Sample Patches Handouts

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Sample Patches Handouts
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How to Ask Parents to Help Pay for the Patches
"The patches are the absolute best motivational tool I have found" Chad, CA
"I am so excited to have found you, I have been paying $1 a patch." April
"We are going to be using the patches as a reward to the Honor Roll Students. They will receive a different color for each term that they make Honor Roll along with a certificate. The patches are good because the kids can put them on their back packs, jackets, scrapbooks or whatever they choose." Michelle, Mass. Middle School

Email us a copy of your Patch Handout and your address and if we use it we will send you 50 free patches. We can't put our email address here due to Spam, but if you will click the following link and send us an email, we will reply and you can attach your Patch Handout to the email we send you. Click here to send us an email Thanks, David at SoccerHelp
You can copy the attached and paste them into Word and alter them to suit your needs.

Patch Reward System Letter for Soccer that can be adapted for any Sports. This is my favorite patch motivational system to use for soccer and other sports. It is written for soccer but can easily be adapted for other sports. All the patches in this system will work for any sport. You can simply copy and paste this into a document with your team's name on it, and alter it to fit your sport, team and objectives. Notice how this system encourages Team Attacking, Team Defending, Bravery, Hustle, Leadership, Teamwork, Listening to the Coach and Following Instructions, and teaches that all players have defensive responsibilities. We encourage you to be creative and alter this so it will best motivate and reward your players to help you achieve your objectives. If you have an idea for improving this, please send it to me using the email link above and we will send you 50 free patches if I use your idea. You will be helping many coaches and players if you share a good idea and, if you want, I will recognize your contribution.

Student Rewards Program for School Behavior, Grades, Attendance and Achievements. We now have a lot of schools using our patches such as the Star Patches, A, D, Lightning Bolt and Happy Face to motivate and reward students. You may wonder how they use the "D" – they call it D for "Dynamite". This is a great handout with good descriptions and pictures. They allow the patches to be ironed-on a "Spirit Shirt" or put on a keychain and attached to a backpack. Another idea is to use the patches as a reward to Honor Roll Students. At one school, they reward the Honor Roll Students with a different color patch for each term that they make Honor Roll and also give them a certificate. They say "The patches are good because the kids can put them on their back packs, jackets, scrapbooks or whatever they choose." The patches can also be used to reward good behavior by students.

Patch Handout. This approach also has pictures of the patches that were copied from SoccerHelp and pasted into the handout and explanations of how they were used to motivate players.

Patch Spreadsheet. This is a downloadable Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet file. It is intended to help keep track of who got which patch during games and practices. This will only open if you have Microsoft Excel installed on your computer.

Patch Handout. This handout was submitted by a Girls U-11 coach and shows the patches used and what they were given for.

League Email Explanation about Patches. This was written by a League. No photos, but good descriptions of how to earn each patch.

U12 "Sharks" Patch Handout. This one has photos. I think there might be too many ways to earn each patch, but you can decide what works best for your team.

Simple Patch Handout without Pictures of the Patches. I like some parts of this one, but I think every team should have a patch to encourage every player to be brave and hustle. Bravery should be defined as winning 50/50 balls and aggressive play. If a player gets hurt they can get one, but that shouldn’t be the only reason.

Patch Handout. I like this handout a lot. It is simple and I think is a good motivational system for rewarding important things. It has pictures of the patches that were copied from SoccerHelp and pasted into the handout.

Letter and Soccer Patch Handout for Travel Team. I like this one a lot and it has some great ideas - they give a team "Goal Differential Patch" where every team member gets a patch for Goal Differential. They also give everyone a patch for victories. As the handout says: WINNING GAMES IS A FULL TEAM EFFORT! and SCORING GOALS AND PROVIDING DEFENSE ARE A FULL TEAM EFFORT! They iron the patches on "Streamers" (a piece of cloth about 2 inches wide and 12 inches long) that the girls then attach to their backpacks. The Streamers are very noticeable and uniquely identify the girl's backpacks. Each Streamer would hold 10 or 11 patches, or if they were a little longer they could hold 12. You could also iron them on both sides of the streamer. I think this is a great idea! Another idea is to iron the patches on 2 inch wide RIBBONS, which can then be attached to a backpack as a Streamer.

Ideas for How to Use the Patches for Baseball: My players are loving your patches. We use gold star for player(s) of the game, blue star for hitting, red star for pitching, D for defense, lightning bolt for base running, A for attitude, Smiley face for funny play. We're half way through the season and many players are starting to work on the other sleeve. Easy to apply...most of the dad's are doing the ironing. Good stuff! Thank you from Pleasanton Foothill Little League, Single A Rivercats. --Coach Tony

Remember, the patches don't have to be ironed on to work. An alternative is to punch a hole in them and put them on a key chain that can be attached to a bag or backpack, or they can just be collected. They still work even if they are just collected.
The patches can be used to motivate, encourage or reward the behavior or results you want. Here are a few ideas from coaches, and there are more in the sample handouts above:
-- Positive Reinforcement: All players at some point hustle, pay attention, help a teammate, etc. The patches give you the opportunity to encourage positive behavior and the results you want. You can develop your players skills and have fun too.
-- An example of why Positive Reinforcement is important: Think about the difference between a positive approach and a negative approach. Here is an example: I don't know of any parents who tell their little babies as they are learning to walk: "Just give up." "You can just crawl your whole life." "That's not the way you learn how to walk." "Can't you just walk, I've been explaining it to you for weeks." When babies are learning to crawl, we applaud them for trying even though they keep falling down on their face. We applaud for days, weeks, months and smile at them and tell them "almost there, keep going, you can do it." The same principle can be applied to players and the patches allow a tangible way to do this.
-- Motivation and Incentive: Players begin to look at the patches they have and want more patches of the same or others. With each patch having its own meaning, players then must do the things correctly (paying attention, having a good attitude, attending practice, hustling and trying hard, being brave, etc…) to merit the patch. This helps the players become more complete players and allows the coaches to also remind players what each patch means and how the players can earn them.
Ideas for Using Patches:
Below are ideas for coaches of sports teams. If you are a school or organization, these will give you ideas. There are hundreds of possibilities. Think about what you want to encourage or discourage, and the results you want to achieve. Practice attendance? Hard work? Effort? Attitude and listening to the coach or teacher? Defense? Teamwork? Improvement? Achievements such as winning or completing a task? Adjust the patches to fit your sport or activity. In sports, one thing to think through carefully is whether you want to give patches to the players who score Goals - doing so might encourage everyone to want to shoot, but perhaps you want that. For ideas for school student attendance, grades, behavior and achievements, see the no. 9 handout above. Practice, hard work and effort are critical to success in most things - if you can motivate practice, hard work, a good attitude and effort you should see improvement, and when you see improvement, you can reward it to encourage continued improvement.
Choose a Patch to give for Attending Practices or Games: I started giving patches for practice attendance and attendance went from about 70% to almost 100%. Other coaches have had this same experience. If you are a soccer coach, there are many colors of soccer ball patches to choose from. If you coach a different sport, band, cheerleading, etc., choose a Star Patch.
"A" Patch for Attitude, Teamwork or Assist: Use this patch to either encourage a good attitude, teamwork or assists in sports like soccer, basketball, volleyball, baseball and lacrosse, or a good attitude or teamwork in School, Band or a Club.
Choose a Star Patch for improvement of skills: If you play our Practice Games, you will see improvement in skills in the various games. In soccer, I gave patches to the players who won the Practice Games that showed significant skill, such as "Dribble Across a Square" and "Dribble Around Cone & Pass Relay Race".
"V" Patch for Victories: This can be for winning a game, or for playing a great game even if you lose. I know I've lost a few games against better teams when my players played SOOO hard that I considered it a victory - when your team plays like that, they are winners, not losers.
Lightning Bolt Patch or Gold Star Patch for Bravery, Hustle and Aggressive Play: This patch can be earned by winning 50/50 balls. Or by getting knocked down and getting right back up. Or by being a player who always hustles. Choose the most desired patch for this and make players earn this patch so it has great value and is highly coveted. This is one of the most important patches a coach can give.
"D" Patch for Defense: Do you have a problem getting players to play defense? A special patch will help. The BIG D is perfect.
Many Coaches give a patch for Assists: In soccer, an assist is when a player who passes the ball to a teammate who then kicks the ball in the goal. Can aid in getting players to keep the ball moving and others involved.
Choose a Star Patch to encourage players to play positions you have a hard time filling: The patches work for all ages - even high school age.
Choose a Star Patch to encourage things you are having a problem with, or to discourage bad habits you want to break, or to encourage things that are very important for success:
Happy Face Patch for Good Sportsmanship: Players shake hands (or touch hands going through a line), play hard but fair, don't intentionally foul, and don't call names or insult the other team. We will do our best, but win or lose we will be good sports. If we win or lose we will say "Good game".
The Shamrock Patch is a great patch to give out at the end of the season to wish everyone "Good luck".

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