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economist suntribune sports thursday may 2 2002 25 mixed martial arts highly publicized in japan 5 from page 24 it was like hitting a brick wall good he said again after a few repetitions mr newton showed me how to kick weight on my back leg spring forward pivot bang my foot made contact with his leg look at this terry mr newton called to his trainer shes getting the hang of it now grab my head between your arms and squeeze with your elbows like this i found myself locked in his viselike grip staring at my feet my hair carefully tied back in a ponytail was flying everywhere ok this is war i grabbed the ultimate fight ing champion by the head and squeezed with all my might what was that sound cries of pain begging for release from my death grip nope he was laughing excellent mr newton said good grip now bring your knees up across your body and into my head i was really starting to get into this the grappling the kicking the punching warrior is one of the few places to offer courses in mixed martial arts a unique blend of kickboxing hapkido and jiujitsu grappling the course is designed to give students total selfdefence com petence whether a confronta tion is standup clinch or on the ground the course is taught by a team of expert instructors work ing together to build total fight ers altough the sport receives lit tle coverage in canada it is high ly publicized in japan mr newton is a household name there and has even been immortalized in an ultimate fighting championship video game for sony playstation and i was kicking him as hard as i could mr newton called jennifer and terry riggs over to watch as i combined all the moves i had learned into a fullout assault on my instructor jab soft jab pow pivot kick grab the head knee knee knee knee jab to the head undercuts to the chest and then the finish ing blow breathing heavily but grin ning from ear to ear i bowed to lack of court time limits memberships from page 24 at the armadale community centre mondays thursdays and sundays 8 to 10 pm for adults and mondays to fridays noon to 130 pm for all ages a good segment of the response she said has come from the asian community weve had a good response to our direct programs that we offer while its encouraging to see the sport find a strong following in markham one of the difficul ties in the region is court time this gave jennifer lee the impetus to find a place to cater to her needs in 1996 she found warehouse space in markham where she could operate classes on her own time throughout the year housed in an 8500-square- foot converted warehouse area lees badminton training centre has five courts two of which were just added in december a weight room pro shop and lounge it wasnt convenient for me to run my classes in high school gyms because i only had one or two nights a week available and when there were holidays we couldnt use the gym this her current facility is easier for my budget she said operating seven days a week from 10 am to 11 pm and sundays until 8 pm ms lee says she has 200 to 300 members from all over toronto and sur rounding areas ranging in age from six to 74 with such a spectrum of bad minton enthusiasts ms lee stages a number of leagues and clinics for members we teach people how to play badminton we have recreation al play competitive team train ing and classes for beginners and even classes for ladies in the mornings said ms lee a junior and senior national team bad minton player in hong kong before emigrating to canada in 1985 and a former provincial senior team player in british columbia ms lee is proud of her schools ability to develop play ers who wish to play the game at a highly competitive level she currently has three inter nationalcalibre players at her centre along with another 10 youths at a national standard and 36 youths and adults com peting at the provincial level our kids standards are get ting higher and higher she said while ms lee has found a happy solution to her problem other clubs have difficulty accommodating players and acquiring adequate playing time in its third year of operation the unionville badminton club has access to the father michael mcgivney academy gymnasium twice a week in the evenings club president vivian wong said the club with 100 members of varying ages is at capacity if i had more court time i could make the club bigger she said i have lots of people calling me constantly asking if they can join but i have to say im sorry because i have a full member ship she said the applause and let myself pre tend i really had just defeated the ultimate fighting champion for his title and now fighting out of the blue corner weighing in at 140 lbs the ultimate fighting champi on of the galaxy amy the enforcer west for information on mixed martial arts visit wwwwarrior- maccom been there done that is a regular col umn highlighting the exploits of staff who try to keep up with experts in a wide variety of recreational activities savh kihjs mi 5 i- i p i v 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