Understanding Sports Massage

Massage can enhance athletes’ conditioning and performance, reduce injury potential, and aid injury rehabilitation. Understanding Sports Massage offers comprehensive information on how to use massage in any sports setting and focuses on these topics:

• The theoretical basis for sports massage • Various applications of massage for athletes--restorative, event-related, and maintenance • Massage and adjunct techniques • The effects of each technique • Tips on giving massage • How to plan and give a massage • How to set up a sports massage program • Contraindications and cautions

Understanding Sports Massage will help athletic trainers, sports physical therapists, massage specialists, and other sports medicine professionals ensure the health and enhance the performance of their athletes.

With more than 25 years in health, fitness, physical education, coaching, and massage therapy, Patricia Benjamin’s varied background offers her special insight into the benefits of massage for athletes.

Benjamin graduated from the Chicago School of Massage Therapy in 1984. She is a licensed massage therapist in Connecticut and nationally certified in therapeutic massage and bodywork. In 1981 she earned her PhD in recreation and leisure studies from Purdue University.

Benjamin serves as the director of education at the Connecticut Center for Massage Therapy. She was the national director of education for the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) from 1989 to 1993 and owned her own massage business from 1986 until 1990. Benjamin was an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago in the College of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation for seven years. She also taught physical education and coached at the high school level for seven years.

Benjamin is an active member in the AMTA. She lives in Newington, Connecticut, where she enjoys traveling, antiquing, hiking, cycling, and golf.

Scott Lamp has been a massage therapist since 1982 and has worked with athletes at all levels. He was the first massage therapist in the United States to be hired by a Division I college athletic association (University of Florida) to provide an ongoing massage therapy program, and he worked there for eight years.

Lamp is now the owner/director of Southeastern Sports Massage, a sports massage clinic that develops and implements a variety of projects and programs. He also has his own private practice that serves more than 30 clients per week ranging from professional athletes and Olympic gold medalists to weekend warriors and gardeners. In addition, he develops and teaches certification courses for sports massage therapy.

Lamp graduated from the Soma School of Massage in Gainesville, Florida, in 1982 and was licensed by the state of Florida the same year. In 1992 he was nationally certified in therapeutic massage and bodywork. He earned his BS in botany from the University of Florida in 1980.

Lamp is president-elect of the AMTA. In 1991 he was awarded the National Meritorious Award and the Florida Chapter Meritorious Award from the AMTA.

Lamp lives in Gainesville, Florida, and enjoys tennis, travel, and spiritual study.