The Tennis Grunt

Click to see Geoff still grunting after 30 years. I was not a grunter for the first ten years of my tennis life. That was the period when none of the pro players were grunting at all. Then Johnny Mac and Jimmy Connors started grunting, and a tennis buddy said to me, "If McEnroe and Connors are doing it, maybe you should be doing it too." I became a grunter right then and there. I was always willing to try new things to improve my 4.5 game and I think the grunt definitely did. Over time I believe it improved the velocity of my ball, and probably, my movement as well for some of the reasons outlined below. But in my experience, spanning 30 years of grunting since 1982, I have seen the grunt from all angles, the good and the bad, the positive and the negative. In this article, let's take a look at some of the arguments on both sides. As an early grunt adopter, there were many tournament and club player types who disliked me due to the grunt alone. A few people began to imitate and caricature my grunt, as if it were a nasty thing...