When we practice Swedish Massage we use long, flowing strokes. There are five basic strokes in Swedish Massage the first, that comes to mind is petrissage, this is a kneading movement, a bit like making bread. Another is tapotement , a tapping, hacking, cupping kind of movement. The most common and maybe the most used is effleurage, a sliding kind of movement. Then there’s the friction movement , maybe a bit like giving someone a Chinese burn, but not as rough and lastly a shaking, vibration kind of movement.