It connects to everything. before long, you'll be able to apply tension and feel your glutes and abs light up in unison unlike you ever thought possible.

I know this sounds like a lot of smoke, but it's the closest thing to a cheat code we have. As you develop your level of fascial tension, you will carry it with you forever. This is permanent transformation.

Effortless Stamina

Fascia consumes very little oxygen. This makes the body ultra-efficient. The fascial tension creates a spring in the foot that allows you to propel yourself using very little energy.

In this manner you are creating free energy in each step akin to a pogo stick or like the kangaroo.

The muscle-driven athlete does not have this luxury and uses much more energy to make each step. This is why they tire as the game goes on and the fascial driven footballer gains energy.

True Strength

Strength is such a convoluted topic. It gets tossed around everywhere you look. People associate anything with getting strong and all of sudden it's assumed to be beneficial.

But what is strength actually? Is it merely how big your muscles are or how much weight you can lift?

Or is it functionality? Is it how well your muscles can coordinate in unison to achieve a certain action?

Sure you can be "strong" at barbell back squat but does that mean you're "strong" on the pitch?

Natural functional muscle size is not equal to muscle gained artificially in the gym doing isolated segmented movements. The connective tissue underneath connecting the muscle and determining outside function is different. Lifting weights creates fascial adhesions to adapt to the repetitive motions in machines and barbell work.

Natural muscle size that we see in top players like De Ligt and Koulibaly, for example is what the mainstream calls "good genetics". In reality, it's the result of a childhood functioning in a manner demanding more size + optimal nourishment of the body. Height and metabolism is obviously passed down from parents (mother passes down her mitochondria) so you have to have a frame to work with (but we can do a lot to encourage growth).

Muscle in the gym is what we'll refer to as counterfeit muscle. It is a wolf hiding in sheep's clothing. It is artificial. It is cheating the function by tricking the body. This is why the body breaks down over time.

"When one moves, all parts move." This is Taichi silk reeling strength. This is how the function of your feet connect to the glutes and abs and create a tensional network.
Remember, strength is a result of an integrated whole, not the parts.

Gliding Agility

How it does it seem that top wingers just drift and glide with the ball? How do they seem weightless when they run and change direction with ease past defenders?

This is because elite fascial connections from the feet to the glutes and abs suspend your bodyweight. This is based off the biotensegrity principle. A system of tensional integrity suspends your weight like the sail on a boat.

This is that ever elusive feeling of weightlessness when you feel like you're flying. As you develop your Natural Athleticism in Peak Harmony this will come after rest periods.

So somewhere around Level 4 the body becomes so integrated it becomes "lighter" you can feel it. It feels like a close circuit, and the energy is kept within you. The feet are morphed and your abs subconsciously maintain the tension to connect the glutes. So your body uses very little concentric contraction of the muscle but in sorta of an isometric state that the fascia feels like a rubber band!

Slingshot Power

Have you ever seen a ball just fly off the strikers boot and fly into the top corner like a laser? This is like the release of a rubber band when you pull back on it all the way and let go.

In the human body we see this happen from the feet to the glutes. this is the fascial elasticity potential. This is the opposite of a muscle driven footballer having to "muscle" the shot.

This spring like effect will improve your jumping and acceleration as well where this tension we've built up in the posterior chain will "let go" and propel you forward.

Shooting with Fascial Tension

Should you have your toes retracted while shooting?

Yes and no. As you level up your foot function and intuitive feeling of holding tension in the match, you'll see how you're able to apply tension without exactly keeping your ankle locked out at 90 degrees. This is more advanced after S1.

You still "retract the toes" but the ankle isn't locked out at 90.

Elite Mobility

Another area I see so many trainers attempt to sound smart is flexibility and mobility.

We see countless athletes told to mindlessly stretch and do endless hip mobility routines, yet top footballers will easily have their foot above their waist while shooting or running.

Do you think these guys have been meticulously stretching their hip flexors and doing mobility exercises? no...

When you have the elite fascial connections, your muscles are actually able to relax to let optimal movement & range of motion occur.

There is a purpose for stretching (for which it was always intended) to help with built-up fascial fatigue in the body. When a muscle-driven athlete stretches, they are only numbing pain receptors in overly tight muscles and adding slack to a loose fascial system that needs the opposite (an overstretched rubber band is useless). See fascial stretching post for more.

Iron Shirt

Another area misunderstood is contact injury and general tissue integrity

Fascia forms a thin sponge like layer all throughout the body and it can become hardened like a thin sheet of iron with proper work. This is like a thin layer of armor under the skin that is also extremely light weight but pliable.

This is explained by the principle of biotensegrity which shows how incoming force can be spread evenly throughout the whole fascial network instead of solely on the bone under the point of contact.

Proprioception

One of the biggest effects of fascial tensioning but hardest to explain is that of proprioception.

You can think of it as "body control" but it has a hand in coordination, skill, gracefulness, and even awareness.

This is essentially how well you can control your limbs in space and time. Fascia has 10x proprioceptors than muscle. This training will give you permanent upgrades to your proprioception and illustrates why "class is permanent".

What I've laid out above is what I think is most applicable to football. There are more effects of fascia tensioning to the central nervous system, nociception, longevity, and almost any thing you can think of in the human body.

For more check out the Fascia Private Blog Series under Courses

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