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Nate Baker's Newsletter #91

"The coaching education newsletter for those dedicated to helping their people pursue their potential."

The Coaching Education Tool Built for the Developer

Before we get into this week's article, I wanted to introduce you to our new coaching education tool, The Daily Developer...

Are you driven to become the coach your players truly need? With The Daily Developer, you'll receive actionable tools and insights delivered straight to your inbox—262 days a year. It’s your year-round coaching education resource, designed to help you become the coach your players deserve, all for less than 40 cents per lesson.

You can subscribe to The Daily Developer at this link, and find more details in the "Injury Time" section below.

Now, let’s dive into this week's Culture Rep—enjoy!

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The Culture Rep

Essential Reading for All Developers

The 7 Wins That Only a Developer Can Experience

October 18, 2024 | Read on my website | Read time: 5 minutes

The biggest wins of your coaching journey are NEVER a result from the weekend.

They are always the byproduct of a compelling vision that has been refined and iterated upon over a long period of time.

These “big wins” are what I commonly refer to as “small wins.” These small wins can be goals achieved, but they can also be unexpected growth points. There are always small wins when we are in process, and they light the path toward our potential.

But there is a category of small wins that only Developers can experience.

Because they can only be experienced if development is your navigation.

These 7 wins can never be:

• Forecasted
• Planned For
• Forced
• Promised

They arrive on their own timeline, but only if you’re willing to iterate long enough to create the optimal conditions for their arrival.

To lead with humility and serve a vision with no promise of it coming good.

These small wins require work, patience, and faith.

And that’s why non-developers will never experience them. They want the dopamine hit of winning at all costs. They don’t believe in process...

They believe in shortcuts.

So without further ado, here are the 7 wins that only Developers can experience.

1. Self Selection

Players will decide for themselves whether they are a fit for your vision or not.

Because your vision is not for everyone. Players have been taught implicitly by the culture that they are entitled to the shiny objects without the requisite work to achieve them. So in that respect, you are counter-cultural.

And they won’t stay around long enough to see if your vision has merit.

But some will. Some will take the leap. Give them your time and energy, and soon you will see other players from the outside will be attracted to your vision.

Even players who left will realize they were wrong and want to come back.

By the end of it, you’ll have a fully committed team of players who not only believe in your vision—they can’t imagine being anywhere else.

2. Supportive Parent Culture

Within youth soccer especially, the parents are harder to sell on your vision than the players.

Your message can be understood by a player on their walk to the car only to be completely upended on the car ride home.

Player + Parent = 1

The real truth is that as much as you are teaching the players, you are teaching the parents. Some don’t want any part. Many will get it and double down.

The self-selection of players is many times a disguised self-selection of parents.

Gaining the collective belief of your parents is a win that takes time.

3. True Personal Development

Your players will rise above the culture they are in.

The sport is a vehicle for growth at its most foundational level. You are preparing players for their future lives on and off the field, which means you have given them the emotional tools to handle adversity.

And they have made those tools their own.

Most players get chewed up and spit out by the culture. They become passive, scared, or victims of circumstance. They become their biggest challenge.

But a few years in your culture have made your players resilient.

When this resilience is shared by an entire group, there may not be a bigger win you can achieve.

4. Real Player Development

Your players will be ready for the future game.

Your playing vision prepares players to grow not just this weekend, but for the many weekends still to come—including ones where you are no longer their coach. It demands more but prepares players for what comes next.

Over time, you’ll see the growth, while opponents seemingly stand still with reductive approaches.

Your playing vision is a bet on your people. You believe in their potential to play at a higher level, so you prepare them for it.

All of a sudden, your players will be consistently executing each week at a very high level.

Which better prepares them for whatever comes next.

5. An Enjoyment of Hard Things

Your players will no longer hide from challenges.

They’ll seek them out, giving them a leg up on all their contemporaries. They’ll not only be able to meet a challenge...

They’ll be able to handle it in the right way.

Only two things can happen when you do the firewalk of hard things. The first is that you realize it was never a fire at all, and you grow. The second is when you get burned to ashes...

Only to be reborn as a phoenix.

Today’s player is scared of their potential, but your players won’t be.

6. The Game Remains a Game

Your players will smile again.

Through a player’s maturation, the game changes from an enjoyable passion into something they can achieve. The game is no longer an end in and of itself, but rather a means to some imagined greater end.

But your environment makes process the end.

And it changes the game from pursuing outcomes to pursuing development. This transforms winning from an outcome into simply taking the next step. This mental framing creates a bridge to your player’s past self...

Where the game was fun, and that was enough.

Today’s player lives in a stress state, but your players enjoy the game with a smile on their face.

7. Bonus: Sustained Success

Anyone can win on the weekend, but no one can accidentally sustain success.

The Developer’s process is setting a vision, iterating on that vision over a long timespan, and collecting all the small wins on the way towards potential.

The platform on which sustained success is built consists of the culture reps and small wins that take time to cultivate.

That’s why non-developers might win now and again, but they can never sustain it. The dynasty makers of any sport were given enough time to build that base with players as invested as them. And when the time was right...

Sustained success followed...

Which will bring its own challenges with the same solution: keep development your navigation.

Final Words

I’m in year 3 with my U19 MLS Next Group.

We won a lot of matches in our U16 year but haven’t won many since.

But two weeks ago, we experienced a handful of the wins above, which took 2+ years to occur.

Because it took 2+ years for:

• Players to self-select
• To earn parent trust
• For the players to embody our values
• For the players to execute at the highest level
• To enjoy the development process for its own sake
• To relearn that the game is just a game

We haven’t arrived at #7 yet, but I’ve experienced this exact process at many different levels.

We are close.

But to worry, forecast, or guarantee when the wins on the weekend will consistently come would be to completely miss the point.

We’ve already won.

And our only job is to keep iterating.

Failing to do so is the only way we can lose…

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Injury Time

A Few Items Before the Final Whistle

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Good luck on your next step.

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To Development,

Nate Baker

Founder of The Developer’s Way​

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