- Hello massage nerds.
Today I'm gonna be talking about tapotement or tapotement,
depending on how you pronounce it,
it means the same thing.
And it's also called percussion,
because it does make noise and sound,
and it sounds like drum speeding.
And there's different modalities to it.
There's like seven different types
that I'll be showing you everything from
tapping, pincement, hacking, cupping, pounding,
clapping and diffused.
And there's a little variations to each.
So I'll show you that.
And people ask like when do you use tapotement
or how do you use it?
And I'm here to tell you that it's usually used
at the end of the massage.
You can do anywhere from two to five minutes.
However, if you have an athlete that's gonna be,
you know, going to an event,
you might want to do it, you know, five to 10 minutes.
And it really gets their energy and their blood flow going.
So it depends, what the need is for the client.
So, if you use it gentle and slow,
it's very relaxing.
And if you use it vigorous and fast,
it's very stimulating.
So make sure that, you know.
That you know what your client needs.
And with that being said,
you know, you can use one hand or two hands
and I'll show you those variations.
And I'll demonstrate on my model right now.
Okay, so we're gonna start with tapping.
Tapping is done either with alternative hands,
like your fingertips are together.
This is tapping.
Another form of tapping is put your finger separate
and just tap lightly.
This is appropriate for the face.
This is with fingers together,
both hands at the same time.
Or, fingers moving,
like little spiders walking on you,
or little chicken pecking,
or little raindrops.
You can use this on the back.
This is gentle.
Next, is hacking.
Hacking is with the ulnar part of your hands.
You know, again, you can do one hand at a time,
and hear how it makes the sound.
Or you can do them together at the same time.
And this is quacking,
'cause it kind of makes like a quacking sound.
Fingertips together.
You can go down to the thigh.
Never on the lower leg.
Because you don't, you know, the veins there have valves
so you don't want to do it in the lower part
and you don't want to do it over the kidneys either.
You know, if you're gonna do it over the kidneys,
do it very lightly.
So this is quacking.
This is hacking.
You can do it on the bigger muscles
all the way down.
You can do it over the sheet or under the sheet.
Cupping is next.
Cupping is like you're holding water.
Like you're gonna cup water.
This makes more sound.
And this one is actually used,
you know to loosen phlegm
on anybody that has, you know, anything going on
in their lungs or anything.
So you're gonna listen to the sound.
And it's usually done in the upper thorax here.
You can do alternative, one hand at a time,
or both hands at the same time.
This really loosens up the phlegm.
And you can also ask your client to inhale
and on the exhale,
you can do it.
And if you want to get real fancy
you can ask him to go, aah, and it makes...
- [Voice] Aah!
- There you go, and it makes a good sound.
So that's another one that you can do.
Now, for pincement.
This is like you're pulling a Kleenex
or tissue out of a box.
The skin just bounces back.
So is grasp, lift, and release,
like you're plucking.
Okay, so now we're gonna move to pounding.
And remember, your wrist are nice and loose.
Pounding is for bigger muscles.
So pounding, thumbs up.
This is pounding with your thumbs up.
You get a rhythm going
and you can move all the way down
to the thigh.
Do the glutes really, really good.
See, I'm doing it a little bit more energetic.
So this is for, you know,
to give your client a little bit more energy
to get them going.
Now, you can also do 'rapping'
like you're knocking on the door.
This is 'rapping' or knocking,
one hand at a time
or both hands at a time.
Like I said,
all of these have different, you know modalities.
You can do one-handed, two-handed.
So, this one right here is rapping,
like you're knocking on the door.
The next one is clapping.
And some people call it slapping.
So, your hands are flat and you do this lightly.
And as you can tell,
all of these make noise,
that's why it's called, you know, percussion.
You can do one hand at a time
or both hands at a time.
This really stimulates.
And if you do...
You can do it a little bit harder over the sheet.
And when you get to the, where there's no sheet,
you can do it a little bit lighter.
So that's clapping.
The next one, and last, is the diffused.
Diffused is mainly for the abdomen.
So diffused is it's diffusing the pounding.
It's diffusing the movement.
So what it does is,
you can do this clockwise on the abdomen.
So you place a flat hand down,
and then you pound with the other hand.
And you move the hand and you pound.
And doctors actually used this movement like to
see if the kidney's hard or if the kidneys,
if there's something wrong with the kidneys.
And then, or in the abdomen.
So this diffuses the pounding directly on the organs.
So you've got to be, you know, careful with this one.
This was properly used for the abdomen
and for the kidneys.
Or you can, you know, like on bigger muscles
you're not gonna be able to feel that much.
This is where, you know, pounding is better.
So for these areas, you know, you use more like pincement,
and cupping, and tapping.
And the diffused is mainly used,
you know for places where you want to be
a little bit more gentle.
So, anyway, that's it for tapotement.
Just want to give you guys a quick little video
on how to do tapotement correctly.
And you can use it anywhere from two to five minutes
at the end of your massage.
And if you have an athlete,
that's gonna be, you know going to do a race,
then do a little bit extra
with a little bit more stimulating energy
and that'll get them going.
So, I hope this helps you,
and until the next time, create a great day.