Dan The Road Trip Guy
Join Dan the Road Trip Guy as he explores the adventures, memories, and life lessons of diverse guests from all walks of life. This podcast goes beyond the road to celebrate the journey of life by uncovering stories of passion, resilience, and the pursuit of happiness. Whether you’re a seasoned traveler or simply love a good story, Dan the Road Trip Guy will leave you inspired and ready to embrace your own adventures. Buckle up and enjoy the ride!
I hope you enjoy the episodes. You can find me at https://www.dannyneal.com.
Dan The Road Trip Guy
Theo Ribbs, A Competitive Clay Shooter and the Son of a Racing Legend
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What if your path to success wasn't what everyone expected? We sit down with Theo Ribbs, professional sporting clay shooter and son of the legendary race car driver Willie T. Ribbs. Theo shares how his father's off-season hobby turned into his full-time passion. Through personal stories of his high school escapades with a Jeep Grand Cherokee and his decision to step away from the racing legacy, Theo provides a fascinating glimpse into the world of competitive shooting.
Mastering the art of sporting clays requires more than just steady hands—it demands mental grit. Theo breaks down the intricacies of events like FITASC, explaining the strategies and mental preparation that underpin his sport. He reveals how winning the North American FITASC Championship was not just a prestigious achievement but a pivotal life moment that led to meeting his girlfriend. Whether you're a shooting enthusiast or new to the sport, Theo's insights into the discipline and focus required will leave you with a deeper appreciation for the competitive drive.
Beyond the shooting range, Theo dreams of adventure and reflection, sharing his bucket list goals of visiting Machu Picchu and skydiving. He also takes us on a whimsical mental journey with a dream road trip alongside boxing legend Muhammad Ali. We wrap up with how you can follow Theo's journey on social media, where he remains approachable and engaging, offering fans a chance to stay connected with his sport and more. Join us for an episode filled with personal stories, professional insights, and a touch of the extraordinary.
Be sure to follow Theo on social media at TheoRibbs. He has a new website coming soon at https://theoribbs.com
Hey, Dan, thank you for having me on. For the listeners who don't know who I am, I'm Theo Ribs. I'm the son of the famous race car driver, Willie T Ribs, and I'm a professional sporting clay shooter. I've been in that industry for about 18 years on the competitive side. I'm looking forward to talking about me and how I got involved in shooting and how I got involved in shooting.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, that's what I want my listeners to know You're my first competitive shooter. I guess I've had on this little show after about 59 episodes.
Speaker 1:Well, man, I appreciate you reaching out to me. Obviously I think it's an easy fit, since you've already done a podcast with my dad in the past. How I got introduced into shooting was my dad grew up hunting with his grandfather, so naturally he wanted something to do. And then in his off season, when he wasn't racing, he never liked golfing, even though we lived on a golf course as a kid. When I was a kid growing up, he was always into shooting.
Speaker 1:My uncle started shooting sporting plays back in the mid-90s. He just kind of invited my dad out one day and I just went out. At that point I was maybe five, six years old, so I was kind of just watching him. That was kind of my first intro into shooting. As I got older and stronger and was able to hold the gun and move the gun, I'd say about nine years old, that's when I started kind of just doing it off and on. At that point I was still playing other sports wrestling and baseball and soccer.
Speaker 1:Once my dad retired in 2001, he wanted something to do, you know, to keep himself busy, so he started competing. That got me competing as well. And back in 2001, it was still really early on, I was really young and I was just going out to the gun club here and there with them. But when I turned about 14 years old which would have been maybe 2005 or 2006, I started competing myself with them and I noticed that it helped my grades get better and it just helped me do a lot of things in more of a focused way, just obviously. Overall life started heading in a better direction for me.
Speaker 1:In 06 we moved out to texas. My dad bought a ranch and he built me my own practice facility right there on the ranch. So all I had to do was go in the backyard and practice and and get ready for my tournaments right there. And so pretty much yeah, so pretty much since 2006, 2007, I've been pretty much doing this full time. Never really had a real job other than like working at Tractor Supply or working at a restaurant for about six months.
Speaker 2:And yeah, man, well, we'll do a little more deep dive into that in a little bit and you can tell my listeners, because I don't know if any of them know about competitive shooting. So we'll, we'll educate them a little bit as we go along. But, as you know, this is Dan the road trip guy and I love to know what people's first car was. So you are the son of a race car driver, so I'm really curious to know what that first car was oh, it's nothing impressive or exciting.
Speaker 1:So the actual first car that I bought myself, I was 18 years old, I was a senior in high school and it was a jeep, grand cherokee. Okay, yeah, I mean it was like an older one so it had no traction control. It's kind of driving the car off a feeling away, right. So I have a funny story about this vehicle.
Speaker 2:Well, I was hoping for a good story.
Speaker 1:So when my dad used to go out of town back then I was just a senior in high school, just getting out of high school I would have parties right. Naturally, being a kid, I'd bring all my boys and girls all over to the house and we'd be drinking beer Obviously, we're not supposed to Drinking beer and shooting rabbits or whatever we could find at night and then we'd hop in the Jeep and go off into some trails that our neighbors had and we'd just be rally car in the damn jeep all over the place. Yeah, it was a a lot of fun and a lot of memories in that vehicle yeah, were you still?
Speaker 2:were you in texas? At that point you said you, yeah, oh yeah, we were.
Speaker 1:yeah, we were in texas, okay at that point, so that was probably 2010 or 11, right? So we moved to Texas in 06, end of 06.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so plenty of open space for that Jeep Cherokee.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, man. I mean, we lived on 15 acres and then our neighbors had 300 and 400 acres around us, right? So it's kind of like you're in your own little world and you can kind of do whatever the hell you want, which was great for me as a kid, being able to have fun. Thank god, nothing crazy happened and nobody got hurt or anything, but uh, yeah for sure, yeah, it was good, good times were you going to races?
Speaker 2:was your dad still racing when you were young?
Speaker 1:a little bit like he was doing a little trans am like 1999, 2000, and then he raced Craftsman Truck Series in NASCAR. Okay. So I remember going to those races but obviously when he qualified for Indy the first time I hadn't even been born yet. Right, it was a couple months prior to me being born. So yeah, I mean, obviously I hear all the stories about how great a driver he was and things like that, but I got to see him towards the end of his career.
Speaker 2:Sure, I have to ask you, of course you didn't. You didn't go down that race car path.
Speaker 1:Uh, no, I mean, yeah, it had gotten me go-karts and stuff like that, but he never really pushed me into it. Obviously, the expense of it is ridiculous. Yes, I think part of it. He had a sour taste in his mouth of how he was treated in the industry and he didn't want me to have to deal with the same things that he went through. Sure, yeah, he never pushed me into it and he pushed me into clay shooting. That was his hobby.
Speaker 1:His mindset behind that was you have a lot more control of the outcome with that gun than you do with what happens with that race car, right? As you know, racing so much is dependent on the team and and how good that car is. You know, engineered and built, you can have all the talent in the world, but if that car is not a fast car you're built, you can have all the talent in the world, but if that car is not a fast car, you're not going to go fast. That's absolutely right. With shooting, you can get the gun dialed in. You know. The rest is kind of left to you.
Speaker 2:Thanks for sharing that. Yeah, tell me you ever been on any? I used to call them epic road trips. You just been on any road trips that stand out in your mind?
Speaker 1:I would say, if I had to pick a trip that stands out in my mind would be when me and my dad went to England in 2016 for a shoot of mine, but it actually ended up being part of filming for uppity. You know his his racing documentary.
Speaker 1:Yeah for sure, and so kind of cool story. Adam Krola is the one who produced the doc and they happen to be over in England at the same time for Goodwood. Okay, so my dad tells Nate Adams, who's you know works, works with Adam Krola and does all the the filming and gets everything set up for his documentaries. He tells him, hey, I think we could get Bernie Ecclestone to do the doc. Nate goes. I doubt it. Come on, willie, you messing with me. Come on, he goes. No, he goes. I'll reach out to him and see what his schedule looks like and see if we can get him nailed down and see if we can get in his office and do some filming for the documentary. Nate's kind of like. We'll see. Very, very doubtful. My dad reaches out to him, reaches out to Bernie, doesn't hear anything back initially. This is maybe the morning. We get to the next day and he a an email back from bernie's secretary and she says bernie's going to be in the office tomorrow from I believe it was like 10 30 to 12, 30, right from 10 30 to noon. Uh, just a little afternoon. He has time for you guys, if you guys can make that time slot. So my dad reaches back out to nate, he goes hey, we got bernie and nate goes. No effing way. We get in the car.
Speaker 1:The next day we head down down to chelsea, which obviously is a very posh area of england, go to the prince's gate section, we go to this amazing like building office there and yeah, it was just crazy to obviously meet Bernie Ecclestone and understand who he is and what pretty much he's done, performed the one today. Right, right, he's the one who kind of built it to what it is and to Liberty Media, took it over and now it's into the stratosphere. So, just watching him at that point he's in his mid-80s and he's just running up and down the stairs and just extremely active and extremely sharp it just was amazing to me. Wow, look at this guy, all he's done, billionaire, and this guy's still hustling like he's not made a dime. And so I just was just amazed by the work ethic, especially at that age. Sure, and so, yeah, it was, uh, that was one of the coolest experiences. Obviously, it was just something that was kind of spur of the moment and it all kind of came together.
Speaker 2:You can get to do it with your dad, and that's just a yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:Right, exactly, great memory Switch gears. We'll jump into this uh career I guess we call it a career that you've taken on as a competitive shooter. You talked a little bit about how you got into that, but you know, just tell my listeners a little bit more about particularly what a weekend looks like and how you prepare yourself for a tournament and I know you told me you were, you were at one just this past weekend at one just this past weekend.
Speaker 1:How tournaments work is? There's usually there's the main event, which is a 200 bird main event, and however many targets you hit, it doesn't matter if you destroy the bird or if you take a little chip off, it all counts the same. And however many birds you kill out of that 200 is your score at the end okay. There's also some side events called fetas, uh, that I shoot. Typically, depending on the tournament size, it's usually a hunter bird event or a 200 bird event, and the same same type of it works the same way. If you hit the bird, you hit it if you don't.
Speaker 1:You know that's. Fetas is a little more different. It's more to simulate actual bird hunting. So on your shooting vest they'll have a line that's typically it lines up right with your nipple and that's where you have to hold the gun, okay. And when you call pull, you can't move that gun until you visibly see the bird right. And so they'll have a couple, you know, four to five, what they call singles, where you get two shots at each single, and then from those singles that you've shot, you'll have pairs and it'll, you know, be on report, which means when you call pull and you pull the trigger on the first bird, from the the sound of the gun, the trapper or referee will throw the second bird. Okay, right. Or they'll have a true pair where you call pull and both birds are released at the same time. Okay, to get to the 100 birds. In that event you'll shoot 25 targets on each of these, what they call parkour, right. So you shoot 25 birds and usually it's over four layouts for 100 birds, okay.
Speaker 1:Or it'll be over eight layouts for 200 birds so do you shoot like 25 or so and then another shooter and then yeah, no, so what you do is you're in a what they call a squad of five or six guys, okay, and you all rotate, and so what happens is you'll shoot the singles first. Okay, whoever's up, whatever name is up first you'll shoot the singles, and then the guy behind you rotates, so on and so forth, and once everyone rotates to the singles, then they go to the doubles. Once everybody shoots the doubles, then you go to the next. What they a peg. Right, there's typically three pegs per parkour and you typically shoot anywhere from eight to nine birds per peg okay you know, shoot 25 birds.
Speaker 1:Once you're done, you move on to the next parkour and you'll do the same exact thing in normal sporting clays. You'll have what they call a station and typically you'll have anywhere from 12 to 14 or 17 stations and you'll shoot usually three to four pairs per station and it's whatever presentation they have set right. So it could be a report pair or it could be a true pair, but it's always pairs, there's no singles, and so however many birds you break out of those 100 targets you've shot on that 14 station course or 17 station course, whatever it is, is your score at the end of the day.
Speaker 2:Good to know. Wow. And then Do you, is there any kind of? Uh, you got any kind of mental preparation you go through before you start an event? You know you hear race car drivers and there's always I put my left glove on, then I put my right glove on. Is there anything that you go through as a, as a?
Speaker 1:shooter, okay, and but I'm not. I don't believe in superstitions. Yeah, you know, I believe this outcome is already played out and who's going to win is going to win, okay, However you shoot, that day is how you shoot. Yeah, I think when you start putting all these things in your brain, it's just another thing to think about and another thing to distract you. You know what I mean. Like you know what. What if you mess up on your little superstition? You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:What if you mess up on your little superstition Is it going to throw you off the rest of the day, right? Yeah, I never quite understood that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it doesn't make any sense to me. Never ask your dad if he had any, I can guarantee you he didn't.
Speaker 2:Oh well, good to know. I just know how he rolls, he's not like that. Yeah, he reminded me I'm getting in the car and I'm going. Okay, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:At the end of the day, you've put the time in before you've gotten there, right? If you're prepared, you're prepared. You're not going to be prepared once you get to the shoot. It's too late by that point, right? All the preparation, all the hard work has been done weeks and months prior. You just believe in your preparation and believe in yourself, and if you have a great week or a great weekend and put it all together, then it's your time to win.
Speaker 2:You're a champion shooter.
Speaker 1:Is there one event or two events that just really stand out in your mind. As you know, great memories that you look back on Probably say. One was this year at a tournament called the North American FITAS Championship Championship of North America. Okay, it was an event that I was lucky enough to win. It's an event that I ended up actually meeting my girlfriend at now, and so this event was in June of this year and I didn't have a great start to the event.
Speaker 1:June of this year I didn't have a great start to the event. I was down seven after the first day and I had to shoot 99 out of 100 to win the event. The last two days I did that and, yeah, it was a great memory when the pressure was on and I knew I really couldn't mess around anymore and I had to lock on. That's what I did. I got the tournament done and ended up winning by one target, also meeting the girl I'm with all at the same time. So it was just a crazy weekend. You know it was a really good memory looking back on it?
Speaker 2:Was she a shooter or a spectator?
Speaker 1:No, she was a spectator. A friend of mine, who she works with as a nurse, was there competing and she came up to the event to watch her compete.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow. Well that's great Win a tournament and you got a girlfriend. Hey man.
Speaker 1:Sometimes luck is on your side, man.
Speaker 2:You have traveled the world shooting, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've been all over the world. I've been to Hungary, I've been to Greece, I've been to Italy a couple, yeah, yeah, I've been all over the world, been to hungary, I've been to greece, I've been to italy a couple times. I've been to england, been to dubai, so yeah, and then obviously all over the us, mexico, so yeah, I've been been all over.
Speaker 1:you know, not all over the world, but quite a few countries around it and then you also do instructing you know when I'm home and got some time, like to schedule lessons with you know people that are trying to improve their game and group lessons, whether that's you know, corporate groups or if I you know individual people that are trying to get better, that come to the tournaments that I'm at. So a good way to, you know, make extra money, but also to make extra money but also stay involved in the sport, help the sport in terms of growth and future with kids I work with a lot of kids. From that standpoint it's really good and it also keeps you fresh in terms of making sure you're staying on top of the fundamentals, just as you're trying to help this person get better with theirs.
Speaker 2:We'll keep at it and we'll keep following you to see how your career progresses. I knew nothing about shooting, so thank you, and I'm sure a lot of our listeners are going to enjoy that Well. So tell me this We'll change gears again. You're a young guy. Still Anything on your bucket list that you want to accomplish in your life besides winning tournaments?
Speaker 1:For me, I'd say one is go to Machu Picchu. I'm a big ancient history, ancient civilizations guy. That really intrigues me. That's one one area I always wanted to check out and I think I'm gonna probably do that next year. And then another one was skydiving man. I don't know, I have like this. I don't like itch adrenaline issue or something, but I've always wanted to like jump out of a plane and just to do at least once. It's not something I want to, you know, make a hobby or anything, but if I could do that at least once, I think it'd be a lot of fun. Well, I hope you get to do that for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean I'll do it if I got the time. It's all about just, I guess, growing some balls, huh. Well it would be for me, because I'm not particularly fond of heights.
Speaker 2:So there, if you could take a road trip with anybody living or deceased uh, who would it be? Where would you go?
Speaker 1:what would you drive and, uh, what would you talk about? Probably have to be muhammad ali. Wow, we would drive a mercedes maybach and we'd be going to vegas. Okay, the conversations would be about one mindset in terms of his mindset and approach to being a champion, not just, obviously, as a boxer, but in life. So I'd like to deep dive into that with him and really get a deep understanding of him from that point of view. Also, I would like to talk to him about how he was able to be so comfortable around so many people and be so charismatic, able to be himself at all times, and you really felt like you're getting an authentic person. You know whether or not you agreed with his views or whatnot. You can understand him as a man, the position and the way he stood on, what, what he stood for, and I have a lot of respect for that. So I'd just like to talk to him about things like that and really get a deep dive into the mental side and what really makes him him.
Speaker 2:That would be a that would be a fun drive and obviously and obviously Vegas.
Speaker 1:right, I mean, vegas is Vegas. Doing it with Muhammad Ali would be crazy.
Speaker 2:That would be absolutely Growing up, as I'm older than you and growing up when I did, when his matches would come on, we only got two channels. Where I grew up and boy, I would wait until that they would announce that they're going to show it on either.
Speaker 1:I think we had CBS and NBC and they would show his matches and I just thoroughly enjoyed uh watching yeah, dude, was was amazing to watch just the way he would move around the ring and, being as big as he was, obviously a heavyweight to move with that much grace and have the timing and I'm a huge boxing fan. So, uh, yeah, yeah, very, very big into boxing.
Speaker 2:Well, here's the funny thing about your answer, and I'm guessing you probably didn't listen to my conversation with your dad. No I didn't Guess who he took a road trip with.
Speaker 1:Well, I know he took a road trip.
Speaker 2:Of course I know who he took a road trip and how close he was with Muhammad Ali. Yeah, that was just funny when you said that. It was like it kind of took me back to that conversation with him and that was fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, and the stories he would tell me about their time together were just like crazy and really really cool. I mean it's just like wow the things my dad got to do and the people he got to be around. The dude really does pull rabbits out of hats. It's kind of mind blowing sometimes.
Speaker 2:I've enjoyed this little virtual road trip. Love to ask you if you could leave some advice for my listeners. I love to leave them with a little nugget of something from my guest, and so if you could do that, I would really appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, of course I would say for me this year I've probably had the most successful year of my shooting life, and why I say that is because I'll be representing Team USA at the World Championships next year as captain or be captain or one of the four open class guys that will be representing our country. That leads me to say that what I've changed more than just preparation in my life is just mindset and really digging into mindset and what that means and a real focus. And when you have something to really focus on and put all your heart into, you know really turns into something that you know you never think and I'm getting emotional just because of the amount of time and effort I put into it. Just a change of mindset has really changed my life.
Speaker 2:Well, thanks for sharing that and that people do that, you know. Know you'd be amazed at what you can accomplish, right no doubt well, theo, I know we don't know each other, but I appreciate you taking just a little bit of time to ride around with me and tell my listeners who you are and and what you're about, and hopefully they will, uh, follow a little bit of competitive shooting now. That's my hope anyway.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Dan. Thank you for having me on, Dan, and I hope your listeners take a lot out of this. I had a great time, you know, giving my stories and my advice.
Speaker 2:That's helped me become who I am. Leave my listeners, though, with how do they follow you to keep up with you on your comparison? Yeah, on social media. Yeah it social media, yeah.
Speaker 1:It's easy. It's just TheoRibs on Instagram or Facebook. I keep it real simple. Okay, you can just type in TheoRibs on the search bar and I should come right up. You can follow all my antics and, hopefully, future success and all those things. Man, do you have a website also?
Speaker 2:or no? Oh yeah, theo theoremscom. Okay, I'm gonna make a plan to be in columbus next year, just so I can meet you for number one awesome man yeah, awesome.
