Sports Massage - An Introduction
Copyright 2005 Richard Lane
Many therapists offer Sports Massage on their “Massage Menu” yet few
understand what Sports Massage is about. When a client comes in requesting a
Sports Massage, some therapists merely react by going in deep. Sports Massage
is so much more.
Whilst Sports Massage does have some aims in common with other forms of
massage therapy, the usual experience in conventional massage is to aim to
restore the normal function when someone is injured. But in sport there is no
‘normal’ and athletes are always looking to improve and gain a competitive
edge. Most athletes aim to reach a level of performance they can never
achieve.
A Sports Massage therapist has great potential to assist the athlete to become
better, rather than merely normal. In striving to be better, the athlete
attempts to systematically increase the level of training and thereby
subjecting the body to gradual and controlled overuse. This overuse can often
create imbalances and problems in the soft tissues, which if ignored may
become chronic. Clearly this may hinder the athlete’s performance and/or rate
of improvement. Sports Massage can become a key ingredient in an athlete’s
success and this is why top competitors incorporate it as an integral part of
their training regime.
So what is Sports Massage? McGillicuddy(1) defines Sports Massage as “the
specific application of massage techniques, hydrotherapy protocols, range of
motion/flexibility protocol and strength-training principles utilized to
achieve a specific goal when treating athletes”. He considers that there are
three principles that are vital to understanding what type of Sports Massage
to apply to an athlete at any given time. These principles are:
Timing
Technique and
Intent
The timing of Sports Massage is related to when the massage is applied, is it
pre-event or post-event, during a maintenance period or possibly post-injury
when rehabilitation is required. The technique refers to what
massage/stretching/strengthening methods the therapists employs to attempt to
achieve the intent, the desired outcome.
The intent of pre-event massage is to warm up the muscles and to get blood
flowing through the muscles. The massage techniques generally used are
petrissage, vibration, percussion, compression, muscle broadening strokes,
etc. With post-event massage, the intent is assist in the recovery process by
increasing venous and lymphatic circulation to assist with removal of
metabolic by-products and thereby decreasing muscle soreness so that the
athlete can return to full training faster. The massage techniques would
include effleurage, compression, petrissage, passive movements and light
stretching. The intent of maintenance massage is to keep the athletes muscles
and tissue in optimum condition and is generally scheduled at a regular
frequency (be it weekly or fortnightly), closely married to the athlete’s
training program.
Thus Sports Massage is not about going deep nor it is learning one technique.
The requirement for the therapist is to apply the appropriate treatment at the
appropriate time, which takes education, skill and experience.
(1) M. McGillicuddy. “Three Key Principles of Sports Massage”.
MassageToday.com May 2003, Volume03 Issue 05.
Richard Lane is a qualified remedial and sports massage therapist, with a
mobile massage practice in Sydney's Inner West www.innerwestmassage.comau
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