Jonathan Leung, RMT for the Toronto Marlies
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Jonathan Leung has always wanted to work with athletes, and after his first year of practice, he got the opportunity with the Toronto Marlies Hockey Club.
Jonathan Leung has worked as an RMT for the Toronto Marlies for nine seasons. He finds that working with essentially the same group of athletes for the duration of a season allows him to really track their progress and collaborate effectively with other health care professionals.
“I think the most rewarding part of working with a team is being able to see the athletes fairly frequently and seeing their progress and getting their feedback in real-time,” Jonathan said. “Having an athlete come by and say they felt great during a game gives a sense of contribution and accomplishment.”
A hockey player’s body goes through so much during the course of a game, from the players pushing themselves to the limit to colliding with opposing players or the environment. Jonathan has found that massage therapy helps players to continue with the game they love.
“Massage therapy helps them recover faster as well as decreases compensation by alleviating discomfort and improving range of motion,” Jonathan explained.
Jonathan said that although the approach to massage therapy for athletes is similar to the approach for any other patient, there are some differences in terms of time restraints depending on the needs of the team and the schedules of the games, as well as differences in treatment environment.
The players are comfortable being treated amongst peers in a t-shirt and shorts most of the time, and when they’re on the road the treatment environment can be fairly makeshift. This can range from sharing a small clinic space, to a spare meeting room at the hotel, to beside the hydrotherapy tubs, to right in the change room. Jonathan said the trick is making the best out of the time and space available, and focusing on precision in your treatments.
“A common misconception is that you need to dig a lot deeper to achieve results with the athletes; I would say being very precise would be a more effective approach,” he said.
Jonathan finds collaborating with other health care professionals one of his favourite parts of his work. When one particular player injured a hamstring during a game, the entire medical team played a part in his recovery, including treatment, a gym-based rehab program and eventually on-ice conditioning sessions. The player experienced some setbacks which caused Jonathan to take a different approach and was able to correct for the way the player had been compensating for his injury. After that, the patient improved significantly and had a great season.
“Working with a medical team towards a common goal also makes work quite fulfilling and if the team wins a championship it makes it that much more worthwhile,” Jonathan said.
He looks forward to continuing to help players over the course of this season, which opened earlier this month.
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