Being a successful massage therapist who is intending to work with professional sportsmen and women requires a number of different skills. Some, of course, are within your chosen profession and some are more personal. Your skills as a therapist will concentrate on the physical, whilst your personal skills will allow you to connect emotionally with your clients, giving them peace of mind and be at ease in your presence.
The goal of a massage therapist within sports is to speed up recovery, improve flexibility,
relieve pain, and increase movement. To do all of this, there are a number of techniques that
you need to be familiar and confident with. These include traditional massage, trigger point
release as well as movement-based therapies. Our courses will help you master and
become confident in these techniques.
Many of your clients will come to you in pain, not knowing what has caused their injury
(sometimes the impact of wear and tear, sometimes too much high impact exercises, etc,)
and they will be looking for your expertise to give them peace of mind. This would normally
mean carrying out a quick assessment to diagnose exactly what the issues are.
Sometimes an issue within the lower back can be related to a calf muscle in the leg, as
everything is connected and one part of the body can impact another.
Many clients will think that after spending 1 hour with you, that the injury which has taken
years to create will simply disappear, which may or may not be the case. Your experience
will help you understand whether the injury or pain will take days or weeks to heal, and in
turn, this will need to be explained to the client.
They may need to see you over a number of weeks so that you continue with the healing that you have started. You may need to provide a programme for them to follow so they can help themselves in the weeks to come by carrying out various stretches and exercises to continue with the healing of their body.
Even though you may work with an injury clinic or focus on sports massage, not all your clients will be athletes. Some of the people you will be seeing have picked a box up and hurt their back, while others will have pulled a muscle whilst gardening. There is no end to the types of clients you will meet. They will be looking for you and your skills to get them active, pain-free, and feeling strong again.
Managing your client’s expectations takes confidence and experience. For example, It’s important to understand that your clients will have different thresholds of pain. Some will ask for (and even enjoy) a heavy amount of pressure whilst others will insist on it being relaxing. Some will want to be spoken to throughout the massage, whilst others will expect absolute silence. However, the objective of the sports massage therapist is to heal the body.
Here at core elements, we have the experience to help you get the best start possible as a
massage therapist working in professional sports.
Please follow this link to see our various qualifications available to help you get started, or progress with your journey as a sports massage therapist.
