PERFORMANCE VOLLEYBALL CONDITIONING A NEWSLETTER DEDICATED TO IMPROVING VOLLEYBALL PLAYERS www.performancecondition.com/volleyball Overview of Therapy for Coaches Tim Monaco

Massage is playing a more an important role in keeping athletes healthy and recovered. Coaches in their course of training athletes will likely encounter massage therapy. In most cases coache experience with massage will be limited to Swedish type massage for recovery. This is a vitally im- portant way to utilize massage, but it is my goal to give you a broader view of different massage therapy techniques and how they can address different needs for athletes. A good way to differentiate techniques and when they are best applied is to break down the timing of treatment: 1) Post-race or Post-workout Treatment 2) Pre-race or Pre-workout Treatment 3) Therapeutic and Corrective Treatment

In most cases Pre-competition and Post-competition treatments will be similar in that the treatment will be relatively super- ficial. Techniques such as Swedish massage, Sports massage, , and (Chinese Sports Massage) are all excellent. The primary goals for this type of treatment are increased blood flow, flushing out metabolic waste, increasing lymphatic drainage, increasing muscle tone and flexibility, warming up tissues, and increasing body awareness (proprioception). In some cases it may be advantageous to have corrective treatment done pre and post-race, but only from very experienced therapists who are familiar with your body and condition. Therapeutic and Corrective Treatments are appropriate during training cycles and depending on the extent of the treatment, may require one to three days recovery time. Receiving deeper types of treatment such as Deep Tissue, Trigger Point, Neuromuscular Reprogramming, Neuromuscular Therapy, , and often will leave the athlete feeling soreness and/or lethar- gic for a day or two. In some cases treatment will break down muscle and/or myofascial tissue and will leave the athlete feeling soreness like they have done a hard workout. This soreness should be regarded with caution and training should be reduced appro- priately until the body is recovered. When receiving these types of treatments you can expect all of the above benefits described in the last section, along with additional benefits of deeper structural change, postural correction, muscle balance correction, improved muscle recruitment, biomechanical improvements, and reduction in risk of injury. Receiving massage therapy treatments are beneficial in so many ways and there are so many techniques to utilize that it is best to sample various options and decide what feels good and does the most good for your body and wellness. As in any profession, the skill and experience of various practitioners can make all the difference to how you experience the treatment. Always be clear in your communication if your therapist is making you uncomfortable in any way. Do not assume that they always know what is best for you, as most good therapists expect the treatment session to be a fairly interactive experience to find out the best way to meet your needs. In general terms, I can safely say that the more massage treatment you receive the better. My personal guideline is that if you are an athlete in training you should get worked on weekly to optimize performance and stay ahead of injury; every other week treatment is about break-even; once a month treatment is a bare minimum. Depending on your budget and time management, any treatment is a wise investment in your wellness and performance. Next month will be a continuation on the Massage Therapy theme. I will delve further in detail into different massage tech- niques and try to demystify the many varieties. The following month in the third and final installment I will discuss self-massage and how to best take care of you between massage sessions. Be well and happy recovering!