Nate Baker's Newsletter #152 "The coaching education newsletter for those dedicated to helping their people pursue their potential." The Culture Rep Essential Reading for All Developers All Coaches Need Permission to Do This December 19, 2025 | Read on my website | Read time: 4-5 minutes I just spent 2 hours unsuccessfully trying to change the bands on my $18 watch. It broke in season after about 2.5 years. But it broke while we were on an unbeaten streak, so I just held it in my hands during...
12 days ago • 5 min read
Nate Baker's Newsletter #151 "The coaching education newsletter for those dedicated to helping their people pursue their potential." The Culture Rep Essential Reading for All Developers The Player Development Bubble is About to Burst December 12, 2025 | Read on my website | Read time: 5 minutes Six months ago I wrote that this isn’t getting any better. I was wrong… It’s getting progressively worse. I just arrived back from a week in Phoenix, Arizona. The host city of this year’s winter MLS...
19 days ago • 8 min read
Nate Baker's Newsletter #150 "The coaching education newsletter for those dedicated to helping their people pursue their potential." The Culture Rep Essential Reading for All Developers You Can’t Predict Who Your Players Will Become December 5, 2025 | Read on my website | Read time: 5-6 minutes The moment you define a player’s potential is the moment you stop being a Developer coach. None of us own a crystal ball. We’ve seen the can’t-miss products miss. And the players who “weren’t good...
26 days ago • 7 min read
Nate Baker's Newsletter #149 "The coaching education newsletter for those dedicated to helping their people pursue their potential." The Culture Rep Essential Reading for All Developers 10 Lessons (Re)Learned From an Incredible Season November 28, 2025 | Read on my website | Read time: 4-5 minutes Most of my most important learnings are lessons that had to be retaught. Over and over again. That can be incredibly frustrating. Or it can unlock deeper levels of coaching artistry. This is a huge...
about 1 month ago • 7 min read
Nate Baker's Newsletter #148 "The coaching education newsletter for those dedicated to helping their people pursue their potential." The Culture Rep Essential Reading for All Developers Your Most Difficult Opponent November 21, 2025 | Read on my website | Read time: 6-7 minutes We all understand development in theory. Living it is the hard part. We all coach at different levels. But we are all in the arena. Mustering up enough courage to face the unpredictable and uncontrollable 90 minutes we...
about 1 month ago • 6 min read
Nate Baker's Newsletter #147 "The coaching education newsletter for those dedicated to helping their people pursue their potential." The Culture Rep Essential Reading for All Developers A Patch of Grass and a Vision November 14, 2025 | Read on my website | Read time: 5 minutes My team trained only 2.5 hours last week. We’ve averaged roughly four hours a week this past month. And those four hours included: One indoor training session Two combined sessions with our U17s Two late-night sessions...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
Nate Baker's Newsletter #146 "The coaching education newsletter for those dedicated to helping their people pursue their potential." The Culture Rep Essential Reading for All Developers Development Only Asks 1 Thing of Us All — But It’s Everything. November 7, 2025 | Read on my website | Read time: 5-6 minutes I was on top of the world only three months prior. I was the Head Coach of DC United’s U17s–my first true professional head coaching job. I had fought my bosses not to bring the future...
about 2 months ago • 6 min read
Nate Baker's Newsletter #145 "The coaching education newsletter for those dedicated to helping their people pursue their potential." The Culture Rep Essential Reading for All Developers Being a Developer Coach Has Never Been More Important October 31, 2025 🎃 | Read on my website | Read time: 4 minutes We don’t coach in the same world we grew up in. I can feel your nodding approval. But have we ever taken the time to explore those differences any further? Or have we kept that phrase in our...
2 months ago • 4 min read
Nate Baker's Newsletter #144 "The coaching education newsletter for those dedicated to helping their people pursue their potential." The Culture Rep Essential Reading for All Developers The Non-Developer’s Manual for Mediocrity October 24, 2025 | Read on my website | Read time: 4 minutes A Developer coach is an alien within our soccer culture. It’s not just that they speak a different language. They are an existential threat. They stand for something within a soccer culture where the main...
2 months ago • 4 min read