Coach Tommy B

Hello my fellow Tablelanders! My name is Thomas Blain, Head Coach and Owner of CrossFit HBZ. My friends call me Tommy B, Roundhead and a lot of other uncouth names. Please call me any of these or Coach.

Where to start? Well I am a country boy at heart, I was born in Darwin Australia and grew up on the Atherton Tablelands, a truly magical place.

I have been heavily involved in the sport and fitness industry from a very young age. My Mother, Victoria Povis, is an Olympic Sports Physiotherapist who ran her practice in Atherton. Some of you might remember her place on Robert St, or myself as young ankle biter. Being a part of the physio environment gave me great knowledge in exercise physiology and making ice packs!! Ha Ha. My father is a well-respected Rugby league coach, Jamie Blain, the pirate of the Tablelands and my inspiration! I played Rugby League from the age of 4 and was signed in development squads between the ages of 15 to 17.

My parents split when I was 16, and being in the country it was hard on my brother and I. Subsequently, we turned to a poor form of venting our frustrations- substance abuse. As you could imagine my Rugby career came to an end and I ran away to Europe, where I travelled independently for 5 years.

During this time I got Fat and white! I ran away from sport and anything healthy, and not surprisingly I became depressed. I now realise that the reason behind this was that I had no sport or exercise in my life and I took little care of my physical health.

Eventually, with the help of mates, I decided to make the positive change, and I got my fat ass back to the gym. I made some life changes and moved back to Australia, where I started MMA training and got motivated to get back into sport. During this journey however, I still felt like something was missing. Getting sick of the politics and egos in the gym, I set up my own equipment at home and started training with my mates in the garage.

After a while, one of my best friends Aaron Dozier convinced me to have a go at CrossFit… BOOM! Addicted! I haven’t looked back since, and CrossFit has changed my life.

I turned into a Paleo / CrossFit ambassador overnight. The most important mentors in my CrossFit journey have been Regan Hams CrossFit Bounce, Rob Forte Reebok CrossFit Frankston and Matt Swift at CrossFit Brisbane, Matt has taught me how to eat properly and rest. In my opinion, he is one of the best coaches and teachers in Australia, if not the world. I will be following his demos, with attention to every detail as the coaching platform in our box. I have spent the last year training at CrossFit Frankston in Melbourne and not only has Rob Forte been my mentor and coach, but also my friend. Rob selected me to compete at the 2014 regional games, which was one of my greatest achievements and the best fun I have ever had with a group of awesome humans. Rob’s programming has been the best I have ever experienced and it has made me understand both my strengths and weaknesses. I aim to create the same high standard and experience at HBZ as Crossfit Frankston.

Regan Hams was my first ever coach and has one of the biggest cleans in Oz! One of my best friends and mentors, Regan is an A grade coach and human, I dare say you will be seeing him a little at our box to show us how to improve our Olympic lifts.

If I had mentors like Matt, Rob and Regan or many of the other coaches over my journey, I believe I could of made better choices in my youth and as an adult. This is what I want to provide to the Tablelands. We have a population of around 30 000 people and they had no CrossFit affiliate. I had to change this!

I could have ranted for pages. So I have tried to give you a general overview of my plans and purpose.

Can’t wait to see you all at the Box and be a part of our CrossFit Family!