You should learn sports massage with us, we're really good, honest!

Actually we are really proud of our ethos and with the experience we bring to our teaching. You get to share in all of our knowledge, passion and expertise in an open, fun and friendly way and graduate with a fully accredited, industry recognised diploma or certificate in sports massage.

You will benefit from over 35 years of sports massage expertise

Your tutors (Tamsin and Charlotte) have over 35 years of industry experience in a range of massage settings, treating a range of clients including professional athletes and championship winning teams. Furthermore they have both taught sports massage at one of the countries leading universities.

You won't just graduate with a diploma in sports massage you will also receive invaluable help and guidance in getting into the industry afterwards.

You will receive support, before, during and after your sports massage diploma

Not only are we here to support you before you begin and all through your massage course. You will also gain access to mentoring from you tutors for a time after you have qualified.

We have been where you are now and we know about the challenges of taking a qualification and making use of it in a completely new environment. Use our knowledge to help get yourself established. Mentoring is free for 3 months after your graduation*.

You can study flexibly and in your own time and pace (within reason!)

At the School of Sports Massage we have developed our own accessible, and hopefully entertaining content, hosted on Moodle. Allowing you to study around other commitments, while still having structure, expert feedback and workshop and contact days.

You will have to adhere to course start, end and workshop dates, and attain certain milestones within the term time, but within these times we try to allow you as much flexibility as you need. With as little or as much help as you require.

Online (mostly)

Most of the course is online, but being a sports massage school means at some point we will need to see you in person to teach you some actual massage techniques!

You will be required to participate in three workshop days. During these you will learn your massage and get to pick our brains for information. Also you will need to attend an assessment day for your final examination. These days are all required to complete the course so you will need to be willing and able to travel just a bit (to Bedminster, Bristol).

Learn in a clinical environment

Your workshops and assesment days are held in a working clinic. We are located at The Centre for Whole Health, a modern clinic on the outskirts of Bristol. We think you will find this a real added bonus to your diploma. Giving you first hand experience of the kind of environmant you are likely to find yourself in at some time in the future.

We have the run of the place with no interuptions and it allows us to introduce you to working in a clinical environment. We teach you how to massage but we also teach you how to massage safely in a real life working situation.

Sports massage courses and more from our nationally recognised qualifications

Nationally recognised, ActiveIQ sports massage courses, run with you in mind. Learn in a unique (hopefully) fun and friendly environment. With continual support from our experienced tutors, before, during and after you graduate.

Top quality teaching aides and tutorials

We develop all of our online teaching aides, animations and videos in house and we use Moodle to host our diplomas. This is the world’s most popular learning management system. We use
the very reliable Teams to host your live online seminars. In addition, we have created a truly unique, and hopefully fun environment that meets our extremely high standards.

You will receive online lessons and lectures presented as videos, animations and podcast discussions. We have developed course materials that we hope will provide you with an interesting, informative and enjoyable time studying sports massage.

Follow the link to watch the lessons and lectures you will be using. Even if you don’t sign up with us, we hope you can still get some use out of our course materials.

Massage workshop and assessment days in clinic


Although your sports massage diploma will be mostly online, this is a massage course. So, firstly, we will need to see evidence that your theory and self directed practice sessions are progressing as expected. Secondly, practical days really are the only way of teaching you the techniques to our required standards. And thirdly, we like to actually meet the people we are teaching!

You will be required to attend four workshop days over three weekends. There will also be an assessment day to attain your sports massage diplomas. These sessions are located in Bedminster, Bristol. You will need to be able to get to us in order to complete your diploma.

All our workshop and assessment days are held in a working clinic, which sets us apart from other providers. Rest assured that, although this is normally a very busy clinic it is closed to the public the days we are there! Here we will teach you all the good stuff that require hands on learning and where you will eventually get to massage members of the public. This will be done in as close to a real life setting as possible, with us there to support you at all times.

You will only ever be part of a small group (we restrict our courses to 4 students maximum). You will get plenty of time with us, where we can assess your massage, answer any questions you may have and generally do all the things you need to be face to face to do.

Help to get established in the sports massage industry

You learn a lot being in an industry for as long as we have. This isn’t just the obvious things, like massage but also the known unkowns and the unknown unkowns (as I think someone once famously said!). One of the things that we think places our sports massage courses above others is the help we provide after you have qualified. That is to say, helping you to navigate some of those unknowns.

We provide a mentoring service for a time after you graduate, in which you get to use our knowledge and experience to help you get established in the massage industry. We have personal experience within all areas of the industry from working with athletes, working for yourself or working within a team. The next step after graduation can often be tricky but your new skills, coupled with our help, can make your transition from graduate to sports massage therapist a smooth one.

Mentoring comes as part of the package for a limited time after graduation (3 months), with the option to continue for as long as you find it useful for a small fee *.

Our sports massage courses

Our sports massage diplomas and vocational qualifications are provided by the highly regarded, nationally recognised Active IQ. All of Our CPD courses are created by us, for you. You will expand on the basics and gain a higher level of understanding to fundamental sports massage related areas.

Active IQ Level 3 Diploma in Sports Massage Therapy
Active IQ Level 3 Diploma in Sports Massage Therapy

The Active IQ Level 3 Diploma in Sports Massage Therapy is a nationally recognised, accredited qualification. It enables you to provide sports massage for athletes and the general public. Enhancing their mobility, wellbeing and function.

Once you have completed this qualification you will be able to begin working within the industry. As well as continue to further your skills with the level 4 qualification

Active IQ Level 4 Certificate in Sports Massage Therapy
Active IQ Level 4 Certificate in Sports Massage Therapy

The Active IQ Level 4 Certificate in Sports Massage Therapy is a more in-depth qualification in sports massage therapy. You will learn to use more advanced techniques to address complex issues and rehabilitation.

Once completed you will have the qualification required for employment within a sports and clinical enviroment. You will need to have completed the level 3 or equivalent qualification first.

For more information or to discuss any questions you have

Meet the team

We are all extremely qualified in our fields, although some of us are slightly more forthcoming with information than others, ahem, Paul.
Tamsin with a Buffy sat on her head

Tamsin Slavin

Lead Tutor

Tamsin has over 25 years experience in the massage industry. She has been a qualified tutor for over 10 years and held the lead tutor role at the University of Bath for 7 years. During this time she continued as a massage therapist at the sports injury clinic within the university, dealing with everyone from Gold medal winning athletes to the general public.

Paul Slavin

Tech department

Computers and stuff.

Sign up now for the coming term

What our students say

Just a few words from our very happy ex students...
Lance Woodham

Lance Woodham

Engineer / Sports Massage Therapist

I have found both Tamsin and Charlotte to be professional, respectful, and attentive when talking through and demonstrating the various massage techniques to the group.

They were both very knowledgeable about all aspects of the subject matter from muscle origins, insertions, advance massage techniques and to dealing with clients for the first time.

Alex Penning

Alex Penning

Sports Massage Therapist / Personal Trainer

I did my level 3 & 4 sports massage therapy course with Tamsin and Charlotte. Their knowledge of the subject and experience is incredible.

They are both very patient, and use a variety of techniques to help you understand the subject. It has set me apart from other sports therapists in my area.

Chloe Robyns-Landricombe

Chloe Robyns-Landricombe

Sports Massage Therapist

I couldn't imagine what I would be doing right now if it wasn't for Charlotte and Tamsin. I started the massage course in 2016. Now in 2020 I can say that I have
been working with an Olympic team. have a steady run of private clients and work within a clinic.

They made the course enjoyable, within a mixture of different ways of learning. I felt as if I could question and openly discuss topics and if I had any issues they were there to help.

Without them I doubt I would have had the skills and understanding to have carried out what I have done so far. I’d highly recommend learning under them!

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Tamsin: +44 7947 697814
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