Sports Massage Online Course
Discover how sports massage can enhance your massage or bodywork practice and support clients with athletic performance, recovery, and resilience. This online sports massage class provides clear, clinically grounded instruction that teaches you how to work with muscle tissues and movement patterns under load. Practical demonstrations and applied concepts make learning accessible whether you are new to sports massage or expanding your clinical range.
Course Overview
This sports massage class guides you through the principles, mechanics, and hands-on application specific to sports massage. You will explore how physical demand affects tissues, how manual contact can support adaptation and recovery, and how to integrate sports massage into real clinical sessions with confidence. Focuses on real practice scenarios, functional assessment, and techniques that are directly applicable in sessions.
What You Will Learn
- How sports massage differs from general and relaxation modalities
- The relationship between load, adaptation, and tissue responses
- Key neuromuscular and circulatory mechanisms behind sports massage
- How to apply and adjust pressure based on tissue feedback
- Integrating sports massage into performance and recovery protocols
- How to work with functional movement patterns in massage sessions
Course Details & Learning Materials
- Format: Two hours of online videos
- Video Content: Professionally produced instruction with clear demonstrations
- Lessons: Structured to build practical skill and clinical thinking
- Manual: Downloadable reference materials included
- Experience Level: Massage therapists and bodyworkers
- Access: Lifetime online access after enrollment
- Certificate / CEUs: Certificate of completion provided, CEUs not included
Who This Course Is For
This class is designed for licensed massage therapists and bodyworkers who want to deepen their understanding of sports massage principles and learn how to apply them effectively. Whether you work with athletes, active adults, or clients in physically demanding occupations, this course builds the clinical foundation and practical skills needed to support performance and recovery.
Sports Massage Learning Hub
Meet your instructor: Molly Verschingel
After completing Portland State University’s exercise science program, Molly Verschingel began practicing and teaching sports massage. Licensed since 1993, she developed and teaches the only sports massage certification program in the state. One student once called her a “sportmatic”—a blend of sport maniac and lunatic—which, by her own admission, fits.
Molly has worked with the Olympic Sports Massage Team in 2008 and 2012, the sports medicine team at the Olympic Training Center, the Prefontaine Classic, America’s Cup Fencing, the American Triathlon Championships, and many other events.
She is the team therapist for the Portland Winterhawks and the Portland State Vikings, helping athletes prepare for competition and recover from injuries and training.
Molly believes soft tissue tells the story of how people move through their lives. Her goal is to read those patterns, address underlying problems, and help clients understand how to recover from both chronic and acute issues. While her work is highly clinical, she admits she can still give a relaxing massage—if asked.
Lessons
Introduction to sports massage
This lesson discusses how to set up and organize a massage station at an athletic event. It also demonstrates the various basic techniques that are used in this class, including compression, broadening, friction, petrissage, compressive effleurage and tapotment.
Pre-event sports massage
This lesson discusses the goal of pre-event sports massage along with tips on working with athletes before an event. Next this lesson demonstrates a pre-event style massage for a runner. You can then apply these techniques to other types of events.
Post event massage
This lesson covers delayed onset soreness, the cool-down period and things to be aware of while working with athletes after their event. Then a sports massage routine for cyclists is demonstrated, including work not the neck extensors, wrist flexors, quads, hamstrings and calves.
Inter-event
This type of massage is applied between events. Molly shows how to determine which type of massage to do, and what not to do. This includes which questions to ask and how to structure the session. Then she demonstrates a inter-event massage for a tennis player that includes work on the back, gluten, hamstrings and quads, calves, pecs and general arm.
Psychology and diet
This lesson offers 4 suggestions in working with athletes in terms of psychology. Molly also discusses basics of diet that will support the healing process and how to decrease inflammation.
Injury basics
This lesson covers how injuries heal, and the role of sports massage in injury prevention. She discusses the stages of healing and how the therapist can support healing. When to refer to another practitioner is also covered.
Running injuries
This lesson demonstrates how to perform sports massage for runners who have plantar fasciitis, shin splints, ITB syndrome or hamstring strain. Each technique is clearly shown with detailed explanation and description.
Cycling injuries
This lesson demonstrates how to perform sports massage on cyclists who have neck pain or patellar tendonitis.
Court sports Injuries
This lesson shows sports massage techniques for court sports. Specifically, techniques for ankle sprain, lower back pain and tennis elbow are demonstrated.
Swimming injuries
This lesson demonstrates how to perform sports massage on rotator cuff injuries. This includes effective work on the subscapularis, serrates anterior, pectoralis major, latissimus dorsi, and more.