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How do you learn new modalities outside of school?

Swedish massage is the type of massage we will be learning at my school. We will have intro classes into dif. modalities but nothing more than that. How would a new lmt learn a new modality (ie sports massage) and at what point would he know he is proficient in it? Is there formal training one could go through? A test at the end?

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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on July 19, 2017 at 1:08am

There are tons of continuing education classes and seminars that will be available after your schooling. You will be required to take them every year or two in order to maintain your license.
As far as knowing when you are competent at a modality, regardless if there is a test or not.....It's when you feel comfortable while working on your client. Then you have reached a certain level competence.
Once you start your school, those questions will be clearly answered.

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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on July 28, 2017 at 9:21pm

Benny Vaughn was one of my guru's way back when. What fascinated me back then, is that at one point, he started incorporating stretching along with specific massage work at the same time. Way cool.

Pueppi Texas said:

I second what Gordon says about knowing when you are competent.

I would add: applying this personal understanding of competency to your bodywork, means that you must to be very honest with yourself.

For example: I am very well versed in bodywork and very good at what I do.   However, anytime I am working with something completely new to me (for example: Vodder Technique was difficult for me, as I do not have a light touch and it takes finesse to do it correctly), I then start by adding small amounts of a technique in my work. Or, another option may be that I offer a full session of a new work at no charge (or at a heavy discount) to specific clients who's feedback I trust, in order to practice it, until I feel I am providing the work properly and in a manner that is smooth, and worth the fee I charge for a session in my office. I have to ask myself: "Am I able to give the client the very best of my ability"? "Have I studied properly and do I know (really know) what I am doing"?. If my answer is "iffy" or anything short of you bet'cha, then I am not prepared to provide excellence. If I am not able to provide excellence, then I wait until I am able.

I would also give you a few ideas that may be something to consider: To keep things less expensive, try a DVD on sports massage to get the general idea of what is happening. Maybe watch this video by James Malley, or locate the 3 old VHS's by Benny Vaughn (Clinical Sports Massage Vol. 1, Vol 2 { <---can still be found on Amazon and I've linked to it here}, and Vol. 3).

To be honest, if you understand the body, understand pathology, know your anatomy & physiology in depth and are able to think about mechanisms of injury, then it's not terribly difficult to apply your training to provide sports massage.

I'd also suggest you read this thread at BWOL entitled: Continuing education for sports massage. Breathe's post contains excellent information.

If you are looking for some CEU's, I'd suggest waiting until you have a handle on your Swedish technique. Swedish may sound uninteresting and "foo-foo", but it is your basic technique. And, you don't want to try and skip your basics. If you don't get a handle on them, you'll always be missing something.  (basics are all important, as was noted by Paul Newman as to why Tom Cruise was unable to learn to be a race car driver in Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman (2015) :) ).

Articles:

"A Brief History of Sports Massage"

"Benny Vaughn: 40 Years of Sports Massage"

It also looks like AMTA offers some workshops.   I can't seem to locate any info on if ABMP has classes or not, but I expect that they do. Perhaps someone from this forum (since we are on the actual ABMP forum) will offer up some useful links. :)

I hope your upcoming classes are everything you hoped for!

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Permalink Reply by Alisa Alexander on August 20, 2017 at 1:51am

Hi Jeremy there are so many options. if you are needing ECUs check out http://www.ncbtmb.org/ for list of approved providers.

However there are lots of very helpful video tutorials on any technique imaginable on youtube. many are free or they will offer a sneak preview and offer you a complete tutorial for a small fee.

if youre looking to make more money check out this one on giving massage to a couple all by yourself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZOuHW9GP8g

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Permalink Reply by Laura Garza on October 14, 2017 at 7:03pm

ABMP also offers a good variety of webinairs (1-4 hours). I've been very happy with them. Are you planning on practicing in FL? You'll need to make sure they are approved for FL (which I think they are). Nothing in depth but a good place to start to find out what peaks your interest so that you can dive deeper into the subject.

https://www.abmp.com/members/continuing-education/online-learning/e...

Also check what your state needs. I'm licensed in 2 states - one requires 24 hours every two years but no restrictions on the format, the other only requires 12 hours but 6 of them have to be in classroom.

Pueppi Texas said:

It also looks like AMTA offers some workshops. I can't seem to locate any info on if ABMP has classes or not, but I expect that they do. Perhaps someone from this forum (since we are on the actual ABMP forum) will offer up some useful links. :)

I hope your upcoming classes are everything you hoped for!