Dutch Student Team | Technical University, Enschede |
Dutch National Sitting Volleyball Team | De Tubanten, Enschede (sitting volleyball)
PROUD OF A PLACE IN A MUSEUM OF MODERN ARTS
He is the inventor of sitting volleyball. Conquered countless national and international championships with the Dutch team and 'his' Tubanten. But Ari 't Hart has left that 'work' behind for more than 35 years. Since 1980 he has mainly spent his life developing new reels for fly fishing. Because of those reels, even presidents want and go out with him. But he is especially proud of the fact that one of his artistic inventions has been given a place in the most important museum in the world: the Museum of Modern Arts (MOMA) in New York.
He's genius
It has to look to be loved. An important starting point in the life of Ari 't Hart. The energy and drive of the nearly 83-year-old resident of Oldenzaal is pouring out. His wife Astrid puts it into perspective a bit: “But he also has to keep going, you know!” Ari thinks for a moment. Would he have liked his job less if he had been 'inside'? If he hadn't let himself be cheated by all kinds of business 'friends'? No! He is angry with them. And he regrets not having listened more closely to his wife Astrid's intuition when it comes to this subject. “He always said those people were no good.” But in the end, he's just happy to be doing the things he likes to do. In fact, he is still the boy who came from the Leiden Instrumentmakers School and who loved to devise and put together something very precisely. Technique and design are Ari's passion and life. And for those who still doubted it, Astrid adds: “He's a genius”. The evidence for this is everywhere when you wander through his house. Full of inventions from top to bottom. Watches, clocks, fishing reels. But also works of art. Glassware by Astrid. Paintings by Ari. The colors jump at you from every nook and cranny. You do need the spot lights to be able to distinguish the trees from time to time in the forest.
CSVD Delft
Bode 't Hart. That is Ari's father's company about 100 years ago in Delft. He brings packages from Leiden to Voorschoten and back. The proceeds feed the family with three children: Ari has a brother and a sister. As a child he was already captivated by technology. Goes to lts. Then to 'de mts': Christiaan Huijgens in Rotterdam. When Ari is sixteen, he starts playing volleyball at CSVD (Christian Sports Association Vitesse) in Delft. There he has to deal with Henk Hoogerwaard.
ORANGE NEW GUINEA His last school is the Leiden Instrumentmakers School. This is still top-class training for people who want to make precision instruments. When Ari finishes school, he is an Optical Instrument Maker. He has to serve. Wants to go to the Navy and become a sports trainer. Because he considers himself an outdoorsman. But sports instructor can't join the navy. Should he become a marine? Does he. He does not put a signature to sign immediately for six years. Ari, with his eyebrows raised a little: “They put me on a plane to New Guinea right away. An intense journey and assignment. But also special because I went there to play volleyball in the Dutch National Team of New Guinea.” PRIME MINISTER After his military service, Ari starts working at TNO and later at ITC (International Institute for Geo-Information Science), which produces cartography. “I learned the trade very well there: making precise instruments to be able to make those maps. At ITC I have a special boss: Willem Schermerhorn. He had been former Prime Minister (1954). I got on very well with him, although he was not an easy man. But I'm honest with him and he with me; then you can really work it out together.” FLY FISHING WITH JUR Back from New Guinea, Ari made the step in volleyball to the then top club DES in Rijswijk. He has been playing there since 1956. The name Jurriaan Koolen is on the table. Hurts a little. Has been his best friend for years. Ari regrets that it is behind them: “I went fishing with Jur into the polder. He showed me the fly fishing. I made my first reel with all kinds of cheap stuff. Now I'm in museums…” In volleyball, Ari meets even more fish friends: Geert Trompetter, among others. ARI THE SPLASH In 1964 Astrid comes into his life. She says: “I was not a sports type at all. But I was in Rijswijk with friends and they wanted me to play volleyball. Before our training, I saw the men busy. And there I saw that little girl with a gray tail full of energy.” But isn't Ari small among all those huge guys? Before she can say anything back, Ari intervenes: “I could jump very high. Maybe a meter.” He tells how the volleyball players had to keep spinning in the early days and played in all positions. That changed in the late 1960s. Then Ari became an outside striker. CONSOLATION OF HILDA Ari also becomes a trainer. Especially from women. Becoming a trainer seems inevitable for someone who wants to be so involved in sport. Immediately on a serious level: Haag '68. He remembers a match in Woerden. To Hilda van Gulik's Valbovol, who had become champion a year earlier: “That woman was a winner. Impressive. They beat us to that game. But she came to us afterwards to comfort us. She said we were going to be champions anyway. She also knew what losing meant. And indeed: we became champions in 1969.” THE ACCOUNTANTS At the end of the sixties, ITC moves to Enschede. So Ari goes after it. First on his own. In 1970 he buys the house in Oldenzaal, where he still lives, together with Astrid. “I was in Enschede the first day. Spent the night in such a small cubicle in the university. A man passed by and asked if I had eight hours left to train RAC (Rijks Accountants Centrale). Well I did. Because I stayed in Enschede during the week. Only drove to Delft at the weekend.” Sock holders with nails When he has just started working in Enschede, he is invited to Roessingh: a rehabilitation center in Enschede. The Tubanten play volleyball there. Well, for what has to pass. Ari gets to work with them: “As if they are normal athletes. I remember that the KRO made a film about it, which quite a few people spoke of as shame. Because I hit them hard. But they also made good progress.” The Tubants never lose again. That was certainly because of Ari. The NIS (Nederlandse Invalide Sport) asks Ari to train the national team. That is also successful. They will also train at Roessingh. Under Ari's inspiring leadership, the sport is also developing in other countries. But that's slow. Ari: “Initially, only the Germans were opposed. But they still played fistball. Before it started to look like volleyball, we were years later.”
SITTING ON STUMPS Ari tells how strange it was when players, during abdominal exercises, asked to sit on their stumps. And he explains that you never ask an invalid what happened to him. “Not a subject. I remember a boy from Limburg, who had lost his legs due to a lorry in the mines many meters underground.” He talks about the humor he encountered. “People with a mental disability also came to Roessingh. Like Gerard, a huge guy who could play table tennis and shoot a rifle. He always hit me. And I give him one back. One of the volleyball players yells as he passes: 'Don't make such a funny face!' He responds with: 'I can walk!'. And someone with a wooden leg got sock holders with nails as a birthday present.” WITH ABS Still impressed, Ari talks about the sitting volleyball players. “Those handicapped athletes were mentally indestructible. Johan Reekers was a real winner. In a game of sitting volleyball, ordinary top volleyball players have no chance. The sitting volleyball players control everything thanks to their powerful abs and technique.” Sandwiches for the evening Ari and Astrid have no children. Their lives were not designed for that. She says: “He went out at seven thirty. He came home at noon for a hot meal. And I gave him sandwiches for the evening. Otherwise he wouldn't eat. And then he was usually not home before half past one.” Ari: “She also had her own fashion store. I'm also glad we didn't." DRY MURPHY Peter Murphy and Ari have been heart friends for almost 40 years. In 1982 they made the book “Special Movement Aspects in Volleyball”. At national and international competitions, they analyzed what it takes to play well volleyball. Ari as a specialist who visualized it well. Peter with the analysis. Ari enjoys talking about Peter's humor: “He spoke at a conference in Canada. After a Russian who told how they gave training at an altitude of 2,500 meters. Peter comes and starts very dry with the announcement that training is taking place in the Netherlands at 4.5 meters below sea level.” NO MORE FOURTEEN HOURS A DAY! In 1976 Ari goes to Doetinchem to train the ladies of Orion, including the sisters Raterink. One day, somewhere in the middle of the year 1980, Ari decides to start his own business: “I quit everything in one day: De Tubanten, Orion, the Dutch sitting volleyball team and I'm leaving the University and ITC. I continue to invent and art. I've always been a busy person. I want to walk in the polder and fly fishing. Paint. And dedicate myself completely to designing reels.” He hasn't missed volleyball anymore: “If you've been working on all those things for so long fourteen hours a day, you've seen it at some point. That works for a boss. And volleyball too.” FIFTY YEARS OF DEVELOPMENT What does it actually mean: making such a reel for fly fishing? Ari grins. “Two days ... and fifty years”, with which he just wants to indicate that without his experience you can never achieve such a thing. Because, emphasizes Ari, they are not series products either: there is only one of each reel.
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Ari T Hart
Five bypasses
In 2000, Ari has a heart attack. Or something similar. On December 1, 2000, he received five bypasses. As with everything, he also has a nice story at hand here: about Ernest Hemmingway's son. “Jack is his name. I first met him when we went fishing on a private plane in Chile, in Patagonia. He also writes books and is famous. We agreed to see each other again. But I heard nothing more. It later turned out that he had also had five bypasses on the same day. He died as a result. I got through it. Special, or? And so you also know that it can end like this.”
New heart valve
In 2007 Ari gets a new heart valve. He seems to doubt whether he really needed it. The man with the gray tail is feeling great. He is far from finished with life and certainly not done with telling who he has met and what he has been through.
Museum with 375 reels
There is a special Ari 't Hart museum in Calgary, Canada. There are 375 reels developed by him on display. Ari tells how he was 'cuddled' by the greats of the earth. “You can't imagine how big that fishing is in the world. That's how I met Jimmy Carter. And for George Bush I made a special reel. Look, I still have the thank you letter.
The most beautiful things I have experienced with Bobby Knight. He is one of the most successful basketball coaches in the US ever. As friends, we went all out on our fishing trips together in places where a normal person is never allowed to go.”
He also enjoyed the shadow side. “And I still do. There is, however, a dark side. I am not very smart and handy in business. And a lot of those famous people are nice and sweet, but when it comes to paying for the ordered reels, they often don't give a damn. It's called 'The check is in the mail'. Not that they are all like that: Joe Cocker paid for example. Knowing my own weakness, I have also hired someone on a number of occasions to look after my business interests. But unfortunately I have always made the wrong choice. As a result, in the 1970s I almost went bankrupt by a hair's breadth. And I still have to work at my age. Because I was not able to provide for a pension.”
22 Best Designers
Ari shows how he was invited to a convention in San Francisco in 2011. Part of the 22 best designs in the world. “To start with, they showed me how annoyed at an ugly wheelchair I had designed one that had people say 'Hey, what a nice chair'. And only then something about the limitation of the person who is in it. I like that. In this way they showed how important form is. That it is important to be able to find something beautiful. My father always said, "You live so short and you are dead so long."
Great that fitting
Ari 't Hart goes to the meetings of the Volaren. It's nice to run into old friends there. And then also goes to games of the Dutch Team. And follows them on television. “The game has changed a lot. I don't think it got any more fun because of all those rules. It's all very specialized. But it's impressive to see what they can do. You know what I find most special? Stopping the ball. That they can bring those extremely hard beaten balls to the net as if it's nothing. We couldn't. And if the ball does not reach the playmaker properly, he is still able to make a good set-up in many situations.”