Who is resident massage therapist – John Hooper ?
Welcome to the background information of Time-to-Run’s resident massage therapist – John Hooper
John Hooper was born in Hillbrow in 1963, and “at a time when it was still safe, and trendy, to live in that area”.
With his father and uncle involved in the 1970’s running boom, John was introduced to running at an early age, seconding at various marathons and Comrades’. (His Uncle, Alan Robb, still holds the record for the most gold medals at Comrades.)
John ran his first race (25km) at age 12, finishing second last. In 1980, he represented his province (Transvaal) for the first time at the SA cross country championships. He went on to represent Transvaal, Western Province, Wits University, UCT and SA Defence Force at cross country, track (3000 m steeplechase) and road. His personal bests of 32:16 for 10km and 73:47 for 21 km date back to 1983/84. Today, John is a recreational runner, with a dash of cross training, and has a latent desire to run Two Oceans as well as Comrades.
John studied Therapeutic Massage in 1988, and has been in private practice since 1989. His main area of interest is sports massage, and he has had the pleasure of working with the national cycling team, Australian cricket and rugby teams, various Super 12 rugby teams and an assortment of local sports stars. In 1998, John was appointed massage therapist to the Commonwealth Games team, and in 1999 to the All Africa Games team. Although he was involved with the 2000 Olympic team prior to their departure, NOCSA decided against the inclusion of massage therapy at the Olympics – something that John has sworn to change by 2004.
Today, John practises in a multidisciplinary clinic in Claremont (The Centre of Integrated Health), and is Director of the Cape Massage Academy, involved in the training of future massage therapists.
