Sports Massage Therapist – Remo Bucci A Personal Perspective

As a child to early adult hood I was very active in a lot of school sports, such as volleyball, field events in track and field, football, wrestling, soccer, and archery. In College, I focused my attention to weight training until I Injured my low back due to poor technique, but it rectified itself and I continued training with some modifications. (I later found out that I developed disc herniations at multiple levels of the lumbar spine).

It wasn’t until a year and a half later when I was working for my brother’s paving company that I made the disc herniations worse and I was seriously incapacitated for almost 2 years.

It took another year to slowly return to normal active daily living thanks to therapy, nutrition, and exercise. Being injured for 3 years deconditioned me to the point where I could no longer participate in a lot of physical activity, and I feared being incapacitated again. Since then, weight training has remained my preferred fitness activity.

With being not able to participate in the sports that I enjoyed and loved, and wanted to be a Massage Therapist because of the great importance it had it my rehabilitation, I decided help athletes.
When I was a massage student at Sutherland-Chan School and Teaching Clinic, I learned of the Canadian Sport Massage Therapists Association (CSMTA) from my teachers who were involved with the association.

I thought this will be the right path for me so I took every sport outreaches and clinics that I can and attended conferences and workshops after I graduated in 1995.

It took me five years to get my requirements to perform the written and practical exams. At that time I had to accumulate 1000 hours (500 in clinic and 500 on field) before I could do both. It was all 500 hours of volunteer (usually weekend and weeknights) and my wife’s support that I did the field hours. I was one of three that were the first to go through this examination process in 2000 and it was well forth it because it made me a Certified Sport Massage Therapist.

Being certified allowed me to apply to Major Sporting Games with team Canada. My first Game was the 2003 Summer Universiade in Daegu, South Korea. I was the only Certified Sport Massage Therapist on an experienced and well organized Canadian medical team of Medical Doctors, Athletic Therapists (A.T.) and Physiotherapists (P.T.). Needless to say I was very popular, some days too popular amongst over 150 Canadian athletes. Each member of the Medical Team over-saw a particular Canadian team (i.e. women’s volleyball and men’s basketball).

The A.T.s and P.T.s would screen athletes and the ones that were injured would be referred to me. There was no flushing or relaxation massage given by me, only treatment and recovery focused massage. Amongst attending serious injuries, the A.T.s and P.T.s gave flushing massage so that I would not be burnt out.

I worked 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. with several meal and relaxation breaks for twelve days.

After about the seventh day of the games the treatments tapered off as certain sports were finished. I averaged about sixteen athletes a day during the busy days of the games. One day I treated twenty two athletes.

I was forewarned about the gruelling schedule by other Certified Sport Massage Therapists, so I trained for two months prior to leaving. I did Pilates and weight lifting, massage therapy, active release therapy, osteopathy and chiropractic therapy. It paid off because my body was starting to feel only a little sore near the end of the games.

Daegu became my stepping stone to other Major Games because now other therapists knew me and validated my work and professionalism. I was accepted to go to my next Major Game which was the 2004 Summer Paralympic Games in Athens Greece. I was assigned to the Core Medical Team but just before I went I was told most of my time would be spent with the Athletics Team (Track and Field) because it was a very large team that needed multiple therapists.

My clinic time was divided between the Paralympic village for the first eight/nine days (from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.) and the athletics warm-up track (from 7 a.m. to 10/11p.m.) for the rest of the time. During the first two days in clinic I learned to modify my techniques, especially with spinal cord injuries, such as lighter pressure and slower speed for non-innervated tissue to prevent spastic reflexes.

They were long hours at the track but it was worth it. Two other therapists and I stayed until 10 to 11 p.m. because Canadian athletes were in the finals and winning medals. The finals, medal ceremony, and media coverage all took place before they could come to get treatment.

The medical team consisted of three doctors and fourteen therapists including three Massage Therapists. The medical team complimented each other, and egos were checked at the door. It was a true multi disciplinary approach for the common goal of having the athletes compete as injury free as possible.

The Head Doctor of the Paralympic Games saw how hard working and professional I was, and how I got along with the team that in 2005 she asked me to go to Espoo, Finland for the European Paralympic Track and Field Championships. An A.T. and myself treated out of our room (which is typical if it is not a Major Game) if were not on the track.

With being involved in 2 Major Games it led me to be accepted to the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. It was my first winter sport and during the course of the games my schedule for treating athletes was humane. My average day was treating between five to eight athletes that I was assigned to (figure skating, snow boarding, and free style skiing) ranging from half hour to an hour sessions.

Prior to me going to the Olympics I had a chance to take my wife and my oldest daughter on a tour of Italy which was amazing because my heritage is Italian. It was great to show off my parent’s country to my family.

I took time off from applying to Major Games after Italy because it was getting to expensive to be a volunteer. Therapists get their transportation, meals, accommodations, and clothing paid for but they don’t get paid for their services even at the Olympic level. I had to focus on supporting my family.

I went back into the sporting world at the Canadian National Track and Field Championships in 2009 where a coach that I knew saw me and recommended me to the new head coach to be part of a new Integrated Support Team for the Paralympic Athletics Team. I was brought out to the U.S National Paralympic Championships so that the coaching staff could observe my skills. Once I was hired they offered me an honorarium that was well acceptable.

I have been with Athletics Canada since then going to a second U.S. National Paralympic and Canadian Track and Field Championships, Development and Spring Training camp, World Paralympic Track and Field in New Zealand, and Para Pan-American Games in Mexico. It was a long 14 year road of family, career, and financial sacrifice to finally receive an income for what I love to do.

Also in 2009, I gave back to the CSMTA by being part of the process of reorganizing the requirements of how candidates in the association can have more opportunity to accumulate their hours and stream line the written and practical exams. Later on that year I became Chair of Certification and Examination.

Established in 1987, the CSMTA is a non-profit organization that seeks to serve the Canadian athletic community at all levels, and educate its members, athletes, coaches, parents, and the public about the importance of sport massage therapy. The association is a certifying body in Canada that provides leadership in the specialty of sport massage and education by establishing professional standards and qualifications for Massage Therapists.

The Canadian Olympic Committee recognizes the CSMTA as being a member of the expert group along side Athletic Therapist, Sport Physiotherapist, Sport Chiropractor, Sport Medical Doctors, and Exercise Physiologist. With the recognition, it allows the CSMTA to make a short list of Massage Therapists to be picked for the Canadian Core Medical teams and Canadian teams at Major Games.

It was through this association that I was able to get a foothold on to an amazing sporting career even though I was not able to be an active person in sports due to my injury. I became educated and formed bonds with like minded therapists that were driven to provide the best possible care from grass roots (local, community level) athletes to high performance athletes because of the CSMTA.

Each Major Game was a wonderful, fulfilling, life altering, adventurous, and hard working professional experience that has shaped the way I treat and teach.

It gave me a way to visit countries that I couldn’t on my own. It made me part of sport teams that formed bonds between athletes and other therapists for an optimistic common goal that you can’t normally get by working in a clinic. It could not have been possible at all without the immense support of my wife with whom I’m indebted to.

Remo Bucci R.M.T., S.M.T. (c) is a senior instructor at Bryan College (formally Elmcrest College) in Toronto
He Treats at Club Physio Plus (inside the Ontario Racquet Club) in Mississauga.
http://www.clubphysioplus.com
You can contact Remo at [email protected]
Canadian Sport Massage Therapists Association at csmta.ca