A Shropshire man who has been said to have “the fastest hands in the West” is now on a mission to bring the benefits of massage to everybody.
“If we had an Olympics, I would put these hands up against any other therapists in the world,” said Andrew Sceats (it rhymes with Keats), of Shrewsbury.
He has now published a book called Seated Upper Body Massage For All which aims to be an introduction to the art of massage for a wide range of people, including therapists, carers, the disabled, and sportsmen and women.
In fact he thinks the fortunes of British sport might improve if complementary therapies like massage were more readily embraced.
“I wonder how much massage the English cricket team are getting,” he said.
His book is about “seated” massage, as opposed to the couch massage seen in, say, James Bond films.
“Anybody can do it. They have to be shown how and encouraged, and made confident in what they are doing. I would love to teach more disabled and partially sighted people this form of massage. I think it is important that they should be given as much opportunity as possible to get out and earn some money and build their self respect up.”
But what is it about his own healing hands?
“First of all, they’re pretty strong. I would recommend to any therapists, or anybody who wants to do massage at home, to strengthen their hands and their arms. Massage is hard work.
“What’s special about my hands? My first massage was when I was about seven and my Aunt Lesley was sitting on the settee and said: ‘Can you do my feet, Andrew?’ and gave me sixpence.”
Since then Andrew - and his hands - has gone from strength to strength.
“I was known as the ‘Fastest Hands in the West’ when I was at a health spa in London,” he said.
“These hands have treated hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people. I have had very dramatic results with some of them.”
Now aged 57, it was 20 years ago that London-born Andrew began to set his hands to a new career path.
“I was a civil servant at the time married to a physiotherapist. I’m a qualified hockey coach. She said ‘You’re good with your hands, and you are a coach - why don’t you do a massage course? One of my clients has been running one.’
“I thought ‘This is a wheeze’ and it developed into sports massage, and I took the main examination.”
He started out, but also had a job as a landscape gardener (”A lot of therapists have two jobs, as it’s difficult to make a living.”). Things developed and he gained teaching qualifications, becoming an accredited tutor.
Moving to Shrewsbury in 2002, he now takes courses both at his home and around the country, his teaching supported by DVDs, as well as being a practitioner.
His book is self-published.
“It’s very difficult to get therapy books published,” he said.
“It’s a great risk if you do self-publish. You have the outlay of having the book printed, but you get more return on it. Authors get peanuts from a book, even if it sells.”
His first self-published book was “Ear Candling and Other Treatments for Ear, Nose & Throat Problems”.
“They said it wouldn’t sell. But it sold 3,500 copies,” said Andrew.
A little unusually, his book about massage has gained sponsorship. This has come from Carl Jones Design, photographer Gill Griffiths, and Pengwern Books in Shrewsbury.
He is particularly aiming to reach people whom he feels are effectively being excluded from the benefits of massage - the disabled and partially sighted - for which he blames in part the massage chair, which he feels is awkward for them.
“I’m probably quite innovative in using desktop massage units.”
These desktop massage supports are much smaller, and easier for the therapist to carry.
His own form of massage will be a disappointment to those who have a Carry On image of what massage is all about - everybody keeps their clothes on.
“People do see a sexual connotation with massage. That’s the way it is. But massage is being accepted more and more in sports clubs - Arsenal has massage therapists.
“Complementary therapy is a huge growth area. I think there are now more complementary therapists than GPs and dentists put together.”
Seated Upper Body Massage For All costs £14.50 and is available from Pengwern Books in Shrewsbury or from Mr Sceats through his website www.pressuredown.net.
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