Heather Karr (Licensed massage therapist in Thousand Oaks, California) found that doing deep trigger point work was very painful to her hands. She wanted her clients to benefit from the good deep work, but also wanted to protect her hands. She tried using a golf ball. And although a golf ball is perfectly shaped for smoothly and deeply massaging hard-to-reach muscles. It was damaging to the palm of her hand. Heather wanted a way to push the ball deeply into muscles but also disperse the pressure of the hard golf ball in her palm.
She made the first SPAball Massager prototype in her kitchen from a mound of Sculptey clay. After many modifications not only did her unique design protect her hands. It made the ball more controllable, and allowed her to remain “in-touch” with the client. This enabled her to perform many deep massages with trigger-point work without injuring her thumbs, a common injury for therapists. From baked clay, to the stunning jewel you see today, the SPAball Kaddy has undergone years of therapist and client-tested modifications.
Why use a golf ball in massage?
The size, hardness, and shape of a golf ball make it the perfect instrument to reach deep sore spots in your muscles. But the golf ball alone is hard to manage without the SPAball Massager. People have found that laying on a golf ball on their upper backs reaches those sore muscles. But how do you control the ball if you are using it to massage someone else, or other parts of your own body?
The SPAball Massager helps to protect your palm while massaging deeply with a golf ball with very little effort. It’s also designed it to be as small as possible to allow for the very important skin contact between your hand and your client. Most of the time the person you are massaging can’t even tell you are using a golf ball… They’ll just think you have AMAZING thumbs!
A tennis ball can be used for pressure against your back. And the compression feels good! But it’s too soft and big to accomplish that focused therapeutic trigger-point work.