About our massage school

The London School of Sports Massage (LSSM) was the first ever Sports Massage Training School anywhere. It was started in September 1989. With massage courses taught by Mel Cash, the massage training was based on the first ever book on Sports Massage which was written by Mel in 1988.

The LSSM was also the first massage school to be externally validated by BTEC (the main Government-backed awarding body in the UK). Ours is a ‘Customised Qualification’ which we design ourselves and operate in the way we believe is best. BTEC then independently assess this and they approved our first Sports Massage qualification with a Level 4 standard. BTEC annually carry out a thorough audit of our whole operation to ensure we maintain the high standard and quality of our training.

We have carefully designed our course to meet the needs of mature (non-school leaver) students looking for a new career which is why we run part-time courses at weekend spread over a longer period of time. The weekend classes are devoted mostly to teaching hands-on practical skills which can only be learned properly in a classroom along with other students and experienced tutors. The underpinning theory is now taught online so students can fit this in with their lives better.

But LSSM has always been more than just a school, we are also the pioneer of a new sector of modern healthcare. We are led by Mel and his close team of tutors who are all dedicated hands-on therapists that have constantly strived to better meet the needs of their clients. Developing from their Sports Massage roots they acquired higher skills in the assessment, treatment and rehabilitation of people suffering with pain and injury. This has also given them a much wider scope of practice and made it a much more stimulating and rewarding life-time career.

Over the years we have integrated these new clinically proven skills into our training and our BTEC qualification is now Level 5 (that's the highest currently available in the UK). The new qualification is called Soft Tissue Therapy and takes about one-year. It still includes Sports Massage but is now much more focused on treating musculoskeletal pain and injury and includes people from all walks of life not just athletes.

Our main training centre is in Central London, at Regent’s University premises inside Regent’s Park (Inner Cir, London NW1 4NS, United Kingdom), we also have another branch based at Therapeutics Southampton (Stoneham Ln, Eastleigh SO50 9HT). Our administration office is in Willesden Green, NW2 4NX, London.

Our goal is to train people to be excellent hands-on therapists with the greatest career potential and we are proud of our achievements in doing this.

We are members of the ISRM

ISRM is a registered BTEC centre which has established the BTEC Level 5 Professional Diploma in Soft Tissue Therapy. It licenses a number of small independent schools who run the qualification. We work very closely with the schools, providing support and tutor training to ensure quality and consistence across all training venues. ISRM operates the internal validation process which is externally validated by BTEC.