3. PERFORM THE FAN STROKE

Now that you're all greased up, it's time to get down and dirty and touch your victim's body. The first massage move we're going to teach you is called "the fan stroke," a relatively gentle move that prepares the muscles for deeper massage.

  1. Kneel beside or astride your victim, who should be lying on his or her front in a comfortable position.

  2. Place the palms of your hands flat on either side of the spine just above the hips.

  3. Applying light pressure on both sides of the spine (NEVER put pressure directly on the spine), slide your hands slowly forward until they reach the shoulder blades.

  4. Next, move your hands in a curve that takes them over the shoulder blades to the shoulders and then back along the sides of the rib cage to their starting positions.

  5. Repeat this several times, applying slightly more pressure as you continue.

  6. Your fingers should always be facing more or less in the same direction (that is, in the direction of the back of your victim's head).

  7. Apply pressure with your whole hand, with the bulk of the pressure coming from the heel of the hand on the way forward and from the fingers on the way back.

  8. Try to make the motion a smooth curve with each hand tracing a tear drop shape on its side of the back (with the fat part at the top of the motion).

This fan stroke can be used in many areas, and it's a good default move to start with if you're not sure of what else to do. For example, if your victim is lying on his/her back, you can use the fan stroke on the front of the thighs, starting with your hands close together just above the knee. You can also use it on the upper torso, starting with the hands on the stomach and moving up over the collarbone and back. It can also be used on the backs of the thighs, the calves, the upper back and shoulders (starting just below the shoulder blades), and pretty much anywhere else you can fit your hands and perform the motion. It can be as small or as big a motion as you want it to be.

Note that the massages we're teaching you, we're only dealing with the back; we leave it to you to transfer the moves to other parts of the body as you practice.