David Buttifant or Butters as he more commonly known, is passionate about helping others setting new benchmarks and driving their performance. He has worked with elite athletes for over 20 years both at an Olympic level and in the Australian Football League (AFL). His academic background includes a Doctorate in Exercise Physiology from Victoria University, an MBA and is an Associate Professor at Australian Catholic University. He was the Sports Science Director at the Collingwood Football Club for thirteen years and Carlton Football Club for two.

Butters has worked in Sydney at Homebush, with Australian Olympic Athletes preparing for the 2000 Sydney Olympics as the Senior Sports Scientist and as the Strength and Conditioning Coordinator. He is currently on the AFL Research Board and is a director and co-founder of the NICK Foundation, which helps develop wellbeing programs for our youth and also working on his recent project Resilience Builders which is really worth checking out.

In this conversation we go into a number of areas that focus on high performance including his time working with the WADA banned Essendon players, a tragic story involving the loss of his son Nick through suicide and other insights throughout his incredible career. Butters is an inspiring human being and there is so much you can learn from this conversation.