Behind the Scenes: A Brief Look into Creating SMAC Online Webinars

The year 2020 threw everyone for a loop. In our world of Sports Medicine Acupuncture, that meant an enormous pivot had to occur in order to continue bringing knowledge and information to you, our students, in the form of new anatomical findings, ongoing sinew channel research, innovative needle techniques and assessments and more.

This has been an enormous challenge, not only to record and digitize the program’s many facets, but also to do so in the absence of the part of the program that inspires us the most — our students in the room with us. Operating solely from behind the camera this year has been somewhat soul crushing, and there have been countless moments when we felt like we were pushing a giant boulder up a hill, only to have it roll down the next day.

In short, we miss our SMAC family! You are the purpose in our pivot, so we thought that perhaps a look ‘behind the scenes’ would be a reminder of our dedication, how hard we are continuing to work for you all, and how much we look forward to seeing your faces again in person soon.

12/27/20 — Alert! Brian escapes Florida!!!

After a long flight across the country, Brian arrives in San Diego.

12/28/20 — Matt and Brian working to produce the videos for the Assessment and Treatment of the Channel Sinews for Module IV: Neck, Shoulder and Upper Extremity. Here, Matt’s son Tyler, who is about to graduate from acupuncture school, acts as the model.

Since we are acupuncturists and not videographers, this task can feel completely out of our wheelhouse. Some videos required 3-4 takes in order to get the wording, lighting and positioning correct. Needless to say, there were many bloopers. However, during this process we found there to be many advantages to online webinar recordings, such as students can view the material up close and for as many times as they desire.

12/29/20 — Lili making her cameo as the perennial SMAC model for the past nine years. From being a model in the Sports Medicine Acupuncture textbook to now online webinars, she has shown her dedication to the process and is a cornerstone to our success.

12/29/20 — Matt in a rare moment on the table instead of behind the camera, in order to experience one of Brian’s “sensation full” myofascial techniques.

See the video below — Spreading the San Jiao Jingjin: Forearm/Wrist:

12/30/20 — Start of a 3-day long cadaver dissection for Module IV: Neck, Shoulder and Upper Extremity. It has been an intense week of 10+ hour days; the team worked diligently to create the best content possible, seizing every opportunity to document and record tissues in the channel sinews and to locate and document muscle motor entry points.

12/31/20 — Matt and Brian’s deep love for dissection is apparent; they get totally absorbed in discovering anatomical pearls to share with the students. It is especially interesting to find “force transmission points” that illustrate the sinew channels’ existence.

1/1/21 — Happy New Year! SMAC student Michelle Vlahakis has been an enormous support with our process, here she is as our tech guru keeping the unruly camera “Gizmo” (Gimbal iPhone stabilizer) in line. That gadget had a mind of its own, but also allowed for wonderful educational material to be gathered and recorded!

In a time when everything feels in flux, when we don’t know what to take comfort from, we want you to know that our commitment to our SMAC family is stronger than ever.

Even though we are all still stuck at home, the SMAC program is growing and evolving. When we can finally gather in person again, the program will be even more comprehensive and groundbreaking.

As for now, we just finished recording Module IV Assessment and Treatment of the Channel Sinews (ATS) and the Anatomy, Palpation and Cadaver (APC) Lab Workshops.

Module III has a few CEU videos that will be available soon on Net of Knowledge and Lhasa OMS:

• Assessment and Treatment of the Channel Sinews
• Anatomy, Palpation and Cadaver Lab Workshops
• Motor Point Location and Needle Technique for Muscles of the Lower Extremity

Click below for current registration information for upcoming SMAC courses: