Aaron Blackie

07/09/2020

The Risks and Rewards of Coffee - Avoid Fatigue and Enhance Performance in Combat Sports

Coffee will:
+ Increase muscular endurance and strength
+ Improve anaerobic power and aerobic endurance
- Reduce sleep duration
- Reduce sleep quality

A recent umbrella review of 21 meta-analyses by Grgic et al. (2019) concluded that: Caffeine ingestion improves exercise performance in a broad range of exercise tasks. Ergogenic effects of caffeine on muscle endurance, muscle strength, anaerobic power and aerobic endurance were substantiated by moderate quality of evidence coming from moderate-to-high quality systematic reviews.

Temple et al. (2018) conducted a meta-analysis on the effects of caffeine on fatigued shift workers in which they concluded that the research supports caffeine ingestion enhancing psychomotor performance and vigilance it also negatively affects sleep quality and sleep duration.

Recently I decided to stop consuming caffeine for a period of 4 weeks as I felt that it may have been masking my need to rest and recover more than I was. The science seems to support this belief and I have now started drinking coffee again but am limiting the amount I ingest and the timing of when I consume it to try and gain the ergogenic benefits while mitigating the negative impacts on sleep. Hopefully this will result in being able to gain the ergogenic benefits without negatively impacting sleep quality.

Grgic, J., Grgic, I., Pickering, C., Schoenfeld, B. J., Bishop, D. J., & Pedisic, Z. (2019) Wake up and smell the coffee: caffeine supplementation and exercise performance—an umbrella review of 21 published meta-analyses. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 54 (11). http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2018-100278

Temple, J. L., Hostler, D., Matron-Gill, C., Moore, C. G., Weiss, p. M., Sequeira, D. J., Condle, J. P., Lang, E. S., Higgins. J. S., & Patterson, P. D. (2018). Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of the Effects of Caffeine in Fatigued Shift Workers: Implications for Emergency Medical Services Personnel. Prehospital Emergency Care 22 (1), 47-46. https://doi.org/10.1080/10903127.2017.1382624

(2018). Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of the Effects of Caffeine in Fatigued Shift Workers: Implications for Emergency Medical Services Personnel. Prehospital Emergency Care: Vol. 22, NHTSA Fatigue in EMS project, pp. 37-46.

31/08/2020

Is Negative Self-talk better than Positive Self-talk?

Commonly athletes are advised to proactively utilise positive self-talk as a means to optimise performance in high pressure scenarios.

A recent study by DeWolfe, Scott and Seaman (2020) compared results of athletes that were told to use motivational, negative, neutral, and challenging self-talk. They found that greater performance on a V02 occurred when athletes employed the challenge option. Challenging self-talk is negative self-talk reframed as a challenge.

An example of negative self-talk with a challenge response is turning the thought statement “My legs are tired” to “My legs are tired but I bet I can push through it”.

The practical application of this psychological skill is to not try to block out negative thoughts that occur naturally but to acknowledge them instead and reframe them into a challenge that succeeding in will drive you towards your desired goal.

DeWolfe, C. E. J., Scott, S., & Seaman, K. A. (2020). Embrace the challenge: Acknowledging a challenge following negative Self-Talk improves performance. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 32 (5). https://doi.org/10.1080/10413200.2020.1795951

16/01/2020

Check out young savage and his new PT business .t He is a super talented, great young man with an unreal work ethic that can help you out with your technical or fitness goals. @ Base Training Centre

02/01/2020

This is a huge privilege for us and our students . The level of Martial Arts skill this man has cannot be explained. Hope to see everyone there...

We are honoured to have Coach Dan Higgins coming to Broz on Saturday the 11th of January at 3pm to teach a BJJ/MMA seminar.
Dan Higgins is a BJJ 2nd degree Black Belt and has been training in martial arts for 35yrs and in BJJ for 22yrs. He is a true martial artist and student of the sport.

Dan Higgins has produced multiple Australian and International Champions; including our Coachs and , as well as producing 12 BJJ Black Belts and has trained a number of UFC fighters.
Shotokan karate 2nd degree Black Belt
Multiple times State Wrestling Champion
Former Heavyweight State Judo Champion
Australia's only Black Belt from Greg Jackson
Former international MMA fighter
Former National Karate Champion
Defence tactics instructor for Queensland Government Organisations.

The seminar will run for 2 hours covering BJJ and MMA techniques and cost is only $60. Don't miss the opportunity to learn from one of the best in the business! 🙌😊🤼‍♂️🥋📈 @ Redcliffe, Queensland

20/12/2019

You choose the weight, I'll choose the round. 📸 .branson

16/12/2019

🐺 Hunting not fighting. By attacking intelligently you are able to elicit predictable responses and exploit their inherent weaknesses to the greatest effect. This is an art.

12/12/2019

The weak avoid challenge and settle for the life they are given, the strong seek challenge and fight for the life they want. You choose. 📸

10/12/2019

🎨 Are you a Martial Artist or a Fighter? 📸
The way of a Martial Artist is a philosophy whereas the way if a Fighter is an occupation.
A martial artist prioritises self-development through the disciplined voluntary subjection to daily hard training. A fighter prioritises economic gain through success in prizefighting competitions.
The martial arts way is difficult by design and as such cultivates strong characteristics that will help a practitioner overcome difficulties and succeed in their own life which furthermore turns them into individuals that are useful to others.
It's interesting to think of the people I most admire and value because it usually has nothing to do with their economic position and almost entirely to do with who they are as a person.
My Coaches are both examples of great martial artists who have helped me far more in all areas of my life than I'm sure they would ever realise. I want to become the best martial artist I can be and as such this is a life long pursuit with prizefighting being a secondary component to the martial arts way of life.

01/12/2019

Let’s make some noise.


I’ve tested myself back to back against Australia’s best striker and wrestler. I’ve taken both of their consciousness from them within the first minute.
I didn't come back to conquer a single country, I came back for all of them. It’s time to step it up into the big game.
Any man alive and willing.
Feb 23 I will be there.

28/11/2019

👊 "It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forwards."
As a kid, I was as confident as they come. It was a great gift but naively grounded on confidence founded from lack of failure.
Over the last few years, I’ve learnt that true confidence is earned through the complete opposite; facing adversity and overcoming the circumstances.
In 2015, I found myself in hospital facing bilateral knee surgery. I was 23 years old and told by many surgeons that my legs were badly damaged from previous surgery, bow legs and a long history of training injuries.
I was told that I would never return to physical activity beyond swimming and cycling. My dreams of becoming a combat athlete world champion were taken away from me.
I lost my dream and proceeded on a downwards spiral of failure, losing all sense of identity and efficacy, my girlfriend, my values and my confidence. I hated myself and I did a lot of things I am not proud of to work through the trauma.
Fortunately I am blessed to be surrounded by incredible people and over time they built me back. This is where I learnt where true confidence comes from. It is earnt through complete failure, worse than you ever thought possible. Instead of giving in, you persevere until you discover that you are not just rebuilding but you are becoming stronger than you originally were.
Earned confidence removes the biggest obstacle in obtaining success; a fear of failure. It teaches you that the overcoming of failure, not the avoidance of, is precisely what needs mastering if you are to become all that you capable of becoming. As a man, I now posses a true earnt confidence - and that is exactly what makes me dangerous.

27/11/2019

My turn. 📸
Last time I went to Auckland was to corner for our old training partner who took the win in the first minute and walked away with a performance bonus. Hard memories to beat, but I look forward to trying. I appreciate everyone's ongoing support in getting my name out there and helping to get me on this card - it is a dream long in the making and I have earnt my position as the top contender in Australia and New Zealand with blood, sweat and tears 🙏

27/11/2019

🤸‍♂️ There are only two ways to take someone down. 📸
1. Moving the opponent's centre of mass outside of their base of support; exemplified in a knee tap takedown.
2. Elevating the opponent's centre of mass from beneath and applying force above or below the pivot point; exemplified in a hip throw.
Effective self-correction can be achieved in takedown practice by identifying how you are trying to follow these two concepts within the technique's required movements.