Ava’s New Points Reward System

When you train like Ava, you have to constantly find ways to mix things up. Come up with ways to prevent boredom in training and boost a positive attitude and strong work ethic. If you work hard, you get rewarded. Hard work pays off. I’m sure you’ve heard it all before but it’s not as easy for a child to recognize this, especially when you have very long term goals. You have to be intentional about educating them on goals and rewards. That is why Chidi created our Points Reward System.

How the Points Reward System Works

The Points Reward System is a simple, yet effective system. It’s strictly for soccer training and related activities – practices and games. The points reset every day, no carry-over and it will be very rare to lose a point.

Chidi, Ava’s Dad and trainer, will give her specific tasks such as, you have 5 chances to get X amount of juggles with your feet. If she accomplishes the goal, she is rewarded with a point and they move on to the next training goal. If Ava doesn’t complete the task, she is not awarded a point and they move on. Another example is doing a timed drill and beating a previous record. Chidi counts as Ava does the drill and if she beats her last time, she earns a point.

Points Break-Down

10 Points – Candy

Candy comes in many forms: a ring pop, a chocolate bar, a bag of gummy bears or chips. Eating a whole bar or bag of candy at once just goes against our nutritional standards for Ava. Not to mention our sanity because she is already a high energy kid. Therefore, we divide things up; split a bag of gummy bears into thirds. She can eat some after training, pack some in her school lunch and then the rest could be consumed as an after school snack.

Ten points will be the average amount of points she can get in a one-hour session, during the weekdays. Items in the 10 points category cost about $2.00-$3.00 and definitely should not be more than $5.00. On Monday night, Ava earned 11 points. Ten points in training and a bonus point for doing really well at Lady Rockets practice. As a reward, Ava chose a two-pack of Reese’s Cups. She ate one cup immediately and took the other to school for lunch today.

15 Points – Small Toy

Fifteen points will be attainable when she can train for 1 to 1.5 hours (usually Tuesday/Thursday/Friday) and during weekends. Small toys include a jar of slime, a tin of putty, a small LOL surprise, etc. On Tuesday, Ava trained for about an hour and a half and earned a whopping 16 points. She chose a jar of Itty Bitty Lost Kitties (a surprise toy buried in play-doh type stuff). Items in this reward category cost about $5.00 to a max of $10.00.

Points Rewards System - Itty Bitty Kitties

20 Points – Large Toy

Large toy rewards will be more attainable on the weekend as well. They include full-size LOL Surprise Dolls, mini lego sets, etc. When we started the Points Reward System on Sunday, Ava earned 20 points. She excitedly chose a LOL Surprise Fluffy Pet. For a large toy, we will likely stick to a range of $10.00-$15.00.

Results

We are only three days into using the system and so far so good. She is pushing harder and maintaining a positive attitude about 95% of the time. After putting in her hard work to earn the rewards, she seems to have a greater appreciation for them.

Ava has never said, “Oh, I really enjoyed that piece of candy I ate yesterday.” However, she did mention how much she enjoyed the Reese’s cup during lunch at school. She described how it was very chocolatey and filling. But like I said, it’s only been a few days. Let’s see what happens. I will provide updates on Ava’s Facebook Page after about a week and then go from there.