It's possible to speed up young athletes' thinking and reaction time, says Dr. Ryan D'Arcy, a sports dad, professor and president of NeuroCatch, a medical device startup that evaluates cognitive function.

For example, he recently used red light therapy to speed up a football player's cognitive processing by 70 milliseconds.

Speeding up processing this way can help young athletes perform better and avoid concussions, he says.

He provides sports parents tips for optimizing kids' brain health.

Email Dr. D'Arcy at ryan@healthtechconnex.com

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When kids make mistakes or are struggling during a game in youth sports, it's not easy to quickly switch to positive thinking.

Instead, young athletes should embrace neutral thinking first. This involves focusing on improving one skill. This gives kids something positive to focus on, rather than filling their minds with negative thoughts.

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Rather than telling sports kids how to play, parents and coaches should help kids develop their signature style, says Craig Lambert, former chief sports writer at Harvard Magazine.

Kids should begin with strategy, and build their game around that. Technique should follow, he said. Parents should let kids experiment and improvise to develop their own style. This will help them build confidence.

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