The Skyrme model is a classical field theory which possesses localized solutions known as Skyrmions. When the Skyrme model is quantized these Skyrmions describe atomic nuclei. In my talk, I am going to explain how Rational Maps help to understand the classical minimal energy configurations in the Skyrme model, and how they simplify the calculation of the so-called Finkelstein-Rubinstein constraints which arise during quantization.