When you have a weekly Monday team meeting, you may single out players who excelled from the previous week’s practice and games. For example, let’s say you have a reward to “best effort” or “most hustle” displayed in the prior week. Here are 3 guidelines to make these types of recognition have more impact.

1) Involve everyone. Make sure the entire team sees the person who gets the rewards. If you have a large squad, don’t give the awards out at a time when only part of the team sees the person receive them.

2) Announce the reason for the reward. If Jimmy got the reward for “best game effort”, list 2 or 3 things he did that helped the team. Making a bid deal of what Jimmy accomplished is the kind of positive peer pressure that can filter through a whole team.

3) Give the award at the same time and place each week. Players will look forward to seeing who gets the award. Even if the team is coming off a loss, it’s a great way to kick off the start of the meeting on a positive note.