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PERFORMANCE & SAFETY: BUILT FOR PRESSURE Part 1: From Elite Sport to RCAF Pilot Training – Zoran Stojković
Description
What happens when you know how to do something, but pressure makes it difficult to actually do it?
Certified Mental Performance Consultant Zoran Stojković has spent more than 15 years helping people perform under pressure, from professional athletes and Olympic hopefuls to RCAF pilot trainees.
In Part 1, Zoran shares the path that took him from competitive tennis and high-performance sport to 2 Canadian Forces Flying Training School in Moose Jaw. He explains what surprised him about the pressures facing student pilots, how he earned credibility as a civilian working inside military aviation, and why relationships became central to his work.
We also hear how Zoran supported aircrew during Jaw South in Texas, how mental performance coaching became embedded in the flying environment, and what aviation taught him about the difference between high stakes and real stakes.
CHAPTERS
(00:00:00) Introduction, welcome and bio
(00:01:52) What role did sport play growing up?
(00:04:28) Why can we perform in practice but struggle under pressure?
(00:09:41) When did mental performance become a career?
(00:13:03) What did Zoran get wrong when he started coaching?
(00:15:21) What kind of pressure are Olympians under?
(00:18:35) Helping a professional tennis player turn things around
(00:20:22) Going from athletes to pilots
(00:23:23) Walking into 2CFFTS for the first time
(00:26:53) What surprised Zoran about the pressure on student pilots?
(00:30:13) High stakes versus real stakes
(00:31:37) Earning credibility in aviation as an outsider
(00:34:17) What happens when pilots don’t buy into mental performance coaching?
(00:38:44) A pilot success story
(00:42:36) Deploying with Jaw South
(00:47:27) What is Jaw South, and where did Zoran fit in?
(00:51:57) Helping a student in crisis before a flight
(00:53:49) Making progress in a slow-moving institution
(00:57:03) Meeting Colonel Jeremy Hansen
(01:01:30) Advice for a student pilot before a test
EXPLORE THE LOGBOOK
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The Pilot Project Podcast episode archive:
https://podpilotproject.transistor.fm/episodes