Grunting (making a loud noise) while playing a shot in the game of tennis is now a phenomenon being studied by researchers and experts.
Occasional grunting may have existed for a long time but it was in the 1990s that it became common — some believe Monica Seles was the first true ‘grunt creator’.
Since then, it has been a point of debate and experts often tag it as an unfair tactic.
As per her, grunting drowns the sound of the ball leaving the grunter’s racquet.
And because the sound of the ball is an important clue for the opponent to judge the force and spin to return the shot, masking it with a grunt gives the grunter an unfair advantage.
Nick has been repeatedly accused of teaching grunting as a tactic to give his students an edge; he has denied it and says it is ‘exhaling’ and not grunting.
In 2012, however, a division of Nick’s academy released a document calling grunting “unsportsmanlike” and acknowledged its impact on the opponent’s performance.
Research also shows that grunt does affect the opponent’s response time by 30-milliseconds — this means a typical shot will be picked up by the opponent two feet laterRelative to a shot played without a grunt.
Grunt has also been found to enhance the performance of the grunter — for a serve, a 4.9% enhancementFor a regular shot, a 3.8% enhancement was recorded. in velocity was found among those who grunted.
This means serves-with-a-grunt were 7kph faster than those delivered without grunts.
While these advantages to the grunter have been found, there is not enough evidence to prove what exactly it is about grunting that causes these advantages.
