Actually I once had a client who kept complaining that it was all too strong and too painful although I hardly used any pressure at all. The silver lining of the story is that this led me to develop the Thai Rocking Massage system. This doesn't use that much pressure, but motion techniques instead, like rocking, wiggling, vibrating, circling etc. Whenever I have a super sensitive client, I don't use any direct linear pressure techniques but only motion techniques. That almost always works great on such clients and it has enabled me to work on clients who otherwise didn't take that well to standard Thai Massage.

Muscles don't really get overstretched under normal circumstances, but what happens is that the balance in the body is thrown off if certain muscles are well stretched and used whereas others are not. We can of course do stretches that address this imbalance. For example if the hamstrings are well stretched but the quads are tight, we can work on the quads to try to re-establish that balance.

However the problem comes in when someone recreates the imbalanced condition due to certain life style habits or activities. For example if a man carries his wallet in the back pocket of his pants, that can throw the hip out of alignment and cause problems and pain. We can work on that, but unless the man stops stuffing his big wallet in his back pocket, we are fighting an uphill battle.

My approach has always been that I ask the clients questions in order to narrow down possible causes of a condition. If I find it I will explain to the client what causes the condition and how to change or eliminate that cause.

Muscles can't really become lengthened since the origin and insertion points are fixed, so it is physically not possible for a muscle to become longer. But it can relax and let go of involuntary contraction (which we call a tight muscle).

The problem comes in if the agonist muscle is relaxed or what we call "stretched out", but the antagonist muscle is contracted (tight), and now we have an imbalance. Such imbalanced stretching can cause problems in many ways, and one of the secrets of good Thai Massage is to find such imbalances and work on them. The best way to deal with it is to do the appropriate massage therapy and try to help the client correct the cause of the problem. Many times people have no clue what causes their problems.

One thing to keep in mind is that stretching a muscle more than it can comfortably do, can result in the opposite effect, namely the muscle contracting to protect itself from excessive stretching. That's why really strong Thai Massage work can be less beneficial and effective than more moderate work.

In the case of your son, it is hard to correct the cause of the problem since that's just part of baseball. However you can do lots of beneficial work on his legs and hips to counteract and balance the issue as much as possible. Many of the leg stretches and especially the "hip pie" is very useful for this. The techniques how to do this will come up in the next few modules.

There are plenty more stretches just around the corner. 

That's excellent that you work on different body types. This will give you a much more realistic experience than always working on the same partner, and you will be much better prepared when you start working on real clients. 

Spinal twists can be tough on some people. In such a case make sure that you first warm up the back with non stretch techniques, and then do the twist by using a gentle rocking motion instead of the straight stretch. You can always lighten up to the point where even the stiffest person can handle a stretch. Remember that the goal is not to move the body a certain distance in a technique, but to gently open up the body by staying within the comfort zone of the client.

Your situation reflects what's happening in real life massage therapy. You get the easy ones and the difficult ones. I agree with you - it would be best to really tune into your husband and figure out what it is that he does like, and then do more of that on him. He is probably not the ideal candidate for an all-round model for every technique that's in the course. He might enjoy working on muscles more than stretching techniques.

Funny enough, I have the opposite situation. My wife is so flexible that stretching doesn't do much for her at all. But she loves it when I work on sore muscles. I never do any stretching on her. So it seems that your husband and my wife are both not good candidates for stretching, although for completely opposite reasons.

Like you say, it is a learning experience. Thai Massage is not a one-size-fits-all program although it is often done as such unfortunately. The art is to find out what works for whom and then fine tune it so that it becomes a perfect fit.

By the way, here is a tutorial video on how to use the "handbrake" program:

handbrake tutorial

It definitely looks like Thai Massage. I can tell you were speeding things up a bit. Around the 3 minute mark when you lean into the thigh in butterfly style, make sure to keep your arms locked and straight to avoid using any unnecessary muscle effort.

With practice you will get to the point where you will be able to connect all the techniques without disengaging and losing body contact. Try to work on your transitions as much as you work on your techniques.

The way how you do the stretch around minute 6:30 with the hand holding down the hip on the stretched out leg only works on flexible persons. If they are less flexible, then put your hand on the hamstrings of the bent leg so that the other hip can come up a bit. For your model it seems to work well how you do it.

When you do the stretch around minute 7:30, you should put your right heel lightly on top of your model's right foot to prevent it from sliding down. This would be more of an issue with less flexible persons. If you re-watch the training module, you can see how I do it.

The reason why she does not not feel the stretch around minute 8:20 is because you don't lean down enough on the hip with your left hand. That's why her right hip comes up to compensate for the stretch, and that basically makes the stretch ineffective. However this is again only the case if you work on a flexible model. A stiff person would feel the stretch even if you don't hold the hip down much at all.

For the blood stop you should bend the leg even more to expose the right spot (femoral artery) and lean in slowly with a lot of body weight, and then hold it for quite some time. I can always tell when I did it enough when I feel a strong pulsing under my hands.

The calf stretch at minute 10:25 is not right. Re-watch the training module and you will see that your position is reversed how you hold the foot. She will feel the calf stretch if you lift the leg higher. She might need the power version with the leg at a 90 degree angle to the floor while you are pulling the foot down.

She won't feel the stretch at minute 11. That one only works on less flexible people.

The next one, the knee to chest stretch, can be intensified if you place her feet on your upper thigh while you are standing and then you lean forward while pushing her knees towards the chest with your hands. That gives you more leverage. But the sitting on the leg version should definitely be effective even on flexible persons.

The one where you lean onto the knees to move the sacrum only works if the mat if quite firm. Your mat looks a bit soft, so that will make it harder to really impact the sacrum.

Overall it looks pretty good to me. Obviously it needs more practice and refinement and flow, but you are on the right track. You understand how the techniques work, and the rest is just practice and repetition. Good job!

By the way, it should not take so long to upload the video. The trick is to reduce its size in handbrake before uploading it. You do that by moving the "quality" slider under the "video" tab to the left until it reaches the "25" position. Your reduced video should not be larger than about 7 or 8 MB per video minute, i.e. a ten minute video should not be larger than 70 or 80 MB. That won't take long to upload.

If you do Thai Massage for 15 years like myself, I can promise you that you will look super graceful! I don't want to know how I looked when I first started out. 

Regarding the Abdominal massage, I never ask my clients about incorporating a little of it - I just do it. However I also offer extended or stand-alone abdominal sessions. If I feel that the client really is in need of abdominal work, I ask if they would like a specific abdominal session, or if they like the idea of me spending 30 or 45 minutes during a standard 2 hour Thai Massage session on the abdomen. 

So far every person whom I ever asked that question agreed to it. Of course I know from touching them if they really need abdominal work. I have a special course where I go quite a bit deeper into abdominal massage. If you ever feel that you want to offer specific abdominal sessions, then you might want to consider getting that one.