Soccer patches are more than just a fashionable way for kids to let everyone know exactly what their favorite sport is. They're a superb motivational tool for coaches as well.

One of the important aspects of effective coaching is to look at what the kids on your team are doing right. This means keeping a close eye on the field and noticing whenever one or more of the kids executes a perfect kick, dribbles effectively, or blocks without excessive physical contact. And whenever you see something like this happening, be sure and reward it.

When it comes to training -- and all coaching is essentially training -- people and animals aren't all that different. Good dog trainers know that a dog will respond to praise or a treat with a repeat performance of whatever action prompted the trainer to give it up. Likewise, people of any age -- from kids on up -- respond very well to positive reinforcement.

Positive reinforcement can be enacted by coaches in a variety of ways. But the number one rule of this motivational tool is to focus almost entirely on what your players are doing right. Instead of suggesting that one of your players try a different approach to kicking the ball, find a player who took the right approach. In a team setting, praising one player not only encourages that player, it encourages other players, who'll be more likely to try to emulate the praised method to draw some praise of their own.

With older kids, praise may be enough, but younger kids may need more tangible evidence they've done a good job. That's where soccer patches come in.

Soccer patches are a common sight among youth teams; kids collect patches from teams they've played in the past, and enjoy getting them from coaches as a token of a job well done. They're inexpensive, so it's simple to have plenty on hand if you have a surplus of deserving players, and they're not flashy or bulky, so they won't serve as an annoying distraction off the field.

Many coaches swear by the practice of offering soccer patches as positive-reinforcement rewards both during practice and after games; some report being swarmed by players after every game, each one hoping she's earned a patch!

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Soccer Stuff 'n More sells a variety of soccer patches and soccer-patch accessories, including our four color set of soccer patches and our soccer patch ring. We also sell a broad variety of other soccer gifts.