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s u- i wrnnjtii0gyimy avpi ft economist sun stouffville tribune sports plenty of outdoor sports can be brought indoors for winter dont hibernate recreate by jerome watt staff writer just because summer is over its not the end of your favourite outdoor sport just bring it indoors from baseball and soccer to rock climbing and tennis athletes can bring many sports indoors allowing them to continue enjoy ing the action and hone their skills risa healey coordinator of partnership programs for the town of richmond hill said the demand for indoor sports has grown its really boomed in the last couple of years she said theres more programs available to peo ple in richmond hill children between three and eight years of age can learn the basics of tennis in the tenten program the town and the canadian sports academy have joined together to offer the program its a new program brian panovka head of the program said it teaches the fundamentals of tennis when young children try to learn tennis on an outdoor court its too big he said so his program offers them the chance to master skills on a smaller court he uses a special ball and has equipment that can be set up in any gym for adults there are plenty of indoor facilities in york region in which to play tennis sheila epton vicepresident of house league for the newmarket minor softball association introduces tykes to the game of baseball over the winter through blastball blastball uses a tee and a base that emits a loud honk when play ers step on it the game is useful for teaching children between three and seven the basics of base ball the small space needed for blastball allows it to be played in a gymnasium with blastball it uses muscles and ligaments that are not used during the winter ms epton said it basically keeps them toned for the summer then they are ready for their first year of baseball jmhmij staff photomike barrett allister johnstone enjoys indoor rock climbing at rock and chalk in newmarket bringing the sport indoors helps novice climbers learn and enables those more experienced to practise and perfect their techniques winter activities such as skating and hockey dont work the muscles needed for baseball ms epton said ms epton said kids too old for blastball need to keep in shape over the winter too pitchers and catchers should begin indoor train ing in october while the other players should join in january ms epton makes use of a net and mush balls to practise bat ting during the winter her players also make use of indoor batting cages im keeping their handeye co ordination up she said ms epton said if pitchers dont keep muscles limber over the win ter theyll injure themselves when they take to the field in summer winter training also keeps an ath letes skills up winter training has become more prevalent in baseball over the past couple of years ms epton said coaches are becoming better educated she said weve opened ourselves to different training methods rock climbers looking to perfect their techniques and get a good workout during the colder months can climb indoors a good majority of our climbers are outdoor climbers bruce wilkinson owner of rock and chalk in newmarket said a lot of them come in and get on the wall just to strengthen their body with the shorter daylight hours in the fall it gets too dark for climbers to scale the cliffs after work mr wilkinson said being able to go to the gym allows them to climb when its dark outside climbers are also able to recre ate problems they face outside in the gym and practise perfecting their technique before tackling a real rock face in some cases its safer to learn to climb in the gym outside youve got the unknown mr wilkinson said a small percentage of climbers only climb indoors and its not uncommon for people to come in and climb recreationally he said indoor soccer has become a sport in itself it basically keeps players in touch with the game over the winter months sam fori general manager of the richmond hill soccer club said it started out as that now its grown into leagues indoor leagues thrive as much as outdoor leagues the richmond hill soccer club has both an indoor soccer house see pro page 18