Special Episode – TJ Kostecky, Author of Eyes Up

On today’s episode, I speak with TJ Kostecky, Coach and Author of the new book Eyes Up. TJ has had a vision training program for soccer players for years, and this book covers various aspects of the training along with applicable soccer stories. Hear all about the various ways to improve your game and professional life through shifting your perspective. Learn more about Eyes Up.

Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to discover college soccer today. I’m lucky enough to be joined by coach TJ Kostecki. Welcome coach. 

Coach: Matt. Great to see you again. Long time. 

Matt: I know. So people are like, wait a minute, Matt, you already talked to this guy. What are we doing? So, so yes, TJ is the coach at Bard college and we talked about a year ago actually, and, and you should all go back and listen to that episode and, and learn more about the Bard program.

But today. Uh, we’re talking to coach because he’s got a new book out. You can kind of see the cover off that left shoulder of his, um, or right shoulder, depending on which side you’re on, but, uh, but I’ve got one here too, and, uh, appreciate it. You know, I love a good book and many of you don’t know my day job is in the book industry and in a certain degree, so excited to have a print book here next to me that the coach was nice enough to send me.

But, but I really am excited to talk about the book. I’m, I’m 95 percent of the way through it at this point, but, um, you know, there’s some amazing stories you got in there, coach, and I don’t want to give any of them away because people should read the book. But, you know, let’s just start with how did you get to, to the point of writing the book and, and where you kind of fell in love with the whole idea of vision and soccer and how they’re, how they intertwine.

Coach: Sure. Thank you. Uh, thank you for asking. Thank you for reading the book and enjoying it. I, I, I [00:01:30] appreciate you. Uh, well, the, uh, the idea of the book, well, vision training soccer is something I’ve been doing for. Gosh, four decades, uh, with, uh, Len Billis, my dear friend and and partner and the book came out of, uh, one of my assistant coaches when I was at LIU Brooklyn said, you gotta meet this guy Dan.

He is a really cool guy. He is a soccer dad. He still plays. So we had breakfast and after breakfast, Dan uh, said, Hey, have you ever thought about writing a book on your vision, soccer, and. Leadership. So, cause I vision soccer and leadership vision training for life. And, uh, I said, I’m not, I don’t have a lot of experience running.

He goes, well, I’ve written a half dozen books. Uh, I’ve been a ghost writer and, um, send me your content. So I sent him some content and he put together a two page draft mat, and it was. Amazing. I’m like, you are a talented writer. Um, so, uh, it started, that’s how, that’s how the whole project started. And he, the way he starts it is, uh, he sends it to me, he goes, it’s a 2015 World Cup, uh, US Japan women’s final.

Uh, Carly Lloyd is slaloming in midfield and she looks up from midfield and spots a Japanese keeper off her line and drives the ball over 50 yards overhead into the side netting. for her third goal. Meanwhile, T. J. Kostek is in his apartment in Brooklyn, New York, 3, 000 miles away with a smile on his face because he had a small part in that goal.

I was like, wow, you got me hooked. You are a gifted writer. So that’s, [00:03:00] that’s how the whole thing started actually from, uh, my friend, Dan, now my friend, Dan, um, inviting me to, to write this book with him. 

Matt: Uh, it’s tremendous. Well, you know, like I said, there’s, you know, An amazing number of, of awesome stories in there.

And, but there’s also some good practical stuff for, for folks and, you know, all us coaches, we love our, uh, I don’t want to call them mnemonics, but put numbers onto, you get the four phases of the game, you know, pressure, cover, balance, all the things that we teach. And, and you’ve, you’ve kind of chopped up a couple of those, uh, here in the book with your five P’s and your three L’s.

So, so talk to us a little bit about, about what those are and what that means. 

Coach: Sure. So the five P’s are perceived. process, plan, perform and persist. The most important is the first one perception. And the second most important is persistence. The more perceptive you are, and that’s me with the thumbs up.

Sorry about that. Sometimes I hit that by my energy actually does that because I’m not touching anything. I don’t know how that happens by the way, which we’ll get into energy and synchronicity in a moment. But, uh, the more, perceptive you are. So you’re first P wide, bright and deep. So think about that as a player, a number six holding mid or a number eight, right?

But everyone on the pitch, the deeper, the wider, the brighter your ability to look, you able to process a lot of instruments. information, right? Which is abstract, planned, perform persistence that have blue. When you’re persistent about something, you don’t have to think about it becomes automatic. When you’re persistent about being perceptive, [00:04:30] you’re gathering real time information on the pitch, which is the most valuable information.

And when you do that, you’re able to make informed decisions with the ball. Do I combine with another player? Do I spin away? Do I play backwards so that we can break lines? Uh, do I look forward and take that first touch to the side and play a winger? That’s, that all comes out of gathering massive amount of information, real time information by scanning.

So that’s the five piece, how it relates to the game. 

Matt: Okay. You also had, uh, uh, the three L’s what’s that all about?

Coach: Three L’s is look, listen and learn. So a crucial part of growing on the pitch, on the field and in life is paying attention and listening and being a great listener. I do workshops on leaderships, which we’ll talk about in a moment.

But regardless of where we are in life, and that’s a conversation you and I having, because you and I have spoken a few times already, but look, listen and learn. We’re being open and gathering another way of gathering information aside from visually looking. And by that, I mean being there for people and not just listening and saying, Hey, Matt, let me tell you my story because when that’s that happens, it’s not really.

I’m not listening to you, Matt. I’m waiting for you to finish perhaps to share my story. So look, listen, learn is really pay attention to the person who’s sharing their story with you, who’s giving you information, whether it’s a coach, a player, regardless of what it is, even if it’s critical. information [00:06:00] that’s going to help you.

Make sure you’re paying attention and not being defensive when they give you that information to help you. Yeah. 

Matt: Okay. Awesome. Well, you mentioned that the word synchronicity, which you have in, in the book, which, and this is one of those crazy things, cause I’m, I was sitting there, uh, going through that chapter actually.

And there’s a story in there, in the book, you mentioned a specific, uh, college soccer coach that you’re talking about. And I read that chapter and went get out of town because the next day that coach emailed me to schedule, to get on a podcast. So his episode will be coming out soon, but it’s like Just one of those wild happenstance.

So, so tell me what, what is synchronicity and give me some examples there.

Coach: So synchronicity is a Carl Young phrase, Carl Young and Pauly, the famous physicists, they had, he had an event experience that happened to him when he was, uh, taking a train ride home. This, this is Carl Young, where he had a real negative experience that someone had drowned, was drowning.

And when he got home, he discovered that his nephew almost drowned, but survived. And he committed the last 20 years of his life to trying to understand how these coincidences occur. And my life has been filled with coincidences. I have in fact, a 28 page journal of all these episodes that I haven’t written.

in four years, Matt, because they happen so frequently. And how [00:07:30] do you, I’ve read several books on synchronicity, and in Eyes Up, I referenced one gentleman who’s the premier expert on synchronicity in America. But basically, synchronicity is by keeping your eyes open, but for those five p’s we talked about, if you walk around, in life with, with blinders on and you’re just going forward and not looking around and pausing.

You miss opportunities that are in front of you every day for you to get better and for you to grow and for you to connect with the right person and for the right person to connect with you. So synchronous, the more we’re doing this and pausing and being present. Also in our life, these, we draw the right people in our life and we become attractive for the right people.

So that’s how one of the ways of drawing synchronicity. And again, I share about that in a deeper way, you know, eyes up. 

Matt: Yeah. Yeah, no, it was some, some really great examples there. Well, you know, there’s a lot of stuff, uh, Different things in the book, some soccer related, some just life related. Um, so kind of talked about who, who best is, uh, what audience is best for this book and in terms of if you’re a soccer player, what are you gonna get out of?

If you’re not a soccer player, what are you gonna get out of it?

Coach: Great question. So as a soccer player, a soccer coach, you’ll get a lot out of it. And even if you’re not, you’ll get a lot of it on the soccer side specifically. Um, the vision piece is a critical missing piece in our game, uh, in our country.

Uh, vision training soccer is something, as I mentioned earlier, I’ve been doing [00:09:00] for over 40 years. I travel around the country, around the world, actually certify coaches in my own methodology. We licensed coaches level one, level two, and we actually have an online course. Now the coaches globally or domestically and players can go and take the course and learn how to apply these ideas.

So the vision training soccer part that you read about in the book are simple ideas. suggestions, training sessions that I’ve done around the world. I talked about being in Ukraine, doing a session in Ukraine, talking about Finland. I talk about, um, Carly Lloyd. I talk about Glenn Crooks, the, uh, Carly Lloyd’s coach, how he didn’t believe in vision and then how he was transformed.

So, so, so it’s definitely for a soccer group, a soccer audience, um, some specific suggestions, uh, how to help players. Uh, and we’ll talk about that, I think at the end a little bit, but it’s definitely for a soccer audience. It’s for coaches. I do a deep dive and for parents and for business owners into seven qualities of being transformative.

One. I start with integrity. I end with confidence and belief. I talked about gratitude and selflessness. How can I serve you be more transformative and less transactional? What are you gonna do for me? I talk about innovation, being innovative, thinking outside the box. No, creating your own box about the being mindful of modeling that every time we see someone we’re impacting them.

Like right now, the two of us looking, we’re impacting each other. [00:10:30] Anybody that’s watching us right now is being impacted by the information we’re giving how to harness that power to help you become the best version of yourself and how to help everyone that you meet every single day to model that behavior to help them.

So that’s the broader way of using Eyes Up to help you as a parent, as a coach, as a business leader, as a sibling, as a friend. 

Matt: Oh, great. Well, and, and yeah, to get just Even more laser focused, right? With this is couldn’t, I couldn’t go without asking this since this is the discover college soccer podcast, but more specifically, if, if someone’s listened to this, they’re, they’re a high school age student looking to play in college, looking to take the next step.

Uh, how, how might this book help them? What are they going to get out of this specifically to help them along their journey? 

Coach: Great. So aside from what I just mentioned about the qualities. about selflessness, how t as you’re going on to the want to be someone that’s your teammates get better get better.

So in the book ways to serve others to h Here’s two really simple things that if you add this to your game, just adding this, your game can get 10 to 20 percent better permanently. How do I know this? I’ve done this around the country and players have responded back to me after afterwards and said, coach, I’m 30 percent better because I’ve already made this happen.

So here’s two [00:12:00] simple ones. One is that, uh, if you do, uh, by taking. Up to five looks every 10 seconds when you’re on the pitch, regardless of your position. So not just a center midfielder, a six or an eight or a 10 that’s coming back, but everywhere. If you take up to five looks, even as a keeper scanning a little bit gathering from build the habit of expanding your vision and gathering early real time information.

So your goal is a player up to five looks why the premier league, the best in the world analysis of vision. The best players look five plus times every 10 seconds. Debrine five more than five times the very, very best look five. So you want to model what the best in the world are doing. That’s one thing.

The second thing is almost every player does wall ball, right? They work on technique, right? Hit the ball against the wall inside the right foot, inside the left foot. First touch, second touch. We’ve all done that. I’ve done that as a kid. My daughter’s both played, my youngest played in college. My oldest was a track runner.

So you’re doing wall ball and you hit the ball against the wall. One simple change will improve your vision. When the ball comes off the wall. Start taking a peek. Start looking over your shoulder. So as soon as the ball is coming off the wall, start building the habit of scanning. Why? If you’re not, if you’re just looking at the, at the wall, you’re developing tunnel vision.

Our myelin sheath is the habit forming sheath. That’s the fifth P about persistence, being persistent, right? The reason I could pick [00:13:30] up this pen without looking is because I’ve done it a million times. If I was a child, I would have to do this, right? If you’re hitting the ball against the wall and you’re doing this, You’re creating tunnel vision and your vision on the pitch will be, will be horrible.

People say you have no vision or a little bit of vision. As soon as the ball comes off the wall, start doing this. When you’re knocking the ball with a partner in training, don’t look at the ball, look over the shoulder. And what’s going to happen? Your game will get 10 to 20 percent better because you’re collecting real time information and not waiting for people to tell you a man on or turn, which is the third slowest way that we process information.

Those two things you add that your game will just explode. 

Matt: Yeah, absolutely. Love it. Well, coach really appreciate it. Congratulations on, on the book, looking forward to finishing those last few pages myself. And we’ll put a link, uh, in the show notes for folks to go ahead and get their copy and of course, go back and watch the episode, uh, that we did last year on, on your school.

And I wish you the best of luck this fall coach, and hopefully we’ll see you down here in Bradenton sometime soon. 

Coach: Thanks so much. Just two more things before we go. Yeah, of course. His eyes up, you could order it right now on Amazon. You could also order the audio book, the audio books in my voice. If that’s how you consume information, do that.

And the last thing, good housekeeping just announced their top, uh, books, self help books at two 24 eyes up was number five in two 24, the top self help books. Matt: So that’s amazing. Well, congrats coach. So well deserved. All right. Appreciate you. [00:15:00] All right. Thank you. Take care.