Colleen Whiteford Recently Completed Training with the New York Mets

Colleen Whiteford Jan17th 2019

I just returned from an amazing trip to Florida.  While escaping to Florida mid-winter sounds lovely, this was not exactly a margarita-ville kind of deal. As part of my training to become an instructor in the Fascial Manipulation-Stecco® (FM) method, I was invited/encouraged to attend a level one course held there, on rather short notice (sorry and thanks to all the rescheduled patients last week!).  It was for the rehab team that keeps the New York Mets baseball team healthy, whole, and functioning.  We were at their spring training campus in Port Saint Lucie, FL, for the entire week while the Mets were on break.  It’s the best time to train the rehab team while the players are on leave.  The lead instructor was Antonio Stecco, and I was privileged to have the opportunity to teach with him while simultaneously being taught by him.

I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from this experience, but tried to come ready for anything.  We arrived for our first morning and had to get directions and rerouting to the right part of the campus:   it’s HUGE!  We got to the right place and went through the weight and cardio training area with one of those amazing shock absorbing floors that you only read about.  Our classroom was, well, let’s call it cozy, tight, but sufficient with a hint of sweat smell in the air.  Mid-morning break I started following Antonio toward the restrooms, only to realize that I was walking through a very open men’s locker room into an equally open men’s bathroom.  Fortunately, as mentioned earlier, the Mets were on break.  I was quickly redirected to an executive office that had a makeshift sign on the bathroom door designating it as the women’s restroom – mine for the rest of the weekend, no lines for a change, only me and one other female massage therapist using it.  I just had to navigate through the locker room and hope that no one…..

It was a great experience and I learned a lot.  Antonio is very meticulous, thorough, and precise.  It was challenging but fantastic to clarify so many FM points to be spot-on:  close don’t count.  As the research and understanding of the fascia and this method continues to advance, so does our understanding of how these key points impact biomechanics.  This was the 6th – yes, 6th time I have participated in this course and I am always amazed at how much I learn each time.  The Mets Rehab Team members attending worked hard and did well do embrace the difficult material in the 6 days we had together.  I salute anyone willing to tackle this challenging, fantastic approach and hope it helps all the elbow and shoulder issues they deal with!  They presented Antonio and I with commemorative collector’s coins and a shirt that is way too big for me but I love it!

 

Virginia welcomed me home with a lovely snowstorm that made driving home from Dulles tough.  Such a contrast to the weather I left behind.  It was great to go, great to get home, and now I’ll be cheering for the Mets and watching to see if I know anyone in the dugouts!

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