I’ve seen Charlie say “just put your mind in neutral and rub” when it comes to massage. I am a jumps coach at a Division III college and I have no real mentor or experience with massage work (other than reading books and Charlie’s stuff). Is it really true that you can just perform massage on an athlete and just “learn as you go”? Or is there a good way to learn it besides reading this board and watching Charlie’s videos etc? I don’t want to be accused of being a quack.
I’ll let you in on a sure fire and great way to learn initialy.
Book an appointment for yourself with a massage therapist who seems to suggest the nearest thing you can conceive of as what you would like to have done to your athletes.i.e. sports massage, deep tissue.
Get them to do a sort of combination circulation enhancing and deep tissue sports massage.
(remember, deep work is for when there is time to recover, and lighter work around the higher intensity training or competitions, so you need to know both.)
Now as you are recieving, you know what it feels like. From there it is a small step to doing it to another. Just try to achieve the same. The rest is history.