There seems to be an air of parody and a lack of actual game understanding surrounding the noises that tennis players make as they battle on the court. To a novice spectator, some of these grunts and squeals may seem like an awful stereotype that has just become commonplace amongst tennis athletes. What needs to be understood, however, is that the actual noise created when striking the ball is not only part of an individual’s style but is also a helpful action towards winning.

Women’s tennis coach Hans Olsen recognizes the importance behind this often-satired action.

“The point is to relax your muscles at the crucial point of execution,” Olsen said. “When you’re hitting the ball, you want to breathe out when you’re making contact so your muscles are relaxed. Relaxed muscles give you more power. To verbalize that breathing helps with the timing. Most high-level players are breathing out every time they hit the ball and a lot of them use different levels of volume to verbalize breathing by making it as a grunt. It definitely has a purpose.”

Jon Choboy, coach of the men’s tennis team, drew the connection between grunting in tennis to the noises made in other sports and related preparatory physical activities.

“It’s similar to when you’re doing weight training,” Choboy said. “When you’re breathing, there’s a fair bit of force. You don’t hear it when a baseball player does it, but they do the same thing. It loosens the muscles when you exhale as you hit. The grunting isn’t as important as the exhalation. It’s tied into sports psychology a little bit. Regular breathing helps keep you looser, naturally.”

Some athletes use the grunting as a means to help the execution of their swings. Freshman Joelle Kissell of the women’s tennis team explained how articulating her breathing pattern serves as a timing mechanism.

“It helps me get into a rhythm,” Kissell said. “It helps put a little more on the ball. If you’re putting everything you’ve got into the shot, you’ve got to make a little noise, you know? It also makes sense because you have to breathe because you’re running, of course. If I stop, my rhythm is terrible.”

Even though the verbal noise made while striking the ball definitely seems to serve a purpose to some players, for others, it’s a different story. Anyone who watches or plays tennis regularly can probably testify an example of a time they encountered someone who seemed to embellish their grunts. Sophomore Dave Thomson of the men’s tennis team finds it comical how some players act while playing.

“There’s definitely been some that have made me raise my eyebrows,” Thomson said. “Some really are over the top. There’s no way that much energy is going into it.”

No matter how high pitched, how loud or how obnoxious the grunt or scream is, it is obvious that those noises are as much apart of the tennis game as the racket and net itself, even if they may seem a bit over the top.

“Just by listening, you’d think that some of them were smacking the hell out of the ball,” Thomson said. “But when you watch it, they’re making this huge noise for very little outcome. And you think, ‘Is that really necessary?’ I think it definitely is exaggerated by some players. Sometimes you think to yourself, ‘I just wish you’d shut up.’ “