{"id":11107,"date":"2024-05-16T05:57:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-16T09:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.youthsportspsychology.com\/youth_sports_psychology_blog\/?p=11107"},"modified":"2025-07-07T08:32:31","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T12:32:31","slug":"improving-young-athletes-thinking-to-boost-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.youthsportspsychology.com\/youth_sports_psychology_blog\/improving-young-athletes-thinking-to-boost-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Improving Young Athletes&#8217; Thinking to Boost Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>It&#8217;s possible to speed up young athletes&#8217; thinking and reaction time, says Dr. Ryan D&#8217;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&#8217;s cognitive processing by 70 milliseconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Embed Player\" src=\"https:\/\/play.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/31296727\/height\/128\/theme\/modern\/size\/standard\/thumbnail\/yes\/custom-color\/26a1fb\/time-start\/00:00:00\/hide-playlist\/yes\/download\/yes\/font-color\/061926\" height=\"128\" width=\"100%\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"\" webkitallowfullscreen=\"true\" mozallowfullscreen=\"true\" oallowfullscreen=\"true\" msallowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border: none;\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"related-articles-on-hockey-mental-game\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Related_Kids_Sports_Psychology_Articles\"><\/span>Related Kids Sports Psychology Articles<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3><div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_82_2 ez-toc-wrap-center counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youthsportspsychology.com\/youth_sports_psychology_blog\/improving-young-athletes-thinking-to-boost-performance\/#Related_Kids_Sports_Psychology_Articles\" >Related Kids Sports Psychology Articles<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youthsportspsychology.com\/youth_sports_psychology_blog\/improving-young-athletes-thinking-to-boost-performance\/#Helping_Perfectionist_Young_Athletes\" >Helping Perfectionist Young Athletes<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youthsportspsychology.com\/youth_sports_psychology_blog\/help-young-athletes-develop-a-competitive-mindset\/\"><strong>Help Young Athletes Develop a Competitive Mindset<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youthsportspsychology.com\/youth_sports_psychology_blog\/helping-athletes-be-more-hungry\/\"><strong>Helping\u00a0Athletes Be More Hungry<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youthsportspsychology.com\/youth_sports_psychology_blog\/top-challenges-for-sport-parents-and-youth-athletes\/\"><strong>Top Challenges for Sport Parents and Youth Athletes\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"block-f49818fa-7c7a-4ee3-b5ee-66581aad2c71\">*Subscribe to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/sports-psychology-podcast-by-peaksports-com\/id152566009\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>The Sports Psychology Podcast<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0on iTunes<br>*Subscribe to <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/0ynyaalKxbnNmsoeL8gF5X?si=8224669de9b3435b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Sports Psychology Podcast<\/a> <\/strong>on Spotify<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Helping_Perfectionist_Young_Athletes\"><\/span>Helping Perfectionist Young Athletes<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, you can learn how to help young athletes&nbsp;<strong>overcome the difficult cycle of perfectionism<\/strong>, fear of failure and loss of confidence. You can stop guessing about what to do and say to your athlete!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As an active sports mom and parenting author, I\u2019ve asked my brother, a&nbsp;<strong>sports psychology expert&nbsp;<\/strong>who had helped his students with these same challenges for over 15 years, to help me develop a program for young athletes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our program: \u201c<em><strong>Sports Parents\u2019 Top Dilemma: Helping Young Athletes Kick Perfectionism and Fear of Failure,<\/strong><\/em>\u201d will walk you through the problem and arm you with practical solutions you can start implementing today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You\u2019ll start seeing changes in your young athlete\u2019s confidence almost immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-16018d1d wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-text-align-center wp-element-button\">Get Details<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s possible to speed up young athletes&#8217; thinking and reaction time, says Dr. Ryan D&#8217;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&#8217;s cognitive processing by 70 milliseconds. &#8230; <a title=\"Improving Young Athletes&#8217; Thinking to Boost Performance\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youthsportspsychology.com\/youth_sports_psychology_blog\/improving-young-athletes-thinking-to-boost-performance\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Improving Young Athletes&#8217; Thinking to Boost Performance\">Read Sport Psychology Tip<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,14],"tags":[384],"class_list":["post-11107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports-parent-podcast","category-youth-sports-podcast","tag-improve-kids-confidence"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthsportspsychology.com\/youth_sports_psychology_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthsportspsychology.com\/youth_sports_psychology_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthsportspsychology.com\/youth_sports_psychology_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthsportspsychology.com\/youth_sports_psychology_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthsportspsychology.com\/youth_sports_psychology_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthsportspsychology.com\/youth_sports_psychology_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthsportspsychology.com\/youth_sports_psychology_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthsportspsychology.com\/youth_sports_psychology_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthsportspsychology.com\/youth_sports_psychology_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthsportspsychology.com\/youth_sports_psychology_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}