1st practical exam

[Lootomenuoups]

Hello. I'm a newbie to this forum. Been lurking for awhile. I'm in my 5th week of school. We are having our first Practical exam and I'm very nervous. I'm a bit behind on things because I was sick. Not able to do much practicing. We are being tested on the strokes as well as progression and draping. We are massaging the back and legs in prone position.

Can someone help me with any tips or suggestions? Do you have a regular routine that you do when giving a swedish massage on the back or legs? I'm still trying to work on what I should do. When I give a massage I tend to forget about stuff. I suppose it's just nerves.

I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Thank you!

 

[satori295]

1st practical exam

When I was in school we had a routine that we needed to learn by heart for our hands on test and we needed to know all the muscle orgin insertion action etc...Did you not get this in school?

 

[sweet_sunshine]

1st practical exam

When we had our practical exams, the instructors gave us a list of what they expected us to touch upon. It included some of the basic strokes we learned, whether we paid attention to our body mechanics, draping, etc. Do you have time to touch base with the instructors to ask for some additional instruction since you missed some time? If not, just do your best, and remember, especially with the first practical, that this is a learning experience. The practical will give you some feedback on where you are weak and what it is you need to know, what the instructors think is important, etc.

I do remember being very nervous myself, so just remember, to breath, take it slow and just do the best you can. and learn from the experience! good luck!

 

[Nibej]

1st practical exam

Hello. I'm a newbie to this forum. Been lurking for awhile. I'm in my 5th week of school. We are having our first Practical exam and I'm very nervous. I'm a bit behind on things because I was sick. Not able to do much practicing. We are being tested on the strokes as well as progression and draping. We are massaging the back and legs in prone position.

Can someone help me with any tips or suggestions? Do you have a regular routine that you do when giving a swedish massage on the back or legs?

Welcome! This forum will give you a lot of information that you will need as you progress into your career. I suggest going to the very beginning of the forum... dig wayyyyyyy back into the threads and work your way to the most current thread. It will give you a feel for how the forums have progressed over the years and you'll grow along the way as ideas have changed and new items have been implemented for our practices.

I don't know how your instructor taught you, so it is hard for me to say how to do your progression and draping, but I'd be happy to give you a general routine that may get you going.

In practice, you can go either way, but, for a practicum you may be better off to start with the back, so that your instructor can see that you actually know and follow completely through with your strokes. I'd progress from long flat effleurage strokes for your initial swedish work into deeper work (consiting of any compression you may have been taught) and then on to vibration and tapotment. Finish with one long swedish effleurage in the same vein as you started with. Personally, I prefer to stand at the head when I am doing this kind of pattern.

For the draping, keep it simple - don't get tangled up, which is easy to do at first. Initially, stand next to the client (I prefer my right side to my clients left, facing away from their gluteals and toward their head) . Take both hands and pull the blanket to the area at or near the top of the center crease of the buttocks (the client should still be draped with the sheet, but this gives you a very simple way to work into that next layer... the sheet. It removes some of the bulk of the blanket from the waist and will make you feel like things are flowing better.). Next, pull the sheet back with both hands, dropping it just above the waist, follow through with a tiny tuck into the underware and then a tuck at each side of the clint. If you don't know if the client is wearing underware, just tuck under anyway and pull down to where the lower back is exposed without exposing the fold of the buttocks. For the side tucks, you can achieve this easily by taking just a little extra from the sheet which is laying on the table at this point (a little further from the clients' side) and then tucking. That way you are tucking "in" and "under" the client, not fidgeting and pulling sheet here and there while trying to push and pull and make it work... if that makes sense.

For the leg, I'd start at the ankle and work my way up (facing toward the head of the client). Long strokes of effleurage

• (both of my hands are usually working the inside and outside of the leg simultaneously, but that is a physical/personal preference for how I work. - Ex. left leg--> my left hand is on the outside and back of leg, my right hand would be on the inside and back of leg, sweeping up, so that the left hand strokes all the way up to the lateral border of the hip/glute and then sweeps downward - and the right slows down around mid-thigh and then sweeps downward again. Next I do a full sweep up into the buttock and back to the ankle via the lateral aspects of the leg or spreading my palms and fingers so that I catch all parts of the leg that I can access.).
  
  ☼ If you have a better way or something that works for you, definitely use that, since your instructor may not want you to get that high into the buttock yet. All schools are different.

then I would go through the strokes like you did on the back, as your instructor requests.

Do the same for the right leg.

Leg draping: take a section of sheet at the lateral mid-thigh, bring it in and tuck at medial mid-thing. Keep sole of foot covered when possible. It makes a world of diffrence in keeping a client calm, if they are nervous. And, it is possible that your partner will be nervous or shifting, since it is the first practical.

Hope that helps.

 

[stefan_ptg]

1st practical exam

When I was in school we had a routine that we needed to learn by heart for our hands on test and we needed to know all the muscle orgin insertion action etc...Did you not get this in school?

No, we don't have a routine that we need to know by heart. And they suggest that we don't have one. What I was looking for was like a guideline to work from. Sorta like do Effleurage (pick a stroke) then do some Petrissage (pick whatever) ...... That's what I was struggling with. Just were to begin. And if someone had a suggestion to help me with that. But so far we have learned the different strokes. The variations. And the purpose of them. But again, still trying to put it all together so it flows. I haven't learned about all the muscles yet. We are just finishing up the bony landmarks. The muscles are next. I'm only in my 5th week of school.

pueppi- Thank you for your tips. When I have some time (hopefully this weekend) I will go through some of the older threads. Yeah, the draping has been a bit challenging for me. I did manage to get some extra practice the night before our test. I did alright on the test. The thing is the school as their way of draping. And that's the way we have to do it. Period.

eyesofblue- We were told basically what we would be tested on. I just didn't get much practice time to put it all together before taking the test. Work out the 'kinks' I guess. Ya know, work on the things I'm not sure about. I ended up doing okay on the test. I scored low on the things I knew I would. Progression and body mechanics. I did my best to not overthink things. I finally relaxed towards the end. And I just started doing what I thought would feel good or stuff that I would do when I'd give my husband a massage. (before starting school) But like you said, I will just use it as a learning experience. I know where I need to focus extra attention. I just can't seem to put it all together in the right order yet.

 

[Josh]

1st practical exam

I still have my old paper work from when I was in school. Later today I will post the routine I had to learn just to give you an idea of how to make a massage flow

 

[aholm]

1st practical exam

---Full hand effleurage back of the leg to hip - distal tp proximal return down sides of leg

--- Effleurage sole of the foot

--- Thumb effleurage sole of foot follow toe tendons down foot and off eah toe

--- Palm effeurage calf - light to deep

--- lateral and medial effleurage up side of calf - circular thumb effeurage lateral and medial calf

--- petrissage calf heel to knee ( avoid posterior knee)

--- effleurage foot to hip

---deep effleurage thigh. hand over hand ( Specific hamstring work)

--- effleurage medial mid and lateral hamstrings getting adductors and IT band

--- Petrissage thigh

--- Wring thigh

--- Effleurage again foot to hip including gluts circular friction glut max

--- Palm effleurage glut max

--- petrissage glut max. Including glut med. & min.

--- Efflurage hip to foot a few finishing strokes

--- redrape

--- tapote ( cupping)

--- nerve strike hip to foot

 

[Aldahir]

1st practical exam

Thank you. That does help. I think I need to work with some new practice partners so I can get some feedback on what does and doesn't feel good too. Just frustrated because I want to be a good therapist. Maybe I'm overthinking things too much.