Jeff Janssen, Janssen Sports Leadership Center

Are you looking to breakthrough to the next level? So what's holding YOU back?

As I travel around the country talking with various coaches and administrators, it doesn't matter what school I go to, there always seems to be something that is keeping them from being the program they would like to be. Virtually everyone has a ready-made and seemingly legitimate reason why they aren't as good as they could be.

For example, even the legendary John Wooden was initially convinced that there "was no chance his team could go all the way" and win a national championship with his antiquated Men's Gym facility.

Here's a list of the common reasons I often hear why teams/schools can't be consistently successful - see how many pertain to your situation.

COMMON REASONS WHY PROGRAMS "CAN'T" BE SUCCESSFUL

- Lack adequate facilities -- we just don't have as nice of facilities as our competitors.

- Bigger budgets -- our competitors have bigger operational budgets.

- Bigger staff -- our competitors have more assistant coaches, secretaries, managers, or Directors of Operations.

- Coaches' salaries -- other schools pay a lot more than we can.

- AD doesn't support us -- our AD favors the other sports programs over mine.

- No winning tradition -- our kids don't know how to win here.

- Too soft -- our athletes have it too good and aren't mentally tough enough.

- No feeder system -- we don't have an effective feeder system in place.

- No fan support -- our fans would much rather watch X sport play than us.

- Geographical Location -- not enough kids around here play our sport.

- Parents not involved enough -- our parents just don't care.

- Parents too involved -- our parents coddle their kids and meddle in the program.

- Admissions too tough -- we can't get the best athletes accepted into the school.

- Admissions not tough enough -- athletes go elsewhere because of school's poor academic reputation.

- Too Cold -- it is too cold for our warm weather sport.

- Too Rural -- our campus is too rural to attract the top recruits.

- Too Urban -- our campus is too urban to attract the top recruits.

- Too far from home -- our campus is too far away from the top recruits.

- Too close to home -- our campus is too close, the kids want to go away for school.

- School colors -- our school colors do not appeal to kids.

- Shoe endorsement -- we are an Adidas school and the kid likes Nike.

The list goes on and on, can be contradictory, and sometimes absurd...

Even powerhouse schools like Stanford, who seemingly have everything at their disposal, bemoan their stringent admissions policies and feel they are at an "unfair" disadvantage. No one is immune from the perceived and real "hardships" of less than ideal environments.

JOHN WOODEN'S DILAPIDATED MEN'S GYM

As mentioned earlier, legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden initially convinced himself that there was no way he was ever going to win a championship because of his run-down Men's Gym. Wooden writes in his excellent book, Wooden on Leadership:

"I'd been coaching basketball at UCLA for 13 years in conditions I would describe as harsh, perhaps as bad as any major university in the country. Our practice facility, the Men's Gym, was cramped and poorly ventilated and often jammed with student-athletes participating in other sports activities during our basketball practices..." (sound familiar???)

"Additionally, the seating area for fans was so limited that it was declared a fire hazard and 'home' games were subsequently played at other local schools. The facility also hurt us when it came to attracting players with exceptional talent. Many, no doubt, chose programs that offered decent facilities.

I was confronted with this situation immediately upon my arrival at UCLA and soon concluded it was virtually impossible to achieve my goals under such conditions. It also had an impact on my assessment of the possibility of winning a national championship; specifically, in the back of my mind I just felt there was no chance that UCLA would ever be able to go all the way."

Wooden admits that his pessimistic perspective hurt his program because of the mental barrier he put on himself and his team. He says, "We can limit ourselves and our organization without even knowing -- how we can say 'no' when we should be asking 'how?'"

WHAT'S YOUR "MEN'S GYM?"

Take a moment and think about this...

In what ways might you be limiting yourself and your team because of the real, yet rarely insurmountable challenges you face?

Like Coach Wooden did with his Men's Gym, are you using any of the above reasons as convenient excuses for why your program can't go to the next level?

There's no denying that the challenges you face are real issues and often liabilities... However, as some of your coaching colleagues have already proven, you must remember that they're not lethal.

While challenges like poor funding, antiquated facilities, and parental apathy certainly can be frustrating, discouraging, and disappointing to deal with, you cannot allow them to force you to settle, or worse, give up on your program or your players.

Keep in mind that there are teams with state-of-the-art facilities who still lose and there are ones with dilapidated facilities who win. There are teams with McDonald's All-Americans who get beat by teams whose players merely worked at McDonald's. And there are inner-city teams with little funding and parental support who run circles around the suburban kids who seem to have it all.

There are numerous examples of teams/schools with less than ideal circumstances who have found a way over, around, or through them.

WOODEN BREAKS OUT TO BREAKTHROUGH

Coach Wooden continues...

"Once I realized our practice facility did not preclude a national championship, it shook me out of some form of complacency or perhaps subconscious excuse making. It's hard to describe except to say that I came to realize that issues I couldn't control - the Men's Gym and what it forced upon us - had interfered with those things I could control, such as ceaselessly and creatively searching for ways to improve and reach the next level of competition.

By giving myself that crutch, I may have gotten comfortable with the way things were - not happy, but comfortable. I would never again allow myself to be satisfied that UCLA had gotten as good as we could get, improved as much as we could improve.

Only when I realized that it was me -- and not the Men's Gym -- that was holding the team back was I able to raise the level of our effort in all areas."

Rather than accepting the limitation of his poor facilities, Wooden focused instead on the other things he could do to make UCLA an attractive option for recruits.

Similarly, many Northern coaches in the softball world thought they could never successfully compete and win a National Championship because the Southern schools could practice outside on the fields virtually year-round. Legislation was even considered to push back the season later in the spring.

However, rather than succumbing to the "Northern schools can't win a championship mindset," Carol Hutchins and her Michigan team disproved that theory in 2005 by beating UCLA for the championship. And fellow Big Ten, cold-weather team Northwestern has been a heartbeat away recently.

TIME FOR A NEW ATTITUDE

It's often not the obstacle that is holding you back but your limiting, pessimistic, and narrow view about it. Rather than getting stuck on the perceived and real problems of your situation, focus instead on the opportunities. Look to build a program that maximizes your strengths and renders your liabilities irrelevant.

The question then is not - "Which obstacles can I point to as a legitimate excuse for why we aren't as successful as we could be?"

The better question is, "Which opportunities do I need to focus on, expand, and exploit to get us to where we'd like to be?"

The key is to put your energies toward the things you can control and impact rather than getting frustrated and discouraged by the ones you can't.

As the new year draws near, I challenge you to take a new attitude about your perceived liabilities. Yes, unfortunately they are not going to magically disappear. But remember that EVERY program and person has some limitations and liabilities, some are just more obvious and visible than others.

Put your focus on the factors you can control and transform them into definitive advantages that set your program apart from the rest. Rather than getting stuck on your problems, find an area you can develop and excel in and use that as your defining advantage and difference maker.

Like Coach Wooden did, reframe your own "Men's Gym" challenge. Breaking out of this limiting and pessimistic mindset is the key to the breakthrough you desire.

DICUSS THIS ARTICLE

Championship Coaches Network members can discuss this article on the Discussion Forum...

I encourage you to share what you agree and disagree with in this article.

More importantly, what specific things have you done to work around such liabilities as poor facilities, limited budgets, apathetic parents and athletes, etc.?

http://www.championshipcoachesnetwork.com/members/forum/openforum.cfm?forum=4

Please share your breakouts and breakthroughs to help your fellow Network members!

MORE GREAT IDEAS FROM WOODEN ON LEADERSHIP

Championship Coaches Network members can click below for some more great ideas from Wooden on Leadership.

http://www.championshipcoachesnetwork.com/members/358.cfm

More Great Books to Help You Breakout and Breakthrough

Purple Cow by Seth Godin

Unstoppable by Cynthia Kersey

High Hopes by Gary Barnett

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