The Corona virus lockdowns have urged many massage training providers to venture into offering online training options. Nevertheless, not all massage training is suitable to teach online, and some Thai Massage teachers have enriched their offerings by diving a bit deeper in Traditional Thai Yoga (Reusi Datton), the Thai traditional self-stretching and self-massage healing modality.
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In fact, most Thai Massage instructors are more or less familiar with Reusi Datton (Thai Yoga) because it’s often done as a warm-up before the Thai Massage class day. Thus, during their own practitioner training they got a taste of it and in their teacher training Thai Yoga was most likely (a small) part of their study curriculum.
So yeah, as a non-touch “social-distance” bodywork modality, Reusi Datton (also written Rusie Dutton or Rue-Si Dat Ton) is a perfect self-healing art to teach online. And well, in the past months, I have seen several teachers (but also Thai Massage practitioners) offering live online workshops (via Zoom and Skype, and such) or launching videos, promoting the art.
Yet, Reusi Datton is a very much misunderstood Thai healing modality, even in Thailand itself, and the majority of Thai Massage teachers really only know some basics. As said, this even counts for Thai Thai Massage instructors in Thailand. This is not to criticize teachers, not at all, but I take the liberty to say what’s what. So, what you see is a lot of semi-authentic and semi-effective training offerings, in fact, often only giving a glimpse of this incredibly beautiful bodywork.
It’s a shame on one side, but on the other hand it also promotes this fairly unknown Thai healing art, a type of work that by insiders is considered the cornerstone of Thai traditional massage. As with many things in life, everything done or happening has its advantages and disadvantages, and well, I try to see this development from a positive side.
It means that the bottom line is that Rue-si Dat Ton, its name often confused with Thai Massage due to the ambiguity of “Thai Yoga” equaling “Thai Massage” or “Thai Yoga Massage,” gets a little extra push, and maybe some students will see this powerful Thai self-healing modality for what it really is: amazing, beautiful, just like Thailand, and simply mesmerizing.
