Sports Massage - is it relevant?

[Puffy]

Im starting this thread to get opinions on sports massage as a stand alone profession, not to cause controversy, or to start what others would call, "a bun fight".

How relevant is sports massage these days? When it has been established that you can undertake the new QCF Level 3 sports massage qualification in just 3 days, without having prior massage experience, and the new QCF Level 4 sports massage qualification in just 65 hours, do we think that is enough?

What about what a sports masseur can do these days? Looking at these new QCF qualifications, at level 3 you cover (taken from VTCT website) effleurage; pétrissage; tapotement; vibration.

At level 4 (again from VTCT website) effleurage; petrissage; tapotement; vibration; compressions; frictions, passive stretching. Do you think this is enough to enable someone doing a 'purely' sports massage course to work as a full time therapist, or do you think it would be a 'part time' role, giving the sports masseur a reputation like the one quoted on a physiotherapy forum "Furthermore, many practise massage in addition to having another job or profession. I do not know any physiotherapists who dabble in law or accounting for a bit of extra money at the weekend – and if I did I certainly wouldn’t be hiring them".

Do you think this makes us look more, or less, professional?

Im really interested in this because, as a sports therapist, I have been trained in sports massage, plus lots of additional skills that even physiotherapists dont learn on their degrees, enabling me to deal with most musculo-skeletal problems without the need to refer on. The amount of sports massage I do in a week I can count on one hand, and certainly would not be able to live off my earnings if that was all I could offer.

Is sports massage a 'stepping stone', to sports therapy, or is anyone making a decent living from it, and if so, did you have to undertake additional courses and learn new skills to do so? Or, if you are earning a good living, was your course one of the 'old style' sports massage courses, that covered pretty much everything in sports therapy, or one of these new qualifications, that teach what amounts to the very basic massage techniques?

If you did one of the 'old style' sports massage courses, what do you think of the new qualifications that are now being offered?

 

[princessbubbbles]

Interesting topic!
I'm very curious to know what the opinion is on this, as I was planning on doing a holistic massage course with A&P, with the aim of doing sports massage afterwards. I had no idea that you can do a sports massage course in 3 days!!! That is absolutely ridiculous, and surely can do nothing but devalue the work of other therapists that have invested years of study. The courses I looked at would mean I wouldn't be qualified to do any sports massage for approximately 2 years, even if I started studying right now.

Can you honestly get insurance as a sports massage therapist with one of these 3 day courses? I think it's a disgrace if you can.

 

[ladybug]

my view is tat unless you are at a top rugby or football club in this country you wont have full time work. And even a lot of the therapists on the books at premiership club still have to supplement their income a lot of other ways.

sports massage isnt a career choice, or a one with a huge number of full tim opportunities, hence why i dont like it being so close to the sports therapist name.

Saying that, a good sports massage is worth its weight when doing treatments. Although i do have a heavier touch and prefer a good remedial massage!

 

[A nobody]

Hi Guys
Unless you are attached to a professional sports club or a multi discipline therapy centre the chance of a sports massage therapist without extra training making a living is nil.
Many colleges who are eager to take your money don't explain that to you.
As a 'old style' sports massage therapist it is with concern that i hear of these fast track courses because these therapists are going to come across people with injuries and the temptation to treat them without any remedial training might be to great.
This also creates another problem, the gap between sports massage training and sports therapists becomes even greater. I can already hear the sports therapists cheering. But if us 'old style' sports massage therapists who have spent a lot of time and money in extra training think that our skills are going to be devalued by poor level3/4 training the temptation for some might be to call themselves sports therapists, this in turn could weaken sports therapy.
I do not advocate this practise but I have come across sports massage therapist who do this.
This has been covered on a earlier thread but I think there should be recognition of some sort for sports massage therapists who have spent their time and money aquiring further skills so the temptation is removed for them to use titles they have not earned.

Jeff

 

[TrenceCekbja]

"Unless you are attached to a professional sports club or a multi discipline therapy centre the chance of a sports massage therapist without extra training making a living is nil."

Sorry have to totally disagree with this one
You work for 'professional sports clubs' for 'ego' not money

Having been sports massage therapist (or whatever you want to call it) since 1994 and worked with 'everyone' from inc olympic team members, top tennis players, international cyclists, Chelsea FC youth team coach, GB swimming coach, World champion martial artists, Gladiators (first time round), Elstree studios (Tweenies, Big Brother (Davina ), Darryl Hannah , rockstars (inc Keith Flint) yawn yawn the list goes on ...........the most I got paid was £60 an hr from 'an ordinary person' who lived in a terrace house in Tottenham

My mate worked at Australian olympics was unpaid (accomodation and flights Had to close his clinic for 6 wks so cost him a fortune


Sports massage can be very well paid if you leave you ego at the door and consider celebrity work as a 'perk' (ie never having had to pay to get into V fest or Download

 

[?V??us?]

Not forgetting that the 2012 Olympics want sports massage therapists unpaid! Expensive hobby!

 

[beipkjbf]

But I like bun fights! Especially when done in Belgium or Chelsea!



I'd be very surprised if someone doing a 3 day course in sports massage without any prior massage experience would have the nerve to start practicing as a SMT. Would you? Perhaps they would with 65 hours at Level 4 but it strikes me that these courses are being put together to cash in on people who want to change careers as quickly and cheaply as possible rather than getting the best training around.

Having done an 'old school' sports massage course these new courses don't really worry me that much. I doubt they will result in my local market being flooded with SMTs doing substandard massage. If anything I see these courses as a quicker way of filtering out those who genuinely want to be SMTs. When I think of the 20 people on my 5-week-long course 4 years ago I believe I'm the only one still doing massage. That was a pretty intensive course so you'd think those that survived would be more dedicated but it's clearly not to everyone's tastes so a shorter course would weed them out quicker.

My slight concern is that these quicker courses will mean that there is an increase of SMTs out there giving poor quality treatment. Will this stop people from looking for sports massage? Probably not because what other choice is there for a deep and effective soft tissue manipulation? Even before these short courses I've had clients come to me saying they've had poor quality sports massage before. Thankfully the majority of people looking for sports massage understand that it is very beneficial, it's just a case of finding a good therapist, even if this means encountering a few duff ones along the way. Same can be said for any solo profession since it ultimately comes down to how good the individual is at doing it.



This quote is so bitchy it's funny and doesn't even merit being picked apart! This is obviously from a fellow therapist's viewpoint rather than one that the general public are likely to share (if indeed this bitchy person is qualified since they could have been a spammer on that physio forum!). I find it extremely unlikely that the majority of physiotherapists think this way. It's only a quote from one person after all. A lot of SMTs have good working relationships with physiotherapists, osteopaths, chiropractors, etc., because these professions know how useful a good SMT is as they compliment and assist what they do. These professionals are also more likely to know the different types of sports massage qualifications available compared to the general public. This will mean very few physios, osteopaths, chiropractors, etc., are likely to work with SMTs with these inferior QCF qualifications.



I know several SMTs who are making a good living from doing sports massage. They are not linked with any sports clubs, professional or otherwise. They, like me, see a wide range of people from all walks of life. Some have injuries (sporting or otherwise) and some have everyday aches and pains. I personally have done several extra courses but only out of interest rather than feeling I had to to gain more clients or make up for something lacking in my original SMT training.

As for sports massage being a 'stepping stone' to sports therapy, that's down to the individual therapist and where they'd like to take their career. I've certainly looked into doing a sports therapy course but, once I saw the syllabus and compared it to my current set of skills, I didn't really see much difference. It would be a lot of money and time doing the course just to drop the 'M' from the middle of 'SMT'!

 

[S?t????]

If you have all the skills and can back it up, have you considered applying to go on the CNHC register as a Sports and Remedial Therapist?

 

[i <3 books]

I don't know that any therapy is a true stand alone.. sports massage, aromatherapy etc..........so a client comes in with a problem, they don't fit your typical client profile, (the granny of your top athlete) so you either decide she can be helped within your scope of practice or you refere her to someone you feel would be better able to help.

When I started sports massage at holmes place it was the clients that used sports massage as remedial effect for sitting at computors all day (mainly the IT crowd that could not get enough deep tissue work from their osteo, chiro, phys ), they educated me of the huge demand/benifits of deep work.

The use of the word "sports" is a complete miss noma IMO as the vast majority of clients are predisposed (by occupation) to injury long before it just so happened whilst doing a sport.

 

[IT WILL BE 3 IN A ROW]

Hi

I agree with SJ. Most people I know who do sports massage therapy (also including me) spend most of their time with more lifestyle and work-related stresses & strains. It's the bread & butter stuff. Sorry for repeating myself on HP but I can't see what's wrong in being a Massage Therapist, and if someone specialises in sports or remedial or holistic (whatever that is) or ayurvedic or on-site or granny or pregnancy etc treatments just quote it afterwards ie Massage Therapist specialising in sports & remedial treatments.

As for Sports Therapy (the therapy not ST himself, lol) if that is something else a Massage Therapist wishes to train in then they can be a Massage & Sports Therapist. It would be obvious that the therapist does sports massage within their portfolio.

Best Wishes

RP

 

[Technical Support Cat]

At Camexpo I bought some back copies of massage world and the April/may 2010 edition carries a rare but very interesting insight from Mel Cash re his regrets around his starting the term sports massage and the level of training from some providers.

Sorry can't provide the link to this article.

 

[Sammy Young]

Hi Stephen,
what did you think of the article? I will try and get hold of it from Mel, as I think it is very interesting indeed.

He actually sent this to his colleagues at GCMT, and a lot of them thought it was quite controversial, however those of us in the sports therapy industry agreed with it wholeheartedly.

 

[Daniel M]

Hi SJ

Since I haven't got access to this article, can you give us all a summary of what Mel Cash said.

Best Wishes

RP

 

[Matija N]

Hi Richard and RP
Its not an easy article to sum up! but does tell how upset Mel is, re state of "sports" massage (level of training) and how a marketing strategy by his publishers ment his book was launched with the title sports massage instead of Remedial massage for sports.
Many courses that use his books seek only to produce a practitioner that can do a good body massage that is somewhat deeper than other body massage (assume he means Swedish) and that these practitioner's then face a steep learning curve when faced with a diverse client base that are injured through occupation not sports but adopt the policy of "give it a massage".
He goes on to say he feels responsible for starting the term "sports massage" but given the standard of practitioner using this title gives him no pride in its use and would rather distance himself from it.

IMO he is being overly critical of himself and our industry, yes we are lumbered with the title sports when it should have been remedial. Overall I am proud to be a massage therapist with a huge amount of knowledge directly evolved from Mels work...........can you name anyone who has contributed more to the uk industry ? I know I can't.

 

[bouscubusem]

Hi SJ

Thanks for sharing that with us. Yes it does sound that he is being too hard on himself. Anycase, I find that doesn't matter how much I know, there is always a new client that keeps me on my toes, and I have to reconfigure a technique or devise a new approach. But isn't that the fun and challenge of this work? But I suppose to do that you have to have a good skills base in the first place, and that's the problem with short courses and poor training.

Best Wishes

RP

Best Wishes

RP

 

[E-ma]

Hi Richard
any luck with the full article ?

Does it tie in to what he said at your recent conference?

 

[wygtlixc]

hi Stephen,
no luck with the full article as yet, but there is a snippet in this newsletter, and it outlines most of what is in it (hopefully I will be allowed to post, as this newsletter has nothing to do with me)

http://www.thelondonmassagecompany.com/Content/pdf/newsletter/LMCoNewsletter22.pdf

Mels talk was mainly based around the fitness industry so didnt really reflect what was in the article.

Interestingly though, I have to disagree a little with what Jane writes in the newsletter about 'pressure to dumb down the syllabus in order to meet National Occupational Standards and other governing body standards have been considerable'.

My issue is, sports massage/therapy members of the governing body of massage, GCMT, had a great deal of input into writing the new NOS, and believe me (as I still have the originals), they were far more indepth than those published, so the pressure did not come from the governing council, though I do believe someone did put some pressure on somewhere...cant prove anything so im not saying who I think (but its no-one im involved with).

Do I believe the NOS dumb things down, yes I do, and that is why the industry (massage, sports therapy and all the other professions that are regulated by CNHC), have insisted that the minimum standard for regulation be the governing councils Core Curricula (which contain the NOS).

A professional association (such as APNT to which Jane refers) can set whatever standard they like for their own membership entry requirements, however, to meet CNHC, they have to meet core curricula and NOS (together). I believe APNT meet that standard, as they are members of GMCT.

It has been said on this forum that some of the awarding bodies have developed courses that arent very good, to put it bluntly. Some of the new ones in sports massage, do not meet the standard (and IMO arent fit for purpose), however, the awarding bodies are working with CNHC and governing councils to rectify this (thankfully), as they want the profession(s) to move forward in the right direction.

I fully agree with Janes comments about MSK assessment, as it is crucial to be able to work soft tissue problems. The current sports massage quals, miss this out, and we both agree that this hugely dumbs down sports massage.

The new ActiveIQ sports massage qualifications include MSK assessments, so at least one awarding body has had the foresight to include these from the start, rather than 2 years later.

People also need to be aware of the difference even in the level 4 qualifications, as some of those are just 'basic massage techniques'.

 

[I TRY]

I am flabbergasted that any massage training provider would not include basic assessments of the MSK system. Surely this is the foundation of any manual treatments?

Is there any chance, sportstherapy, we could see the original NOS for sports therapy to see which things have been omitted?

 

[Friend Opportunity]

Unfortunately not, as they are all hard copies (reams of them too), but I can assure you assessments were in there, as was rehab.

I have just been informed that the difference between (VTCT) level 3 sports masssage and level 4 sports massage is level 3 practitioners can ONLY work on non-injured tissue, whereas at level 4 they can work on injured tissue also.

I have to keep coming back to the awarding organisations here, as they do take their information from consultants mainly, and I think they were very very badly advised when writing some of these qualifications IMO. Thankfully none of my colleagues can have the finger pointed at them for involvement here. (Im not going to include ActiveIQ in this as they have had some good advice and have yet to publish their new quals).

Maybe things will change as the awarding bodies have recently met with governing bodies and CNHC to discuss these qualifications, so when they expire they will hopefully be rewritten.

 

[No Hope]

Originally Posted by sportstherapy
"(Im not going to include ActiveIQ in this as they have had some good advice and have yet to publish their new quals)."

Currently on Register of Regulated Qualifications (was NDAQ) ........although qual doesn't start until Jan 2011

Active IQ Level 3 Certificate in Sports Massage (Soft Tissue Therapy)
A/600/9017
Principles of exercise, fitness and health
H/600/9013
Antatomy and physiology for exercise
T/602/5331
Anatomy and physiology for Sports Massage
J/602/5334
Assisting soft tissue repair
L/602/5335
Professional practice in sports massage
A/602/5332
Applying sports massage techniques
R/602/5336
Assessing clients and treatment planning


Active IQ Level 4 Certificate in Sports Massage (Soft Tissue Therapy)
Has level 3 as pre-entry requirement

H/602/5342
Conducting an objective physical assessment
D/602/5341
Applying neuromuscular and soft tissue mobilisation techniques
Y/602/5340
Prescribing corrective exercise to support the treatment of common injuries / soft tissue dysfunction