ATHLETES

Control Your Mind. 
Take It to the Next Level.

Maybe you woke up one day feeling locked in ready to go and another day just checked out. Perhaps looking at trying to achieve that next step in your career or maybe finishing up your career. Maybe you heard the noise of haters or the congratulations from those important to you. 

As an athlete you have a unique lifestyle which not many understand. How would it feel to not only have someone that understands you, but will walk that walk with you? I have seen what sports can do from the amateur to professional level. I have heard so many stories, and helped so many realize their dreams.

That is my job. To help you get out of your own way. To be that person when you didn’t know where to turn to.

An Athlete Will Come and Talk to Me Because They Can’t Talk to Their:

  • Friend
  • Spouse
  • Coach/trainer/manager
  • Teammate
Often you are asking for an unbiased conversation with a professional to help you tackle your situation. To see another way when it feels like there is no other way. To have someone understand the feelings you go through.

There is So Much You Have on Your Mind...

  • Training
  • Day to day                                                     
  • Balancing your life
  • Balancing family
  • Media 
  • The Spotlight
  • Isolation 

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A belief is a feeling of certainty about what something means. 

The beliefs that you have were created (whether we realize it or not) by the way we interpret the good and bad things that have happened in our past. 

What Do
You Want
to Believe?

It's so important as an athlete to understand the things you believe about yourself and the world. These beliefs will ultimately result in how you react to the world or situations that come up. 

When the past equals the future, it's because you're choosing to relive the past now. If this belief is not making you better. Then you need to change it! 

You wouldn't go to the gym and workout using a machine that didn't make you stronger or physically better. Why then would use a belief that isn't serving you?

You can find evidence to support anything you want to believe. If you believe you're not good enough...you'll remember all the reasons you're not. If you believe you'll never heal from an injury...you'll prove it to yourself by thinking of all the reasons this is true. 

On the flip side, if you believe that you can overcome any challenge, you'll use the words of people in the past, recall memories of achievement over obstacles, and times where you exceeded your own expectations. 

AM I GOOD ENOUGH?

Regardless of the level you're playing at, even Professional Athletes wonder if they're good enough. Events can shatter confidence.


The reasons for the doubt can be many. Truthfully, the reasons are only a small part of it. What I focus on, is when do you get this doubt? How do the sequence of events occur that causes this doubt? When does it go away?


The strategies I use with athletes helps them to move past "Am I Good Enough" and replaces it with the emotions and feelings they really want almost instantly. You don't have time to waste doubting yourself. You want the confidence to go out there and do your job and chase your passion. Butkovic Mental Performance does that. 

When Injury Strikes

How do you mentally deal with a setback...

Your setback is the stage for your greatest comeback. This may be the first time you're dealing with this or it's just another in a long list of setbacks. 

Injuries can affect your mood, relationships, your career, and your mind. Knowing how to deal with a setback can sometimes be the difference between doing what you love, or moving on with a negative story. 

One thing I know is everyone loves a good comeback story. When the champ gets brought to his knees and has to come back to regain his title. When the underdog keeps fighting after getting pushed down time and time again only to reach his destination. When the kid that was told there was no hope, they weren't good enough, or that they should give up only to beat the odds and show what determination and hard work can achieve. 

I have spent the last 15 years working with people with all kinds of injuries and returning them back to their way of life. To know more about my strategies click learn more.
LEARN MORE

When You Can't Let
the Game Go.

Athletes will often call me asking for help to get over a bad play or a bad game. They play it over and over again sometimes not getting to bed until 3 a.m. 

Some of them dwell on a bad play during the game...for half the game! They lose half a game of concentration because of one play!

If you notice yourself after a game going to the same part of the house, sitting in the same chair, looking at the same thing, and thinking the same negative thoughts...that's a pattern! There is a reason you do it, but it isn't serving you or your game. 

I will show you exactly what to do that can change your mindset almost immediately, so that you can be effective again and go make a play. To make your next play the best play!  

If you're that athlete that is thinking of the game to 3 a.m. all you're doing is reinforcing that bad play over and over. What if I could show you how to manipulate your thoughts so that (if you are going to be up until 3 a.m. thinking about it) it results in you becoming even better at achieving the outcome you wanted?

 I will show you how to change this pattern so you take what you need from the game and leave the rest behind. 
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What Are You Thinking? 

Common Things We Talk About in Session
  • What Is Mental Performance?

    As an athlete, whether professional or amateur (and yes this includes you weekend warriors), you decided to take up your desired sport(s) and have a go. 


    For many of us, this included joining a team or getting a mentor that would explain:

    • How the game worked
    • How to play it better
    • Teach us the fundamentals
    • How to create or use our skill set to achieve more.

    Ultimately, we were learning what needed to happen to make the game easier to win. 


    Mental Performance is the same. If you imagine life as a game, there are rules that we all play by, but then there are rules we make for ourselves while we play the game. 


    These rules are shaped by our beliefs and values which we learned and brought into our life from past life experiences. 


    For some, the rules they make for themselves are so hard, that each day, no matter how much they try it feels like a loss. 


    Other people have rules that are so relaxed they don't achieve anything, but rather float from one thing to another. 


    With Mental Perfomance we evaluate the rules you've set, and what it would take to win the game of life, then help take what's already within you to get there. 

  • How Can Butkovic Mental Performance Show Me How to Win?

    Life is an experience. Each day we have feelings and sensations that we call emotions. These feelings are compared to what we already know and given a label as: mad, happy, sad, excited, etc.


    The experiences that are so overwhelming that we can't figure out what it means or why you feel that way is a form of trauma and sticks with us for a while. We replay it over and over. The more overwhelming the experience the greater the trauma and the longer it lasts. For some this can be decades. 


    Just like in sports, life can have multiple ways of classifying a win. Sure there is the championship which is the ultimate reward, but there are also wins within the game. You can win:

    • the next play
    • the  set
    • the shot
    • the round
    • the day
    • the game

    The hope being you win the majority of these and you'll win the championship.


    Life is very much the same way. My clients come to me because they want to have a certain feeling on a regular basis different than what they are feeling now. 


    They want to know, how to get confidence when they don't think they're good enough. How to overcome a bad play. How to let go of a bad game quicker instead of it bothering them for 3 days or until 2 a.m.


    Knowing how to switch the emotion or meaning or rule so that they enjoy the better feelings more often. 


    As your coach I won't just tell you what you should do. I will teach you how to create these moments for yourself. Just like your athletic coach shows you how to create opportunities in your game, I show you how to create what you want in life. 

  • I Know I Need to Talk to Someone But I Can't.

    There are many reasons people won't get the mental help they need. 


    At times, with athletes it's even more difficult because of their high profile position. They may not want their:

    • coaches
    • teammates
    • friends
    • family
    • media
    • social media following

    To know that they are stuggling. Doing so can make you feel vulnerable. They fear getting cut or labelled negatively. 


    I recognize that this is due to the societal stigma attached to mental health. This came about from a lack of understanding and a poor belief system. As a result, many athletes are suffering. We as a people stuggle with what we don't understand. 


    Mental Health has been one of these areas, but the stigma is going away. More and more athletes are coming forward and telling their story of overcoming mental health issues. It's becoming more accepted. 


    I ensure the confidentiality and safety of my clients at all times. I ensure that they know they can talk to me and that what we discuss is between us. 


    My goal as your coach is to make you better not just in sport, but in life as well. I want you to feel fulfilled in all aspects of life. 


    Set fear aside and book your introductory session with me. We don't have to talk about anything you don't want to, but it gives you a better idea of who I am and how we can work together to get you where you want to go. 

  • I just got benched/traded/cut/signed.

    I have been in that locker room when coach comes to you and says:


    "Can you bring your playbook, the coach wants to see you." 


    Just minutes previous we were laughing over a cup of coffee and a gatorade. Now, you're emptying your locker into a garbage bag and heading for the airport. Calling your family on the way to tell them you're coming home. 


    I've also been the one to call you and welcome you to the team after the draft. That all those years of hard work have paid off and you'll get to see your name on the back of a jersey in front of your family and friends. All those folks that supported you. 


    I've been there when you've been blindsided by a phone call telling you that tomorrow you'll be on another team because you've been traded. 


    I've welcomed you to our team after learning that the team you've spent your entire career with traded you to us and now you're trying to make sense of it all. 


    How do you transition? For many professional athletes, you're put on a plane, while your spouse or loved one has to figure out the logistics of moving to a new city. 


    The reason I bring this up is because unless you've really been around it, it's difficult to understand the business of sports and how quickly your world can change. 


    I've known coaches to say:


    "You're either fired or waiting to get fired."


    Yet we do it because we love it. Because of what it gives us. The moment under the lights. The money to provide for our families. The commaraderie of brotherhood. 


    Wherever you are I will meet you there and help you and your family navigate the transition, so that you can take care of what you need quicker and more efficiently. The faster we gain that comfort, the easier life becomes. 

  • How to Deal With Distractions Like Fans, Media, and Scoreboard??

    Distractions can affect a game, a season, a career if not addressed properly. 


    It can make something that looked easy hard. It can take you out of your zone and over thinking every move. A distraction can give you the jitters and affect your confidence. 


    Knowing how to identify a distraction and let go of it, can be the difference in the moment of achievement or loss. 


    The strategies I incorporate help you identify exactly what you need in the moment to be who you need to be to succeed. 

Emotional Control

There are times when life is just going to happen. You're going to feel terrible. You're going to get angry. You're going to want to just cry. All of these emotions are normal and it's part of being human. Often sports makes us feel as though we are not supposed to have emotion. 

The issue is not the emotion. The issue is what you do with it and what it's doing for you. If you're always sad or fearful then your life will be sad and fearful. If you're confident and creative, your life will be confident and creative. The key is to limit the time spent on the emotions that are hindering you, and maximize the time it's serving you and helping you become great. 

I not only provide you with strategies, but I'll teach you how you create this emotions and how to use that knowledge to take control when you need to. 

Come Check
Me Out

My goal is to provide you with a professional and safe experience. I do this by helping identify your needs and what's been keeping you from getting what you want.


Whether that's a feeling, an emotion, getting to the next level in your sport, becoming a better spouse or family member, recovering from injury, or anything else that you feel has held you back. I am here for you.


If you're not sure if I can assist you, or you still have questions you can book an introductory session and I can answer any and all questions you may have.


You can also check out the resource page for more content by clicking below.

More Resources

Areas I Assist Athletes:

Overcoming Performance/General Anxiety

Moving past a poor performance

Achieving the next level in your athletic career

Relaxation

Dealing with Injury

A new environment

Release from Team

Making the team

Leaving Family

Emotional Control/Health

Visualization

Memory Enhancers

Learning strategies

Overcoming Poor Habits/Thought Patterns

The Come Back

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