In Defense of the Tennis Grunt: What It Does and Why Players Do It

Tennis is an audibly rhythmic game—viewers of this week’s U.S. Open will be privy to a concert of sneaker squeaks with every hairpin pivot; that beautiful pop of the ball bouncing off the racquet’s sweet spot; and, depending on the player, a guttural grunt exerted with each serve and return. The latter has seen a steady increase on the court since Monica Seles earned the nickname “Moanica” for the shrill exhales she produced in the early ’90s while battling adversaries like Steffi Graf and Nathalie Tauziat. But for every cringe and eye roll the tennis grunt incites, there’s a reason why everyone from David Ferrer to Serena Williams is doing it.

“You incorporate breathing to give you more strength. At the point of contact, ‘exhale with exertion’ is the rule of thumb,” explains Manhattan-based physical therapist Michelle Rodriguez, who works with a number of professional athletes, and compares the on-court noise to the sound you might make when picking up something really heavy. “It helps to activate your whole core to give you extra power.” Recent studies have corroborated this point: When 32 collegiate tennis players were studied serving and hitting ground strokes both while grunting and not grunting, results showed that the velocity, force, and peak muscle activity during serves and forehand strokes were intensified when the athletes grunted.

“You can’t paint everybody with the same brush,” reminds Dr. Joel Fish, the director of the Center for Sport Psychology in Philadelphia, whose clients include a number of elite and professional tennis players. While many athletes exhale audibly out of an en vogue habit to ensure they’re giving each stroke their all, others use it as a mind game to throw their opponent off their game. “Grunts, over 3 to 5 sets can have a cumulative effect—and get into your opponent’s head,” he says. “At the highest level, the difference is being laser focused, able to execute clearly or not.” Just last June, a study was published proving that grunting obstructed the multisensory information opponents use to calculate their next move. The verbal sound often gets in the way of the noise of the ball hitting the racquet, making the speed of a serve or return more difficult to perceive.

The controversy surrounding the tennis grunt is still going strong because, says Fish, in the history of tennis, “Grunting is a relatively new phenomenon.” The jury is still out on how much it hurts or helps the game. As for Fish, his opinion remains impartial. “If [the players] think it works, then it works.”

 

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