Gretzky kickin' it.

GREAT ONE SURFACES AS TAE-ROBICS CENTER OWNER

The 30 or so people filing out of the cardio room at the Warren Garrett Training Center in Agoura Hills hardly notice the guy who has flopped onto a chair, spent and sweaty and pulling on a sports drink.

That's OK with him. Wayne Gretzky may be considered the greatest hockey player of all time, but today, the Great One is just here for some exercise - and because he owns the joint.

Gretzky and his wife Janet, along with co-owners Hollywood stuntman Gary Baxley and his wife Amanda, opened the new fitness center last month. It is built around a workout routine called Tae-Robics, a combination of kick-boxing, martial arts and aerobics, and modeled after the hugely successful Tae-Bo workout developed by fitness expert Billy Blanks.

The opening of the center does not answer the question that fans have been asking since Gretzky's retirement from hockey last April: What's next for the 38-year-old superstar?

Gretzky said he's still mulling over that one. But for now, he said the club gives him a chance to settle back into being just Wayne Gretzky, the person.

"Things you do in life, you should do to be successful," he said. "From that point of view, it's a business. But it's also something I can do with my friends."

Born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, Gretzky has called California his home since he joined the Kings in 1988, even though he played with the New York Rangers for the last three years of his hockey career.

"My kids were born here. They're really deep-down California kids," he said.

Gretzky's wife got him interested in Tae-Bo nearly 10 years ago, and the two have been devotees ever since. During the off-season, he would train with Garrett Warren, then the head instructor at Billy Blanks' World Training Center in Sherman Oaks. When Warren wanted to strike out on his own, Gretzky signed on.

"Garrett and Deon (DeAndre Edwards, another Blanks veteran who is head instructor at the new center) have a passion for this," Gretzky said. "If this isn't successful, it won't be from lack of effort."

The Garrett Warren center is small, with just one cardio classroom, a resistance area and a nook with tread mills and other cardiovascular equipment. There are no Jacuzzis or steam rooms, cafes or lounges. The center holds 14 morning and 10 evening classes in Tae-Robics, along with karate classes for children. Personal training is also available.

Warren and Edwards teach all the classes; they know many of their students on a first-name basis and no one expects the center to grow into a chain. For one thing, it's difficult to find enough qualified instructors to expand beyond a single location. Teaching Tae-Robics requires experience in aerobics and martial arts, along with specialized training in Warren's particular style. But just as important, the principals don't want to give up the personal contact.

Keeping that balance could prove tricky business, as the $9.6 billion fitness industry consolidates and larger clubs take over. The principals of the center won't disclose their costs, but experts say it can take from $250,000 to $500,000 to start up a small health club. Recouping those costs and mining a profit requires careful attention to recruiting and retaining members, tasks made more difficult by the competition from larger clubs offering more locations and more services, experts say.

Small centers are finding that their success depends on staking out a distinctive niche, either by virtue of location or the services offered or both, said Dr. Gerry Faust, whose San Diego company, Faust Management Corp., provides strategic management consulting to a number of clubs. "The person who is going to have trouble is the person who does not know what their niche is and can't differentiate themselves from the chains in any way," Faust said.

The niche in which the center operates has already proven successful. Enthusiasts wait on line to attend classes at Billy Blanks' World Training Center, and Tae-Bo videos have rung up about $75 million in sales, making the series a top seller since its introduction last year. Thanks to Blanks and his now-ubiquitous infomercials plugging Tae-Bo, nearly half of the fitness centers in the country feature some form of kick-boxing or martial arts workout, according to the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association, an industry trade group. Four years ago the association says it didn't even track those offerings at health clubs.

Warren and Edwards want to bring an additional element to the formula, more personalized service. "We're motivational," said Warren. "We try to make sure we get around to everyone in the class. We're trying to crack a smile on someone's face or teach them what they're doing wrong. It's like having a personal trainer."

Co-owner Gary Baxley concedes that the center will never compete with such chains as 24 Hour Fitness or Spectrum, but he believes that the location and the approach offered will attract a solid market.

"As a business venture, the reason I chose here was the new corporations moving into the area," said Baxley "I guarantee anybody who works out here doesn't call in sick very often."

Still, it might seem curious that the center isn't capitalizing on Gretzky's name appeal. The superstar who couldn't bring himself to use his name to get a reservation at Spago when a visiting friend wanted to dine there is characteristically humble about his role at the center.

"I have so much respect for Garrett, this should be his place," he said. "At the end of the day, this is going to be more successful as his place. If it's called Wayne Gretzky's, in the long run it wouldn't be successful."

A wunderkind at age 10, Gretzky is now keenly aware of the shortcomings of his 38-year-old body. "The older you get, the harder you have to work out to compete with these guys who are 21 years old," he said. "I didn't have the mental capacity to do it."

So on a recent Monday morning, Gretzky is just another determined face in a crowd of spandex and sweat, kicking and jabbing to the heart-pumping rhythm exploding over the sound system.

"There's a definite plateau for athletes that's much higher," he said, "and I'm back to everyone else."