The sound of speed: How grunting affects opponents’ anticipation in tennis

Abstract

Grunting in tennis is a widespread phenomenon and whether it influences opponents’ predictions of ball trajectory—and if so, why—is subject of ongoing debate. Two alternative hypotheses have been proposed to explain why grunting may impede opponents’ predictions, referred to as the distraction account (i.e., grunts capture attentional resources necessary for anticipation) and the multisensory integration account (i.e., auditory information from the grunt systematically influences ball trajectory prediction typically assumed to rely on visual information). To put these competing hypotheses to test, in the current study we presented tennis players with a series of temporally occluded video clips of tennis rallies featuring experimentally amplified, attenuated, or muted grunting sounds. Participants were asked to predict the ball landing position. Results indicated that higher grunt intensities yielded judgments of longer ball trajectories whereas radial prediction errors were not affected. These results are clearly at odds with the distraction account of grunting, predicting increased prediction errors after higher intensity grunts. In contrast, our findings provide strong support for the multisensory integration account by demonstrating that grunt intensity systematically influences judgments of ball trajectory.

Auditory Information Accelerates the Visuomotor Reaction Speed of Elite Badminton Players in Multisensory Environments

“…In sum, the behavioral results highlight the performance determining role of ecological auditory information for reaction speed in sport-specific multisensory environments. It supports previous behavioral research in sport science emphasizing the importance of ecological auditory information especially in racquet sports such as table tennis and tennis ( Müller et al, 2019 ; Klein-Soetebier et al, 2020 ). The auditory system may thus be a relevant target for sport-specific training approaches which is in line with previous research on the positive effects of acoustic reafference training to improve motor performance ( Pizzera et al, 2017 ).…”

“…Performing sport-specific motor tasks in auditory deprived conditions resulted in lower precision performance in table tennis ( Klein-Soetebier et al, 2020 ) and a higher rate of lost matches in tennis ( Takeuchi, 1993 ). Similarly, masking natural auditory cues in tennis by grunting sounds systematically affected the anticipated ball trajectory dependent on grunt intensity ( Müller et al, 2019 ) while a manipulation of audio-visual stimulus congruency and sound intensity delays the response time and anticipated length of volleyball serves and tennis strokes, respectively ( Cañal-Bruland et al, 2018 ; Sors et al, 2018a ).…”

“…The abovementioned studies focused on cognitively determined abilities, such as anticipation ( Sors et al, 2018a ; Müller et al, 2019 ) or complex visuomotor integration ( Takeuchi, 1993 ; Klein-Soetebier et al, 2020 ). It remains unclear if auditory information also contributes to performance in more perceptually determined situations requiring rapid reactions.…”

Perception and Action in Complex Movements: The Emerging Relevance of Auditory Information

“…A series of studies in the last few years further corroborated the relevance of auditory information in anticipating opponents' actions, not only in tennis (Cañal-Bruland, Müller, Lach, & Spence, 2018;Müller, Jauernig, & Cañal-Bruland, 2019), but also in other sports. Particularly, Camponogara, Rodger, Craig, and Cesari (2017) highlighted that basketball players are able to anticipate the action as well as intentions of an attacker from the sound he produces while moving toward them.…”

The effect of grunting on overhead throwing velocity in collegiate baseball pitchers

“…Previous studies in tennis have suggested that grunting may effect an opponent's anticipatory judgment of a shot's trajectory due to distractive effects or mechanisms of multisensory integration. 42,43 As a result, grunting may provide the baseball pitcher an advantage of, not only enhanced throwing velocity, but also impairment of the batter's ability to perceive pitch trajectory. In our study, we utilized a sample of collegiate-level pitchers.…”