Understanding Sports Massage

Updated and invigorated, Understanding Sports Massage, Second Edition, provides readers with an understanding of the fundamental theory and practical basis for using sports massage to keep athletes in top shape, recover from injuries, and improve performance. Like the successful first edition, Understanding Sports Massage is ideal for sport professionals and students in sports massage training programs. The book illustrates and explains massage techniques in detail and describes the procedures involved in conducting effective sports massage sessions, including determining goals, organizing the session, and choosing and applying techniques. In addition to serving sport professionals, the new edition of Understanding Sports Massage will be useful to coaches, athletes, and teachers. They will be introduced to massage techniques that they can learn and apply in nonmedical situations such as in warm-ups, preparing for and recovering from competition, reducing the potential for injuries, and aiding in injury rehabilitation. Understanding Sports Massage, Second Edition, also features many updates and improvements from the first edition: Nearly 100 photographs demonstrate proper technique. New two-color presentation highlights specific elements of the text for a clearer understanding of the material presented. Updated and expanded material throughout the book includes new sections on medications and massage, specialized massage techniques, and joint movements and stretching, an updated trouble spots form, more examples of remedial and rehabilitation applications, and a description of the increasing use of sports massage in integrative sports medicine settings. This text helps readers put theory into practice, first explaining the scientific underpinnings of sports massage and then describing in detail how to apply those concepts in a massage session. This how-to approach extends to its planning and programming sections, in which the authors lay out the finer points of giving sports massage and then guide readers in implementing sports massage programs in various settings. The program-development portion of this book provides practitioners with detailed advice from the authors, who are well respected for their expertise and program-development skills. They address how to implement sports massage programs in various settings and how sports massage specialists cooperate with other sport and health professionals to provide the best possible care for athletes. The result is a comprehensive and richly detailed guide to providing the best sports massage in a variety of settings and to developing a top-notch sports massage program in a school or university, a health club or organization, or a clinic or private practice.