Massage Therapy Championship: Providing New Opportunity for a Billings, MT therapist.
UPDATE: I’m so excited to share that I placed 1st in Montana!!
My final score nationally ranked 1st at 80.70 in the Wellness Category.
It was fun, stressful, exciting, and unforgettable. I met some amazing therapists and learned something from everyone. I look forward to another competition in the future.
”Even if you don’t win - you learn.”
“What is a massage championship?” I asked myself the first time I read the invitation to the Tri State Massage Championship (CO, WY, MT). I quickly googled my question to find the International Massage Association website held most of my answers. A TV broadcast event of massage therapists from all over the world displaying their skills to advance round after round to the finals. Well, I thought that sounds exactly what someone competing at their sport would do. It intrigued me to read this has been held for 8 years beginning in Denmark and growing in popularity amongst the world and Americans.
So much so that 4 years ago the World Massage Festival held their very own American Massage Championship and there led a bridge connecting the massage therapists in the west to our friends in the east. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard about this before, but then realized it’s because I like to keep to my little life and massage practice in Billings and locked my screen.
The concept of a massage championship was not something I liked at first. I was honored to be invited but wrestled with the thought of competing. If you don’t know my history of sports, I played college volleyball with a competitive drive. A different life time. Massage therapy thought of as a sport went against my beliefs of massage. My mind is thinking how can massage be a sport when it transforms lives, heals people from their pain and a massage championship goes against all of it. I certainly didn’t want to participate.
A week later while tagging alongside my husband at a professional photography conference I sat down to watch a photography “shoot out”. A unique round of photographers on stage were given 10 minutes, a beautiful model, their camera and lighting tools with a countdown to capture their best photo. It was thrilling to cheer on while watching four photographers around the world do their very best to impress the judges: all of us in the crowd. The photographers in the room were as keen on cheering as they were on learning and observing their peers' technical skills on stage. Rounds of questions from the audience and commentary from the participants wrapped up the night’s event.
I was still buzzing with excitement from the shoot out on our way back to the room when I stopped at the elevator and realized something about the massage championship I always knew. While I was stuck on the competition I didn’t see how inspiring and empowering it is to observe and watch your peers perform their sport and skill. The community of people together encouraged new approaches and learning and I knew that the competition mattered little because at the heart of championships is people.
Nervous but excited I registered and learned the rules of the competition.The judges will evaluate the participants in the certain areas with a point system. The highest scores will advance to the next round and so on until the final. There’s a little more to it and you can find the complete rules here.
It’s so scary to try new things when you like to stick to your own little world but it makes life exciting and growth inevitable when I get to share this experience with all of you. Stay tuned for more updates as the championship gets closer. I can’t wait to represent the state of Montana at the first annual Tri State Massage Champions.
Cheers, to trying new things!
Alex