SPORTS MASSAGE

Massage is believed to have a history of 5,000 years. In Hindi, the words "masser", Arabic "disorder", Hebrew "mashesh", Greek "massein" mean to stroke, knead. The 19th century saw a high growth in the number of doctors interested in massage. During this period, the Swede Peter Henre Ling (1778-1839) took his place in history as the first person to scientifically establish the massage technique and created the scientific foundations of today's Swedish massage. Sports massage, on the other hand, is the manipulation of techniques associated with classical massage to improve the athlete's health and general condition and to enhance or maintain athletic performance. From another point of view, this is a classic massage method used to increase the athlete's motivation, support his special warm-up before the general warm-up, and accelerate his recovery after training. The Swedish Peter Henri Ling and later A. Hoffa developed the basis of classical massage. In his book published in 1893, he divided massage manipulation into five: efflorage, petrissage, friction, tapotement, and vibration. These techniques are currently being taught as a course at the Physiotherapy Department of Hacettepe University. Today, sports massage has been formalized in many clubs and has become a very important auxiliary element used as treatment methods in addition to sports performance.